How to get noticed at a career fair

By Elizabeth Hoogs

In the last three weeks, I have been to as many schools and as many career fairs. I just finished the Fall Career Fair at University of Wisconsin Madison, and after shaking hands and collecting resumes, I have a stack of candidates who stood out to me and my colleagues as passionate, smart, and will be invited for first round interviews. So what did they do right?

Career Fairs are brutal. You poor students wonder among the booths, weave your way through the crowds, resumes in hand, trying to catch the eye of a recruiter. Your job is to communicate your interests and impress me in a very short period of time. Here are a few tips on being noticed (in a good way;-)).

1. Come Prepared with a resume:
Please come with a resume, preferably 1 page, 1 side. If you are going to have a 2+ page resume, please staple the two pages. I will often get back to the office with a single, nameless second page. Please make sure the contact information and grad date are up to date on your resume.

2. Do quick research on the companies you plan to visit:
Most Career Service Centers will post which companies will be attending the fairs. By spending a few minutes on each of your targeted companies, you will learn about the opportunities they offer. This helps you highlight your skills relevant to those positions while speaking to the recruiter and you stand out as a driven candidate. Knowing what you want is really important to us; it’s often not just about what you can do, but what you want to do.

3. Tell me about yourself, not your resume:
We love the opportunity to speak with students and get beyond the resume. Try to emphasize what you’re passionate about doing and back it up with examples of what you’ve done, but do not read from your resume. Take the opportunity to tell the recruiter about your passions, interests, and how they can be realized at their company and trust that they will look at your resume in depth later.

Of course, skill level, which positions are open or not, and your talent are the primary determining factors, but these might help you showcase your potential match for a given company. I hope these can help you increase your success and that you hear from many companies!

Liz

Originally
from Technical Careers @ Microsoft : Resume Tips

by JobsBlog

on Sep 28, 2006, 2:03AM

Posted by Jeff Bosco with 1 comment.
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