Getting Noticed at Career Fairs
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job search. Job Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Job Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the United States.
How do you rise above the crowd at a Job Faire? The rivalry can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself surpass from the bunch with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple step-by-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the companies that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their job openings listed. Pick a sound number to target, 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 to five is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with 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 organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the language 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 likely organization/job combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a fantastic prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job kiosk.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re aiming for. 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 Job Fair, 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 opportunity - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or scent meagerly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!