Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your career search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Job Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The contention can be substantial, but you can help yourself stand out from the herd with advance homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the organizations 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 jobs listed. Pick a sensible number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 9 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 prerequisites 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 ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential company/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally showing why you are a great candidate for that position. 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 prerequisites. 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 very easy 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, rehearse 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 marked folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!