How to Excel at a Job Event
Standing out at a Job Fair can make a difference in your job search. Job Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Career Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for this year across the United States.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Job Fair? The contention can be significant, but you can help yourself stick out from the gang with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to check out the organizations that are there before you go. Go to their internet 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 seven in a day, and three to five 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 will end up with 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 company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the nomenclature 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 ‘short sales pitch’ for each likely company/position combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting 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 position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re targeting. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job description. 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 very easy to see that you’re a fit 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 labeled 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 fittingly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or fragrance sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
