Standing out at Career Faires
Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Job Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career fairs scheduled for this year across the US.
How do you compete at a Career Faire? The contention can be substantial, but you can help yourself stick out from the crowd with early homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified step-by-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to check out the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their web sites and see if they have their openings listed. Pick a moderate number to go after, and get ready to spend about an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 7 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with with a page or two of research for each company/job.
Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the nomenclature match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring company.
Third, create a ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each likely company/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a good prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re want. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Job Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be obvious to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, practice your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be properly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or scent sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
