Standing out at Job Faires
February 7th, 2010Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your search. Job Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice 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 faires scheduled for 2010 across the States.
How do you stand out at a Career Fair? The competition can be substantial, but you can help yourself leap out from the crowd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified six-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to research the companies that are there ahead of time. Go to their websites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a reasonable number to target, 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 to five is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and contacts you know. 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 achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the terminology 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 ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential company/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud depicting why you are a good prospect for that position. 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 position you’re going after. 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, practice 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 understandably marked folder. Keep them in a lightweight 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 fragrance meagerly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!