01.21.10
Getting Real Interviews at Career Faires
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your career search. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Silicon Valley Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career fairs scheduled for 2010 across the United States.
How do you compete at a Career Faire? The contention can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself stick out from the crowd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the web to research the companies that are there before you go. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a rational number to go after, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than seven in a day, and four or 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’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 hiring department is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments 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 achievements should be written in the style of the hiring organization.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely company/position combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally describing why you are a fantastic candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re want. 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 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 opportunity – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably tagged 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 well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
