February 3, 2010
How to Stand out at Career Fairs
Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your job search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The competition can be significant, but you can help yourself jump out from the crowd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward six-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to check out the companies that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their sites and see if they have their job openings listed. Pick a sane number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 10 in a day, and four or five is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive 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 hiring department is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements 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 organization.
Third, create a ‘mini sales pitch’ for each likely company/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a great prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job kiosk.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re targeting. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job description. 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 very easy to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each spot - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a intelligibly 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 eau de cologne or scent sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
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