Veterans How To Avoid 5 Fatal Job Fair Mistakes

Veterans: How to Avoid 5 Fatal Job Fair Mistakes It never fails. I’m at a job truthful looking for high-performing, motivated professionals to place into great opportunities with our Fortune 500 shopper corporations. Yet I walk away every time shaking my head in disbelief at how many seasoned officers and NCOs blow their probability to get hired. Here are 5 deadly errors most army job seekers make at career gala's, and how one can avoid making them: 1. You Have No Idea Why You’re Here Most folks suppose the important thing to job fair success is to “costume well and produce a lot of resumes.” Well, what if I advised you that you don’t go to job truthful to get a job? To go a little further, DON’T BRING ANY RESUMES!!! You’re probably slightly shocked proper now, as a result of this flies towards everything you’ve been informed in your transition. I’ll ease your inner conflict and inform you that job festivals are an absolute should in your to do list, but not for the reasons you suppose. (As for the resume thing, we’ll get to that in a bit.) One of the crucial first steps of your job search strategy is to have a targeted record of firms. Before you make investments your time and money to attend a job truthful, you have to have a sense of what industries and corporations can utilize your talent sets and have alternatives in your geographic preferences. Many people disregard the smaller corporations they’ve by no means heard of earlier than. This is a HUGE mistake! You ought to really target and start off with the smaller corporations. Why? Well, let’s get to the fundamentals of enterprise. Job fairs cost lots in phrases of time and money away from the office. If a smaller firm is willing to speculate that stage of dedication and assets to a job truthful, it’s much more doubtless they have an instantaneous vacancy they’re attempting to fill. Even better, there’s a really high chance that a hiring decision-maker shall be current on the booth. Another mistake many job seekers make at a job honest? They wait within the lengthy strains on the front of the honest to talk with the “massive field” employers. Instead, be sensible and start on the physical rear of the job honest and work your method ahead. Here’s the strategy behind this: Some of us recruiters don’t wish to pay the massive bucks to get the prime actual property at the entrance. We’re sometimes twiddling our thumbs, because everyone is bottlenecked up there. Your reward for taking this method is that you simply get more one-on-one interplay time, while your less-knowledgeable competitors is wasting your networking alternatives standing in line to talk to someone who usually doesn’t have any authority to rent them. Your win. You could also be wondering why I said you weren’t at a job honest to get a job. Well, your reason to attend a job truthful is to grow your skilled community. (Click here to tweet this thought.) If, in the course of, a real connection is made, that’s serendipity at work and also you’ve become the one-in-a-million job truthful rent story. Always keep in mind this so that you keep focused in your purpose for being on the occasion. 2. You Can’t Tell Me What You Can Do for Me Let’s imagine for a moment that you’re watching TV, and a business comes on that appears like a resume (and sounds like one, too). How lengthy would it take for you to change the channel? Likewise, you've about seconds to offer me a cause to proceed listening to you. You have to craft your elevator speech in the direction of the positions you realize my firm is usually hiring for, whereas on the similar time expressing how your skills match. And please don’t give me the “I’m a transitioning…yada yada.” That tells me that you simply haven’t carried out something with your elevator speech because you practiced it in a transition course, and it “sounded good” to somebody who has never hired or placed somebody in years â€" or probably ever. There’s no substitute for exhausting work here. That’s why focus is important. In 2013, in the age of smartphones, there’s no cause why you shouldn’t have the ability to inform me about what my company does and how you can add worth to my shoppers and customers. You ought to be seizing on the chance to make use of your whole branch of service’s outplacement assets to test drive your elevator speech before you even get to a job honest. Those professionals will provide you with frank, candid feedback. Trust me, your family and friends will tell you that your elevator speech sounds great, however my fellow recruiters and I have to mentally try whenever you tell us you’re a “leader” and that you could “handle.” We recruiters don’t like coping with generalities. So, how do you interact our consideration? Lead off with your technical expertise â€" such as your degree, certifications and hard skills â€" before you even think about speaking about the transferable ones. Take it from me, save sharing your transferable skills till I’m actually fascinated and ask you to elaborate a little more about yourself after your 10-second promo. Please don’t wing your elevator speech. If you do, you’re prone to be tuned out. 3. Are You TRULY Ready to Transition? Ditch the uniform, already! I know this will rub some the mistaken means, but should you’ve learn my different posts, you already know I’m here to provide you data that works, not flatter your ego. I’m fairly confident that you simply’re trying to make a great impression, but right here’s why a uniform is a foul concept: Employers want to envision you as a part of their staff. Also, carrying your uniform might sink your job search ship earlier than it even sets sail. One cause is that you danger being perceived as unprepared. Which demonstrates extra effort? Simply placing on a service dress uniform or donning an interview-ready go well with? Believe it or not, I see many candidates deal with the job honest as some type of marginal occasion where they assume a uniform or slacks and a shirt are “adequate.” The lesson here is that I ALWAYS bear in mind the candidates with the polished, skilled image. Another purpose not to wear the uniform is that it allows the prospectiv e employer to disqualify you before even hearing your elevator speech. Recruiters who're fellow veterans can immediately inform by taking a look at your uniform whether or not or not you’re retiring, how a lot salary you’re at present making (i.e., whether they can afford you or not), and some have even stated it creates doubt as as to if or not you’re actually ready to hang the uniform up. four. You Sound Like the Other 200+ People I Spoke with Today A superb pal of mine is also a recruiter. I walked up to her once throughout a job honest we had been each attending, and her instant response was, “How can I allow you to?” She’d turn into so “punch drunk” by the lots of of job seekers who’d walked as much as her that day that she barely recognized me by the point I stopped by. If your strategy is along the lines of, “Here’s my degree and my army expertise; now you determine if I’m an excellent fit (then hire and prepare me),” you’re in impact saying “me, me, me” all day long. (Hint: This is NOT a great thing.) Now, I know firsthand, having facilitated the Transition GPS Course, that the instructors explicitly stress that this “me, me, me” approach is the worst approach to work a job honest. But I guess the vast majority of graduates think they don’t have to give a lot thought about how to differentiate themselves from the standard job seeker. How do you accomplish this? You can do that by extending y our hand, giving a firm handshake and telling me your name. Then ask mine. Then ask me briefly what my precise position is with the company, as I may not even be a recruiter. Once that’s out of the best way, acknowledge the fact that my time is precious, hit me together with your 10-second elevator speech and ask in case your skills are a match for my firm. (Which should be “yes,” if you’ve accomplished your homework and recognized the businesses which are a great fit for you.) If you’re told “no” or “apply on our website,” don’t take offense; it successfully offers you honest feedback that you simply haven’t stimulated sufficient interest. Instead, ask the person what type of parents the company usually hires, so that in case you have any sharp people in your community, you possibly can refer them. Trust me, the quickest way to stay in a recruiter’s or hiring choice-maker’s thoughts is to send distinctive candidates their method. Once your conversation has ended, thank them graciously with a smile, ask if they've a enterprise card and decide if it’s OK to email them. Once you allow the job truthful with your whole new contacts, e-mail every of them and use the topic line “Thanks…and a cup of coffee?” Thank them in your message for the time they took to speak with you, and supply to fulfill in future to be taught extra about what they do and the corporate. I can let you know that 95% of the folks at job fairs won't do this. But you should also take it a step further. In the e-mail, note that you noticed the person’s LinkedIn profile and ask if it’s OK to connect with them on there. You also can look that person up on Twitter and start following them (if they have a professional profile). Because two out of three job seekers are successfully utilizing all three huge social media websites to search out their next job, many much less-certified persons are getting employed as a result of more-qualified candidates still stuck i n the “resume & cowl letter” age. Just by adding one particular person, similar to me, to your community, you’ve increased your skilled contacts by over a million connections. (Connect with me now, and let me know that you just learn this submit.) 5. You’re Downright Scared to Talk Salary Hopefully, you have already got an thought of what you have to know about salary and are prepared to have some solutions when requested. You could try deflecting or redirecting once I ask you “How a lot are you looking to make?” by saying something alongside the lines of “I’m more interested in studying more in regards to the job…” But perceive that you just’re basically speed dating on the job honest. Most firms are aware of their present wants and have to find out whether or not or not you’re going to be a match for those positions when it comes to skills, location and wage. Your reply to the wage query exhibits us how prepared you might be, as a result of it shows you perceive the norms for the corporate or the industry and placement. I usually chuckle inside after I ask the cash question and a job seeker’s reply has nothing to do with the place’s range, however is strictly in tune with what that person is making in terms of their military salary. Once again, t he fatally flawed thinking of “me, me, me.” Just like the favored dating sites on the market, we recruiters are really trying to match you up along with your abilities, location and salary preferences to create a win-win scenario. But perceive that, on the end of the day, all of us are specialists looking to fill very particular positions, so don’t get aggravated or frustrated if there isn’t a match. Instead, say to your self, “There isn’t a match right now,” and use it to your advantage by making us your wingman. That means, if we do come across somebody who’s in search of a candidate together with your background, you’re the first individual we think of. One Final Thought and Suggestion Remember when I advised you not to convey a resume to a job truthful? Well, if after your elevator speech and subsequent conversation you’ve actually connected with us and we ask you for it, provide to e-mail it to us recruiters. Better but, for hiring decision-makers, send it through FedEx or UPS with tracking, then name about half-hour after you get the supply notification. That’s how you leave a recreation-changing and job-creating impression. Have your eyes been opened to any job fair mistakes you’ve been making? Share your ideas with us within the comments! Image: Flickr