Standing out at a Job Fair
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job search. Job Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Silicon Valley Career Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career fairs scheduled for this year across the United States.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The contention can be significant, but you can help yourself surpass from the gang with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward step-by-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to check out the companies that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their websites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a tenable number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than nine in a day, and five or six is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: executive names, recent news, and key product lines. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll 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 company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the terminology 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 sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally showing why you are a good candidate 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 opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re aiming for. 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 Career Fair, 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 position - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a distinctly labeled 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 properly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
