Where Trust Is Money

Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job hunting. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 job faires scheduled for this year across the US.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Job Fair? The rivalry can be significant, but you can help yourself jump out from the bunch with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there ahead of time. Go to their sites and see if they have their openings listed. Pick a sane number to target, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 8 in a day, and four to six 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 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 company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the demands 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 ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely organization/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a key candidate 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 position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re aiming for. 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 prerequisites. 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 simple 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 well 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 opportunity - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably tagged folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!