subject: Secret To Make Career Fairs Work For You [print this page] Want to know the secret to make career fairs work for you? Stop looking for a job. That's old school. Instead, strategically use career fairs to expand your market exposure and branding. Think of it as a way to increase your personal publicity while covertly uncovering specific business challenges where you can be the hero that provides realistic solutions.
Look for problems to solve instead of finding a job, and you'll be light years ahead of the competition in vision and relevancy to employer need. Translation: next-generation marketing uses career expo attendance as a back-door stage pass to the inner sanctum of persons-of-influence. The more you know before you go, the more you increase the perception of your credibility and fit with organizational need. Employers hire problem solvers.
Those stuck in the old-school view of what job fair attendance should accomplish enter hat-in-hand randomly tossing resumes like Frisbees hoping the right dogs will catch. This approach significantly decreases options and opportunities because it gives away your control over best choices.
A successful market exposure campaign targets the right market with the product (you). Identification of the right market is found through deep-level market intelligence research before during, during and after job fair attendance.
Here are nine marketing tips to outmaneuver your competition during a career fair:
- Narrow your career focus to best choice and one alternative. Your career focus should be the best area where you can make the greatest difference in a company, in the shortest time frame. Look forward, not backward.
- Contact the career expo organizers and obtain a list of employers represented at the job fair. Make and rank a deliberately-small list of five employers that would mesh well with your competencies, values, career goals, and/or opportunity to demonstrate yourself as a problem solver. A short list keeps you on-point and also prevents physical, mental and emotional burnout. You'll appear more energized targeting fewer employers.
- Perform deep-level Internet and local-library research to learn everything available on your target five companies. Particularly watch for growth patterns, organizational expansion and new product development roll-outs. Distill your research into charts, graphs, tables, or bullet points for easier digestion.
- Perceive what type of business challenges these initiatives would create. Sketch out a targeted sequence that details how you would solve the hurdles. Research how the competitors of these five target companies faced and resolved similar obstacles. Ask yourself what you would do differently than what the competitor companies did?
- Develop two resumes: one for best choice - one for the alternative. If you have a web portfolio, update it as well. Also create a non-web mini-portfolio that differentiates you and will allow the company representative to review on site at the career booth. The portfolio must look professional in appearance (leather or leather-clone, good photos, well-designed charts, etc.) that house samples of your top competencies, skills, and achievements. Unless in the Creative Arts industry, go for conservative and understated in appearance and presentation. - Purchase at least 500 professional-looking business cards which detail your name, email address, home and cell phone, and a few key words that state your best area of knowledge, ability, and job functionality target. Familiar with the next generation in business cards? HyperCards are digital cousins to the paper variety. Just make sure that if you have these, all information is up-to-date. Test every one to ensure they aren't DOA (Dead on Arrival).
- Don't forget to include the web portfolio URL on your business card. You may need two separate business cards if in a confidential search, one with the URL, one without. - Before exiting the visit with your company #1, always make sure you: get a business card and give yours; ask person at the booth if he/she recommends anyone else you should speak to in that company and gain contact information; inquire what's the best way to follow up in the next couple of days, and with whom.
- Before moving to your company #2, and so on, record detailed readable notes that you can enter into your computer when arriving home. These will be very useful in sending thank you notes or performing other follow-up tasks.
Want to multiply your chances of identifying a better opportunity, faster, and in perfect alignment with your talents?
Approach a career fair or expo as a research resource where you obtain insider market intelligence, contact information, and referrals. By doing so, you'll amplify your credibility, increase your personal publicity and never have to ever worry that you're wasting your time. You'll significantly differentiate yourself because you enter from a position of strength seeking information, rather than a job.
by: RL Stevens
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