Job Fair Tips > Career Fair Success Strategies

by Maureen Crawford Hentz

 

Career Fairs can occasionally be intimidating. As a job-seeker, you must distinguish yourself from hundreds or even thousands of other job applicants. The following are a few simple strategies to help you stand out from the crowd.

• Find a Fair. Many career fairs are free, but some require a registration and/or fee. The first place to look for a career fair is your alma mater. Colleges and universities routinely hold career fairs for students and alumni. Call your college's career service office and find out if you need to register and what the general format of the fair will be.

Professional organizations also often sponsor large career fairs at their national and regional conferences. Many organizations require membership for admission to the conference and career fair, but some sell day-long "placement-only" admission. Unsure about which professional associations would be best for you and which career fairs will have what you want? Query the Internet for professional associations in your field (for example, Interior + Design + Association) and see if the resulting Web sites indicate career-fair participants.

Finally, look in the Help-Wanted section of your local newspaper. Many career fairs are listed in their own column. Also look for employers with large ads to see if any indicate "We will be at the ElectroMechanical Job Expo next week!"

• Choose the Right Fair. You probably don't want to waste your time at a medical-technology fair if you are looking for a position in education. Do your research. If possible, get the names of companies that will be recruiting at the fair. Hosting agencies often post an abridged list to attract job-seekers like you.
• Arrive Early. As a career-fair recruiting veteran, I can confidently attest that my ability to remember names, faces, and details of candidates waned as the day went on. Rolling my materials into each career fair, I set up my table in eager anticipation of the fabulous candidates I would find. As the fair picked up, while my eagerness never diminished, my ability to remember candidate details did. Go early to ensure quality time with the recruiters.
• Do a Reconnaissance Circuit First. When you get to the fair, don't go into a frenzy of resume dropping-off. Sit down with the program and decide on the order in which you will talk to recruiters. Many career fair veterans agree that beginning in the back of the room and working your way to the front is the way to go – you are seeing recruiters fresh, while people who started in the front may be starting to lose energy. While you are getting the lay of the land, pick up information from the tables. Information, as well as freebies such as pens, magnets, and stress balls, are there for the taking. Gather information on companies of particular interest and sit down in the candidate lounge. Information may include company annual reports, brochures, and a list of open positions. Review the materials so that you have a starting point for conversation with each recruiter.
• Have a Booth Speech. Too many times I would see candidates going down a row of tables asking the dreaded question "Can you tell me a little bit about your company?" As a recruiter, no matter how much you like to talk to people, this question becomes old quickly. Better to have a booth speech that you give to the recruiter. "Hello Aurora, I wanted to introduce myself to you. My name is Janet Ridge. I am an Asian-studies trainer with six years of experience, and I wanted to talk to you about the Training Specialist vacancy at XYZ Company." [Editor's note: See our article, The Elevator Speech is the Swiss Army Knife of Job-Search Tools.]
• Hone In. As you begin talking, the recruiter then may ask you questions about yourself or tell you about the position. Ensure that you make eye contact and listen carefully for tidbits that are not mentioned in the written materials. If you are interested in the company or a position therein, ask for the recruiter's business card and leave a resume.

In addition, go back to the candidate lounge and write a short note to the employer. Attach it to your resume and redeposit into the employer's resume box. Your note should be brief and professional and reference your conversation. "Dear Aurora, thank you for spending time with me today at the AsiaAlive! Recruiting Fair. I appreciate your making time to explain the detailed requirements of the Training Specialist position, as well as the history of the position. Please do feel free to contact me directly if you need additional information." This note can be handwritten but should be stapled directly to your resume. At the end of the fair (or sometimes during it), recruiters go through the resumes making notes on impressive candidates. Attaching a note to the resume is a way to distinguish yourself from other candidates who don't bother with this step.

• Don't be a Booth Buffoon. Recruiters are there to find many good candidates – not just one. Don't monopolize a recruiter by taking all his/her time. If a line develops behind you, be sensitive to that. Say something like "Thank you so much for speaking with me. I see you have quite a line, and I don't want to monopolize your time." Then, get out of the way. If you are particularly interested in making another contact, it is fine to come back again when the line has died down.

If a recruiter is speaking generally to another candidate, it is perfectly acceptable to join the conversation, make eye contact, and ask questions. It is not necessary to wait in a line for individual one-on-one attention, particularly if you plan to ask a similar question.

• After the Fair. Follow-up is extremely important. Recruiters will collect hundreds or thousands of resumes at a large career fair. If you are interested in applying for a specific position, go to the company Web site and apply directly using the company's preferred format. Open your cover letter by indicating that you discovered the position at theAsiaAlive! Career Fair and in speaking with recruiter Aurora Crawford, you became convinced that this was the position for you. You may also want to follow up with an email to the recruiter directly, if that information is on the business card.

In the future, if other positions are advertised for that company, use your inside connection with the recruiter. Apply using the company's preferred process and then send an email along with your resume to the recruiter you met at the career fair. That recruiter may or may not be working with the new position but could be provide the foot in the door that you need. Your email would say something like "Dear Ms. Crawford, I met you last March at the AsiaAlive! Recruiting Fair. At that time we discussed XYZ Company and the Training Specialist position. I see you now have a Country Specialist position available in the Tokyo office, and I wanted to contact you directly to express my interest. My resume and cover letter are attached. Of course, I have also applied through your company Web site."

Final Thoughts
Career Fairs don't have to be intimidating. Remember that the recruiters are there to find you. Recruiters' success is determined by sourcing appropriate candidates and funneling them toward the company. Remember that you are what they are looking for. Employing these success strategies is sure to make a difference in the kind, quantity and quality of your career-fair interactions.

Source : www .quintcareers. com

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Career Tips > 9 Job Search Tips for New Graduates

By Kathy Kristof

College graduation season is set to launch millions of youthful job seekers into an already depressed employment market. If you’re among the masses, realize that preparation is key. Here’s what you need to do to get hired.

1) Edit your profile. Those drunken party photos might have impressed your Facebook friends, but now they could dissuade a prospective employer from hiring you, says Stephen Miles, vice chairman of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles and co-author of Your Career Game. Recruiters do extensive web searches on people they intend to hire, including checking social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. If you’ve posted compromising photos or a stupid status update (i.e. Nice day. I think I’ll call in sick and go to the beach…) it could cost you a job. Get rid of it.

2) Do your homework. Don’t just figure that you can post a resume on monster.com and find work, says Janice Bryant Howroyd, CEO of staffing company AppleOne. You ought to study all aspects of your chosen field and seek information about the companies doing business in that area. Go to the company web sites and see if they’re posting open positions, too. If you send a resume, tailor it specifically to the job you’re seeking, Howroyd suggests.

3. Prepare to relocate. Live in a city where the job prospects are bleak? You can vastly increase your chance of getting work by seeking employment in other zip codes. The folks at job search site Indeed.com recently came up with a list of the best and worst cities to find work.

4) Think small. Many graduates focus on big, brand-name companies, but it’s the smaller and mid-sized companies that are doing most of the hiring now, Howroyd says. Taking jobs that “no one wants” is often an opportunity that no one else sees, adds Nathan Bennett, professor of management at Georgia Tech and the other co-author of Your Career Game. A first job is an opportunity to get experience. The smaller the company, the thinner the staff, the more likely you are to learn a wide array of skills.

5) Set targets. Set goals every day for either sending out a set number of resumes; filling out a set number of applications or finding a set number of new opportunities. Don’t hit the beach until you’ve hit your goal. You can’t change the job market, but you can determine how hard you try. Trying harder than your peers makes you the one most likely to get work.

6) Be persistent. If you go to an interview and don’t hear from the employer, follow up with a phone call. If they gave the job to another person, don’t be angry — be interested. Politely ask the hiring manager if he or she can tell you whether there was something that the other person did that particularly impressed them or something that you did wrong. If your approach is respectful and aimed at learning (rather than second-guessing their actions), they’re likely to help you better position yourself for the next interview. And if they tell you that you were fine, the other person was just more qualified, don’t be shy about asking them to keep you in mind for the next opportunity. If you don’t have a job in three or four months, call again and see if anything has opened up.

7) Work your network. Ask your friends, your parents, your parents’ friends, if they know of anything that would suit you. Check in with your college career office and attend their alumni functions. When there are hundreds of people applying for a given job, a personal referral can make your application stand out.

8) Be a temp. Some companies may not be willing to hire permanent full-time staff, but need help. You can sign up with a temporary company, like AppleOne, that will send you out on a daily basis to these companies. The benefits: You earn money; you get to know employers and employers get to know you.

9) Don’t despair. It’s a rotten job market, so it could take time to get work. And when you do get work, it may not be the ‘perfect job’ that you envisioned. Keep a good attitude and don’t let it get to you. Every job — even a nightmare job — is experience on your resume and a potential reference for a new employer. Do you best no matter where you end up working, and chances are good that you’ll get a better job in no time.

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5 Tips for Hands-On Leadership

By SCORE

1. Be there. Entrepreneurs warn that a successful business can slip when an owner is not there at least part of every day, keeping in touch with how things are going.
2. Set an example for working hard. One wholesale bakery owner sometimes sleeps on the couch in his office so he can be there when the early shift comes in at 4 a.m.
3. Don’t confuse “hands-on” managing with micro-management. Set objectives and offer guidance, but don’t make employees do every little thing your way. Gauge what they do by the results.
4. Understand your business down to the last detail. The founder of a toy-store chain visits the stores and spends time doing each job (selling, clerking, etc.) and observing customers’ reactions.
5. Stay in touch with “stakeholders”—including customers, employees and suppliers.

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7 Tips for a Successful Job Fair Experience

by Daniel Dage

In my county or any other county for that matter when attending a job fair

I just returned from our county’s Teacher Job fair and it was a bit of a hoot. First off, I was incredibly nervous going into this thing. While I think most people are nervous about job interviews, I was a bit more nervous than most people, because I knew a lot of the people there i.e. the Supt. of HR, the director of Special ed. plus my own administrators at my own school plus countless other people in the system. And the first question that I knew that would be asked was, “What are you doing here?!?” I knew this fair wasn’t for me, but the system had no provision for voluntary transfers this year. So I was willing to do my own legwork, and this fair was a place where I thought I could have a chance to talk with many administrators in one shot.

There really were a TON of people in attendance. Keep in mind, this fair was only recruiting for secondary science, math and fully certified special education (I’m in 2 out of 3 of those). It was very narrowly focused, and yet it was still pretty packed at 10:30. I debated about whether to go in or come back later but just went in, after taking a deep breath. I walked across a drizzly parking lot and got in lines where people registered and got name tags.

And this is the part where I’m going to tell you what to do or not to do:

1. Get Certified. This seems like a no-brainer, but there were still people showing up who were not certified and still hadn’t even gone through the process. You can begin by going to the Georgia Standards Commission website and learning about the process and applying.

2. Read the notice of what the district is looking for. You can find out all about job fairs and recruitment at the TeachGeorgia site. This is a great resource for teacher job hunters in Georgia.  It’s been a few years ago, but I was registered on there and did get calls from administrators during the summer.  A bonus tip is to have your profile link to your own web page/resume.

3. Bring your certificate/copies with you. They were really checking and screening those today, so people who did not have theirs had to go to another line where a helpful person would help you pull it up and run a copy. But that slows you down, and you’ll look unprepared.

4. Bring multiple resume copies. I think most people know and do this already, but it’s too important NOT to mention.

5. Get and fill out an application beforehand. Most school system applications can be obtained online, and many can be completed online. Go ahead and fill one out and submit it, then have a copy to keep with you when you go to a job fair or interview.

6. Talk and network with other perspective job hunters. While there might be some degree of competitiveness, there is also a possibility of some of these folks becoming your coworkers. While I talked to a few nice opeople, I also met a couple of surly characters who had their game face on and were not interested in chatting. I found myself hoping that I would never have to work with them and had a thought about pointing them out to my HR contact. However, I do have faith in the people doing the hiring and interviewing in the special education department that they will be able to sort out the nonhackers. And some people talk when they asre nervous and some would rather not. For the latter group, I wonder why they are teachers. I find talking helps lower the tension, but maybe that’s just me.

7. Have work samples. This tip alone is worth your time, and is your reward for reading this far. It’s my contribution to teacher innovation. The light bulb went off in my head yesterday. I basically put pictures on my mp4 player, as well as a short video I did, just to show and wow whoever I talked to about how I might use technology in a class. While it wasn’t exactly a powerpoint, it worked just like one. Now I had a portable way to show off my stuff. Trouble is, I never had a chance to use it.

I was in the process of standing in the special ed. line waiting to be screened by my special ed. director, where I figured I was going to have to answer that question. But the associate superintendent got to me first and that was the end of my job fair experience. He said he was willing to work on some sort of transfer later once he knew where all the openings were.  He seemed like he was willing to work with me, even though there was no provisions made for voluntary transfers this year.

I can only hope, but without getting my hopes up too high.  Last year, the principal had told me I would make an excellent coteacher in science.  But that was a different principal who knew he was leaving and could say whatever he wanted.  By the time I realized that there was not much of an intention to move me, it was too late to ask for a transfer or it would have been denied in any case.  So this year, I am perfectly okay with staying if I have to but moving if I can.  I’ve got good people to work with, good people to work for.  But there are other worlds to conquer and learn.

I did a small poll of a few people at the job fair and I discovered that while there were a ton of teacher wannabes there, there are very, very, very few who are both willing and able to do SID/PID at any level, let alone at the high school.  On some level I see why, but on another it is depressing.

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