Digi-Text

Standing out at a Job Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a SF Bay Area Job Fair in January, 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 compete at a Career Faire? The competition can be significant, but you can help yourself jump out from the gang with advance homework. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified 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 web to check out the organizations that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their websites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a limited number to target, and get ready to spend about an hour 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 organization, you want to know: executive names, recent news, and key product lines. 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 postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the language 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 ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each likely organization/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a special candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job kiosk.

Fourth, modify your resume for each opportunity. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re targeting. 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 requirements. 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 match based on your resume.

Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be fittingly 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, practice 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!