Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Career Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career fairs scheduled for this year across the States.
How do you stand out at a Job Fair? The contention can be significant, but you can help yourself jump out from the gang with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 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 World Wide Web to research the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a small number to go after, and get ready to spend about an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 8 in a day, and three to five is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring 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 openings 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 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 ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud depicting why you are a fantastic prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job kiosk.
Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. 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 obvious to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be fittingly 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, 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.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
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