Standing out at a Career 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 Career Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for this year across the US.
How do you rise above the crowd at a Job Fair? The contention can be sizeable, but you can help yourself stick out from the herd with early homework. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to prepare. 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 research the organizations that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their web sites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a tenable number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour or more 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: executive names, recent news, and key product lines. 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 postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the nomenclature match. If the hiring organization 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 potential organization/position combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a great candidate for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. 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 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 a no-brainer to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be properly groomed. Don’t overdress (this isn’t a date!) and don’t underdress (no jeans or t-shirts, no matter how much you paid for them). Avoid strong cologne or perfume.
Finally, practice 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 clearly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
