Getting Real Interviews at Job Fairs
Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job hunting. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Job Fair in early 2010, 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 Career Fair? The rivalry can be sizeable, but you can help yourself jump out from the herd with early planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple six-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to research the organizations that are there beforehand. Go to their websites and see if they have their job openings posted. Pick a small number to target, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than ten in a day, and four or 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 will end up with 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 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 ‘brief sales pitch’ for each potential organization/position combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a great candidate for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.
Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re want. 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 Fair, 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, 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 understandably tagged 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 well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!
