The Online Lodge

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

How do you stand out at a Job Faire? The rivalry can be sizeable, but you can help yourself jump out from the gang with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward step-by-step process to get ready. Plan 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 before you go. Go to their web sites and see if they have their jobs posted. Pick a reasonable number to target, and get ready to spend an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 7 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each 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 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 organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the requirements of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring company 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 likely company/job combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a great candidate for that job. 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 aiming for. 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 Job Faire, 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 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 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 opportunity - bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a distinctly marked folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!