Job Fairs have been around for years. They are a great place for a job seeker to network with multiple employers at one site. Plus, these are employers that are actively hiring. So going to a job fair is well work your effort — if you use your time wisely.
In this video, Andy LaCivita, Founder of Milewalk, the Milewalk Academy, and award-winning author of The Hiring Prophecies, gives you some very good advice about how to make an unforgettable, positive, impression at job fairs.
Don’t take this subject lightly. Don’t just show up and hand out resumes.
You want to go in with a strategy and a plan. This is your one-shot to get employers interested in you. You’ll only have about five minutes to engage the company representative, get them excited about you as a potential candidate and then — ultimately — get an interview scheduled.
Wouldn’t it be cool to go to one place, talk to 15 or 20 potential employers, and come away with a handful of interviews set up? That is the power of a job fair done correctly.
What You Should NOT DO at Job Fairs
One thing we really like about Andy’s video is that he tells you the pitfalls of job fairs. This is must-know information. You certainly don’t want to show up and not know about this ahead of time.
Being prepared is about 75% of job search success. Interview preparation, strategic resumes, employer research… these are all hallmark tasks of getting hired. Job fairs are not exception. Knowing what to expect and what not to expect are important. Remember, you have a limited time to impress employers at job fairs. YOU are the living resume. Be ready and know what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what NOT to do.
A Big Job Fair Mistake
Andy points out that the same reason why you don’t get hired is really that same reason you don’t get called back after a job fair.
It has to do with how you spend way too much time trying trying to tell the employer everything there is to know about you. You spend your five minutes in this monologue that stuffs all of your positive attributes, skills and accomplishments into a five minute dump. This comes from the belief that you have to say everything you can in the hopes that something sticks, something piques the employers interest.
You’ve probably done this in a past job interview and it’s a big mistake.
The point here is relevancy. The employer wants to know what in your background and experience is actually relevant to the job they are trying to fill. You might have a lot of great experience and accomplishments. Your education credentials or performance reviews may be exceptional. But is none of that is relevant to the specific job, the employer doesn’t care.
The employer doesn’t need to know that. The employer is looking for something else. You may actually have just what they are looking for. But if you make an information dump when you first meet, they may not hear it.
A Better Way
Andy recommends that best way to approach this is to spend those critical first minutes to try and figure out exactly what they need to know and what they want to hear.
Here is a word-for-word transcript of how Andy would approach this…
"Hi, my name's Andy LaCivita.
I'd love to share a little bit about myself and learn about your company.
Before I do that, could you tell me what you're looking for in an entry level candidate? Or, could you tell me what the most important skills are in whatever position it is that you are looking to attain?"
Then give them a minute or two to share with you,
“Well, we’re looking for somebody with this kind of background, or these kind of skills, or these kind of traits.“
As soon as they start describing what they are looking for, you start making mental correlations between your background, skills, and accomplishments with what they are looking for.
This is pure job seeker gold! They are going to tell you exactly what they want to hear. Then, when you have your couple of minutes to share about yourself, just highlight how you match what they’re looking for.
Send us your resume and we will make it searchable to over 1000 executive recruiting firms.
(Your name and contact info will be kept confidential)
Winning Job Fair Success Formula
What you’re doing is you’re giving them exactly what they need to understand about you. You are distancing yourself from every other person they are going to see at the job fair.
You want them leaving the event thinking… “Boy, that John Smith. He seemed to match exactly what we needed. We need to call him back.”
Guess what will happens? As soon as you leave, they put a gold star on your resume. They want to be sure they remember you!
Your chances of being called back, or scheduled right there, for an interview have been raised exponentially.
Remember the phrase Andy suggests….
“So that I can best share my experiences with you to help you know whether I’m a good fit, can you describe what you’re looking for in your entry level candidates,” or whatever position it is.
Take some time now and practice how you are going to use this technique at a career fair. You can even use it at the beginning of your next interview.
Let us know in the comments below what you thought of this idea..
