02.10.10
How to Stick out at Job Faires
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the US.
How do you compete at a Job Fair? The competition can be considerable, but you can help yourself surpass from the gang with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there beforehand. Go to their sites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a sensible number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour 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 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 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 achievements should be written in the style of the hiring company.
Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential company/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a key prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job booth.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job 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 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 fit based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely 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 opportunity - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a intelligibly labeled folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
