How to Get Noticed at a Career Fair

Standing out at a Career Fair can make a difference in your job search. Job Faires are starting to pick up, and Dice is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a Silicon Valley Job Faire in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 job fairs scheduled for 2010 across the States.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Fair? The competition can be substantial, but you can help yourself stick out from the gang with advance planning. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward step-by-step process to prepare. Planning to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to research the organizations that are there before you go. Go to their web sites and see if they have their jobs listed. Pick a rational number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 7 in a day, and four or five is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job postings on the web, read them to see what the company is looking for. Create a mapping of your accomplishments and skills to the prerequisites of the job. Make the language match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.

Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely company/job combination. Write down a 60 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally showing why you are a key prospect for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the team from the company at the job kiosk.

Fourth, modify your resume for each job type. The objective on your resume should exactly match the position you’re going after. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the achievements and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Career Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be very easy to see that you’re a match based on your resume.

Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each opportunity – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably marked folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any cologne or perfume sparingly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

KKR – a Pioneer in Its Field

KKR stands for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, which refers to its co-founders Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., Henry Kravis, and George Roberts. The three were colleagues at Bear Stearns & Co. when they dreamed up their world-changing idea.

Their dream was to make a private equity firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts — a plan met with opposition at Bear Stearns. Realizing there would be no forthcoming support from their company, the trio founded KKR in 1976 in New York City, where it has since been based.

Founding the firm was an achievement per se; no one else had gone with as much dedication before into the buyout business.

On many other levels, KKR is also a pioneer. In 1979, it acquired Houdaille Industries, the first time in history for a publicly traded company. Five years later, KKR got to own Wometco, whose $1 billion buyout price was another first in leveraged buyouts.

Many other companies have since graced KKR’s portfolio, such as US Natural Resources, Safeway, TXU, Alliance Boots, Borden, HCA, Masonite, Gillette, Toys R Us, Owens-Illinois, Beatrice, AJ Industries, Sealy, First Data, Playtex, etc.

Famously, KKR bought RJR Nabisco in 1988 for $25 billion, at that time the largest leveraged buyout price. In 2007, TXU became a KKR portfolio company for $45 billion. There are now 45 companies in KKR’s portfolio.