Qualifying For Success

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

How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Fair? The competition can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself stand out from the crowd with early preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simplified six-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the World Wide Web to check out the organizations that are there ahead of time. Go to their internet sites and see if they have their jobs listed. Pick a limited number to target, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than seven in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each company, 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 company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments 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 organization.

Third, create a ‘short sales pitch’ for each potential company/job combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud showing why you are a good prospect 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 job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job 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, 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 clearly tagged folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!