Re: Career Fair etiquette/behavior

["Gary S. Callison" <huey -at- interaccess -dot- com>]

On  Fri, 20 Jun, Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com wrote:
> Carolee Burgess asked:
>> "I'm going to a career fair in Boston on Tues. to try and make some
>> headway as the seeker of an entry-level TW position in this market.
>> There are several interesting tech companies, but I'm not sure if they
>> are seeking writers.
>> My question is this: Does anyone know if there is a particular way to
>> approach companies at a job fair? Do you treat it like a
>> mini-interview and wait for questions, or do you have a quick summary
>> of yourself that you deliver with your resume?

"Yes". You need to make yourself stand out from the rest of the 
cattle-call, and then you need to have good answers for everything else
they ask. What the other poster said upthread about 'practicing your
answers'? That's good advice.

>>  Should I even ask if they're looking for writers? This is my first
>> fair (probably of many) and I don't want to violate any rules I am not
>> aware of."

Most of them have cheeseboards or handouts with their open positions. If
it's a big show, scout the room first and see if anybody is looking
specifically for you, and hit those guys before you do anything else.
Then, you can go back and shake everybody's hand and ask "I see that
you're not advertising for any technical writer positions, but if you
don't mind, I'd like to give you my resume in case you have something open
up". 

You can pretty much forget about hearing from anyone in that latter group 
anytime soon. And you may not hear from a majority of the former.

> In all honesty, I wouldn't even waste my time with career fairs as a 
> career changer.
> I was changing careers on the upswing of the tech boom.  Even then, as a 
> career changer, trying to find an entry level position through a career 
> fair was an almost complete waste of time.  In the Boston area, I found 
> the larger career fairs especially useless.  (In fact, I don't even 
> remember the name of the companies that ran them any more.)

On the other hand, I got the interview for my current job at a Brassring
<http://candidate.brassring.com/EN/ASP/content/Events.asp> job fair about
eighteen months ago. The jobs are out there, you just need to look hard
to find 'em. 

Here's how I did it: Get a list of every company that's going to be there.
Look through their website to see if they have jobs posted. Look for the
name of someone in the local HR office, and address your cover letter to
that person. If there is a specific job posting they have open, tailor
your resume specifically towards getting that job. Learn a little about
the company you're applying for. I spent about two full days preparing,
and had about a dozen tailored resumes. 

Once you get to the show, go to the booths of companies that you've
tailored resumes for, then give a generic resume to those advertising for
positions you're qualified for, then carpetbomb the rest of the room with
resumes. 

I spent close to half an hour talking shop with the guys from a big
defense contractor (who worked in a government project that I very nearly
wound up getting transferred to at a previous job) and I didn't get a
call-back from them. I think, of the dozen-odd resumes I tried to slant
towards specific jobs, I got three call-backs. No call-backs from anybody
else, except for...

The job I wound up getting? Company I'd never heard of, wasn't on the
pre-show list, not advertising for any position I went there to get (I was
looking for telecommunications technician/mainframe operator/sysadmin
stuff) but I'd written a few manuals, they needed a tech writer, and *BAM* 
here I am. 

So I have at least anecdotal evidence that you _can_ get an entry-level
tech writer job at a tradeshow after the dot-crash.   ;-) 

-- 
Huey


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