Competing Successfully at Job Faires
Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job search. Career Fairs are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Career Faire in January, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 job fairs scheduled for this year across the US.
How do you stand out at a Career Fair? The competition can be considerable, but you can help yourself leap out from the bunch with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:
First, investigate the companies that are going and pick your targets. Use the World Wide Web to research the companies that are there ahead of time. Go to their web sites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a reasonable number to target, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 9 in a day, and five or six 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 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 organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments 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 ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally showing why you are a key prospect 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 opportunity. 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 achievements and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Career Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be very easy to see that you’re a fit 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 intelligibly marked folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.
Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be properly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or scent meagerly, if at all.
Remember to smile, and good hunting!


