Competing Successfully at Career Faires
Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Job Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job fairs scheduled for 2010 across the US.
How do you stand out at a Job Fair? The competition can be considerable, but you can help yourself stand out from the herd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simple step-by-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to research the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a sensible number to go after, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 10 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You should end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.
Second, if there are job openings on the web, read them to see what the organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The achievements should be written in the style of the hiring organization.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely organization/job combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a special candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re aiming for. 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 Career Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.
Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each opportunity – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably tagged folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be fittingly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or fragrance sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
