Asian Accomodations

Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your job search. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Bay Area Job Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career fairs scheduled for 2010 across the States.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Fair? The contention can be considerable, but you can help yourself surpass from the crowd with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simple six-step process to get ready. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. 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 job openings listed. Pick a sane number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than ten in a day, and three or four 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 openings on the web, read them to see what the hiring manager is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the prerequisites 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 ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential organization/job combination. Write down a ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a good prospect for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet people at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re want. 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 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 well and be properly groomed. Don’t overdress (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 clearly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!