Here in New Hampshire this week, one of the biggest job fairs in recent history is being held. A statewide job fair which is a collaboration of the state Employment Security Office, Southern New Hampshire University, and Manchester television station WMUR is attracting about 130 businesses and God knows how many visitors. This is going to be big for an obvious reason… the state employment picture stinks, relatively speaking, and is not expected to improve anytime soon. Although the NH unemployment rate is still below the newly released national figure — the non-seasonally adjusted rates are 8.9% for the country and 5.9% for the state — the amount of employment insecurity hasn’t been this high since the recessions of the early eighties and nineties, respectively.
People will go to the fair most likely for one of two reasons. They really want to get hired for a job or they want to check out who is hiring in case something interesting comes up. I’d like to address the first reason. If you are unemployed or in a job that you can’t stand and want out you should approach this and any job fair with a plan. Now this plan assumes one big important thing, that is you have determined what industry you want to work in. Random job hopping is not a career and that will be picked up by employers who want to hire serious candidates. If you haven’t yet determined a career path chances are that a job fair is not going to help a whole lot. At best, attending one puts you in the second “just checking it out to see what’s out there” category.
However, for those who have decided on a particular career direction, then approaching this event strategically will be your best approach. I could give you an overwhelming ten-point prep plan that would probably leave you stressed and feeling inadequate, but instead I’ll leave you with my three biggies. Here should be the main elements of your plan:
1. Have a really well done current resume prepared that is targeted for the industry in which you want to work. Resumes are not trivial. They brand your identity and are your best marketing tool. They should highlight a positive work style profile, your qualifications, and your significant accomplishments much more so than a dry generic objective, your past work history, and previous responsibilities. Most resumes I see have this reversed.
2. Research the companies with which you want to make an impression. The list of those attending Thursday’s fair can be found at http://www.wmur.com/money/19003060/detail.html. Do your homework and find out as much as you can about their mission, culture, internal and external economics, and hiring practices. Work your network and the web to wring out as much information about them as you can. When speaking with their reps at the fair let slip in your knowledge about their organization.
3. Develop a two minute “Elevator Speech” about what you hope to do. Imagine that you are on an elevator ride with a hiring manager from a company you’d really like to work for and they say to you that they have a position they’re hoping to fill. They then ask you to tell them about yourself. You’ve got two minutes, go! Can you pitch yourself succinctly, coherently, and effectively in two minutes? If not, you need to work on a script, and practice it to death.
Of course, being prepared with these three tactics won’t mean much if you haven’t taken care of the givens such as not showing up in sweatpants and looking insecure. Try looking and sounding as good as you can. Have the confidence that comes from knowing that you’ve got a great resume, a well rehearsed elevator speech, and knowing a lot about the organization that you’re talking to and you’ll do fine.
I’ll be at SNHU on the 9th. I hope to meet many of you. Best of luck!
