The Music Of Achievement

Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job hunt. Job 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 early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and a major job search company has 82 career faires scheduled for 2010 across the States.

How do you stand out at a Job Fair? The contention can be sizeable, but you can help yourself jump out from the crowd with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a simple six-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 internet to research the organizations that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their job openings listed. Pick a limited number to go after, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than seven in a day, and four to six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring organization, 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 hiring department is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the language 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 ‘mini sales pitch’ for each potential organization/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a key candidate for that position. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job booth.

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 achievements and skills that most clearly match the job description. Especially at a Job 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 nicely 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, rehearse 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 intelligibly marked folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!