Altameroy Blog

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

How do you stand out 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 6-step process to prepare. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the companies that are there before you even decide to go. Go to their sites and see if they have their jobs listed. Pick a reasonable 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 five or six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, 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 achievements and skills to the demands 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 company.

Third, create a ‘thumbnail sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a sixty second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud depicting why you are a key candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company 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 prerequisites. 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 quick to see that you’re a match based on your resume.

Fifth, 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 clearly tagged folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress nicely and be fittingly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!