Getting Real Interviews at Career Faires
Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Career Fairs 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 Dice has 82 job faires scheduled for 2010 across the States.
How do you get to the real interviews at a Job Faire? The contention can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself jump out from the gang with advance homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified 6-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, research the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to check out the organizations that are there beforehand. Go to their sites and see if they have their openings posted. 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 ten in a day, and five or six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and contacts you know. 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 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 ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each potential company/job combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a good candidate for that job. 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 job type. 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 Career Faire, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be a no-brainer to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.
Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely 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, practice your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each spot – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably marked folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!