Navigating The College Recruiting Fairs

College Recruiting Fair Advice for Almost Grads

If you are graduating this spring and have no plans to attend campus job fairs, you are missing your best chance at landing a job.  Campus recruiting events are the single most important way to launch your career.  Companies know the value of these events and recruit heavily from them.  It’s “one stop shopping” as they can immediately get a sense of personality and worth from a quick conversation.  It’s time and money saving for them – you should take every advantage.

Treat it like a job interview.  Dress appropriately—no jeans, cutoffs, tank tops.  Wear a nice pair of slacks or skirt and tailored shirt.   Girls, modest make up.  Bring multiple copies of your resume in a backpack or better yet, hip new messenger bag.  Do some research ahead of time.  Find out which companies will be participating and check their websites.  That way you’ll have something specific to talk about (ie, product line, services etc.) with each company’s recruiting team.  THIS WILL MAKE YOU STAND OUT from your peers. 

Be warm, friendly and approachable.  SHOW ENTHUSIASM!  Collect business cards and send follow up “thank yous” within 24 hours.  Here are some conversation starters:

What to say after HELLO!

            Be confident

·      Fake it!  (pretend) and reality will follow

·      REMEMBER a time when you felt completely confident

·      Firm handshake, eye contact, watch your body language

·      SMILE!!  Be gracious and POSITIVE

·      Be positive and no negative comments allowed!

            Focus on them, not you

·      Be interested vs interesting.  What can I learn from this person?

·      Listen without trying to figure out what to say next—follow up questions.

·      Be sincere

·      No scoping out the room to see who else is there

·      No ONE WORD ANSWERS

            Sharing what you have

·      Offer help with something (phone charging?)

·      Do favors

·      Share information – advice  (Know the layout of the hall

Conversation starters:

·      What brings you here?

·      Where are you from?

·      What do you think of Florida?  Weather?  A lot different than Minot, ND isn’t it? (or wherever the person is from..)

·      What company are you with?  How long have you been with Widget Makers?

·      What do you do with the company?

·      How long have you been working (managing, whatever) with widgets?

·      What do you hope to get out of this conference?

Keep it going- building conversation:

·      How did you get started in the widget field?

·      What do you most enjoy about your profession, interest, location or ??

·      How does your company differ from XYZ?

·      What products do you make?

·      Is this your first trip to NPE?  Annual event? 

·      How has the NPE been helpful to your career?

·      How did you get started in_______?

·      What trends do you see in______plastics in med devices?

·      You mentioned________.  What got you interested in this area?

Gracefully moving on…..

·      It’s been good talking with you.  I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.  I’m going to walk around and meet some new people.

·      Here comes Kristen.  Have you two met?  (exit left…)

·      Let me take you over to Kristen.  I’ll introduce her.  (exit right)

·      It’s been interesting talking with you.  Do you have a card?

·      The questions should be focused on the other person, instead of you.  Getting the focus off you dilutes the anxiety of networking.  Remember, networking is learning about the other person to see how YOU can be helpful to him or her.   

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11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader: Dave Kerpen

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader: Dave Kerpen

Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.

2. Storytelling

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.

3. Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.

4. Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.

5. Team Playing

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

6. Responsiveness

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.

7. Adaptability

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.

8. Passion

"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.

9. Surprise and Delight

"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.

10. Simplicity

"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.

11. Gratefulness

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton

Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated

By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

Which of these principles are most important to you — what makes you likeable?

Dave Kerpen is the New York Times bestselling author of two books, Likeable Social Media and Likeable Business.

You’re Hired! 26 Tips To Help You Score The Job You Want

Julie Gerstein February 13, 2013

As anyone who’s had a frustrating conversation with their parents knows, the job market just ain’t what it used to be. Where our parents generation may have switched jobs four or five times in a lifetime, these days, it’s far more common for people to change jobs — and sometimes whole careers — at least twice in a decade. The Bureau of Labor reports that the average worker spends around 4.4 years in each position. And for millenials, that number’s even higher. Whew.

A lot of time, energy and interview outfits will go into the jobs you’re likely to pursue over a lifetime, so why not go through the process in the best way possible? Whether you’re just starting out, or have been in the workforce for a while, getting a new job can be a daunting process. So it’s a good thing we’ve compiled a list of 26 tips, culled from our combined 50+ years in the working world. So check out our advice, and then share yours in the comments!

GETTING CONNECTED

1. Network, network, network. In order to increase your job opportunities in any industry, you have to be considered an “insider” in that industry. The best way to do that is to know people. Keep up with them. Have drinks. Show your face around industry events.

2. Set up coffee dates with people you admire in your industry. This is a great thing to do, even (and some might say, especially) when you’re not looking for a job. It accomplishes two things: You can learn from them and when you are looking for a job, you can contact them for suggestions.

3. Ask for informational interviews. Maybe the company you want to work for doesn’t have any openings at the moment. You may still score big by asking for an informational interview with someone in the department you’re interested in. It can create goodwill and valuable name recognition the next time a job does open. Which, hey, you need.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family for help. Around 80 percent of all jobs are obtained via networking, so use the network that’s around you. And remember, when you’re networking, apply the same level of professionalism you would with a potential boss. You never know how far your networking email might travel.

5. Learn about where you want to work, seriously. Potential employers can smell a form cover letter from a mile away, so do your research and tell them not just why you’d be a good fit, but what you like about the company.

6. Utilize your connections. Put the name of your colleague or connection in the subject of the email so that the person you’re trying to reach will be more likely to open it.

7. Get yourself a LinkedIn account. Use it to build up your online presence, connect with others in your field and hunt for job opportunities.

YOUR RESUME & COVER LETTER

8. Make sure your resume is flawless. This goes double if you’re applying for a job that in any way involves writing. Employers often use typos in cover letters and resumes as an easy way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Send your resume out to at least three friends to give it a thorough read-through before shipping it off.

9. Sure, put some personality in there. Jessica’s resume mentions that she spent time abroad in Prague. Mine references that she can recite “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It” from memory, and that she’s captain of her soccer team. Believe it or not, these things catch potential employers’ eyes and may serve as the touchstone that gets you in the door. Plus, it’s an easy way to differentiate your resume from the pile of others.

10. For chrissakes, send your resume as a PDF. As any control freak will tell you, you never know what version of Microsoft the person you’re emailing has. Maybe they’re on a Commodore 64 and just use text edit. You never know, so save yourself and them the trouble and send your resume as a PDF attachment. If you don’t know what that is, Google it.

11. Do you have an “objective” section on your resume? Take it off. It’s assumed that if you are sending your resume someplace, you and they know what job it’s for. Don’t waste valuable resume space with this category

12. Do some research and find out who you need to send your resume and cover letter to. It’s usually not impossible to figure it out. None of that “To Whom It May Concern” business.

13. Never give references you haven’t thoroughly vetted. Make sure all of your references are aware that they’re references.

THE INTERVIEW

14. Follow up a day before the interview and confirm the time and place. Yup.

15. Write down the contact information, address and directions for your interview. Seriously, there is no excuse for being late, especially not if you have a smartphone.

16. Learn how to give a good interview.  More often than not, how much people like you, how well you present in person, how much they would want to work with you, often counts for a lot more than your resume.

17. Demonstrate why you’d make a good worker by example. When you show up at an interview, be the kind of person other people want to work with. Present a positive attitude, be polite, friendly, punctual and engaged. Think about your goddamn posture and presence. Are you sitting up in your chair, leaning forward, engaging with your interviewer? Do that.

18. Dress for the job you want. It’s a total cliche, but it’s also totally true. It’s better to be overly professional at an interview than not professional enough.

19. Make sure you have clean fingernails. Ah yes, this. Potential employers are going to notice your nails. They just are. Nails are sort of a window into your working soul, as it were. They’re seen as a reflection of what kind of a person and worker you might be. So keep those puppies clean.

20. Have some questions ready. Again, this should be a no brainer, and yet! Ask about the challenges and rewards of the job, the work environment, the size and scope of the team you’d be working on.

21. Don’t forget to ask the interviewer a couple of questions about themselves. Newsflash, people love talking about themselves, and it endears you to them when you take the time to ask about their own experience at a company. So store a couple of questions like, “What drew you to this company?” or “What was your professional path that led you to this firm?” or whatever.

THE FOLLOW-UP

22. Say thanks, a couple of times. After an interview, send a thank you email to the person or people who interviewed you. Saying something like “Thanks for taking the time to meet with me, your company seems like a wonderful place to work.”

23. And then follow up with a handwritten thank you note. Sure, nobody does handwritten anything anymore. Which is why you’ll stand out by taking the time and effort to hand write your thanks. This goes double if the person you’ve interviewed with is of an older generation — until recently, it was not just suggested but required that you mail in a thanks.

24. Modify your resume accordingly. Every job is different, duh, and your resume should be modified to speak to the particular aims and goals of the job you’d like. That doesn’t mean you should have 20 different resumes (too confusing!), but tailor one to your retail experience, or research strengths, or marketing skills.

25. Be aggressive, B-E aggressive! Your interviewer probably has a lot going on, so don’t be super concerned if you don’t hear back from them right away. But do take the time to follow up and reassert your interest in the position.

26. Don’t give up. Nobody gets every job they ever go out for. If you feel like you developed a rapport with the interviewer, feel free to ask them what you could do better next time, or what experience you should try to build.

Julie Gerstein February 13, 2013

Acing the Skype Interview

In this world of corporate cost cutting, you may find yourself facing your computer camera rather a hiring manager. Treat the cyber interview as you would a personal interview with a few twists.

· Establish a “clean” background, clutter free. Tidy bookshelves work well, no nick-knacks. Don’t use a background with any moving “traffic” such as passerbys or vehicle traffic. You don’t want anything to distract the interviewers from you.

· Do you best to light your set. Turn on all available lighting, both lamps as well as overheads. You don’t want a spotlight effect with your face popping out of a black hole. That can make you look sinister. Work on your back lighting first, then use lamps to brighten up your face. Your goal is to come as close as you can to what you see on network news interviews, achieving a warm and open feeling.

· Just because you are at home, don’t be casual. Confidence is key! Professional clothes, tidy hair and make up are important. Men should use a touch of powder to avoid that shiny look which can translate to fop sweat from the other side of the camera

· Check your broadband speed well ahead of your interview. If it’s sluggish, your image on the other side will be jerky. Not good. If you’ve got a problem, use a friend’s home instead.

· Practice makes perfect. Do a practice run with a friend or family member on the other side.

· Lastly, look directly into your computer’s camera and don’t glance off. That will make you look shifty, distracted and disinterested.—the last impression you want to make with the hiring manager.