How to Get Noticed at Career Faires
Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job hunting. Career Faires 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 Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for this year across the US.
How do you compete at a Job Faire? The competition can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself stand out from the crowd with early homework. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to research the organizations that are there before you go. Go to their sites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a sane number to target, and get ready to spend up to 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: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You should 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 achievements and skills to the prerequisites 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 organization.
Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a sixty 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 team from the company at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. 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 accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job description. Especially at a Career 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 match based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be fittingly groomed. Don’t over do-it (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 distinctly tagged folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
