How to Stand out at a Job Event
Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your search. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Career Fair in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 job faires scheduled for this year across the States.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Fair? The rivalry can be considerable, but you can help yourself surpass from the crowd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward step-by-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to research the organizations that are there ahead of time. Go to their web sites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a limited number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than eight in a day, and three to five is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive 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 manager is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the prerequisites 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 company.
Third, create a ‘mini sales pitch’ for each likely company/position combination. Write down a ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a key candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job kiosk.
Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re going after. 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 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 quick 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 properly 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 position – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a clearly labeled folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
