Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your career search. Career 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 Job Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for this year across the States.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Faire? The contention can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself surpass from the bunch with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified step-by-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to research the companies that are there ahead of time. Go to their web sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a reasonable number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than seven 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 contacts you know. 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 postings on the web, read them to see what the organization 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 accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential organization/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a fantastic prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. 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 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 quick to see that you’re a match based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well 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, 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 understandably labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
