University Career Fair : problems and how to get better !!
Recently I had an opportunity to be at the University of Southern California(USC) career fair as a Viasat Inc. recruiter. I was vividly recollecting the experience from a plethora of career fairs I attended as a student during my 2 years at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Whether you enter as a student or a recruiter, we all have a defined goal to accomplish in those intense six hours. It all boils down to that two minute interaction between the two entities that opens the door towards a great hire for an employer and a great job offer for the student. This symbiosis, as easy as it could be to establish, is seldom faced with unclear expectations and motives, what is it I am offering and what is my listener seeking.
Career fair is always an event that brings great minds into one place with the potential to form some great matches. While students are looking into opportunities to build and/or enhance their interests in industrial settings, employers are on the lookout for talents that would match their requirements, bring fresh outlook and be a good cultural fit in the company. With so many companies out there, all with their unique requirements and constraints, and so many students embodying distinctive sets of experience and quality, the whole process of finding a good fit is a bit overwhelming requiring sincere homework before the main event.
The preparation for the fair begins days in advance with the companies updating the job requirements on their career webpage and building their profile on the university’s career center platform. This will inform the students about their requirement criteria like educational qualifications, field of study, job type(internship/full time etc), job locations, and other constraints they might have. People who know the company well and are aware of the open positions find time to travel to the career fair and be the face of the company; someone students will be interacting with and will be looking up for their representation. Students begin to research about participating companies much in advance; their domain, culture and open positions. They brush up and sharpen their ultimate tool, their resume, sometimes with different variations for different job profiles they are interested in. As a student, a significant time is spent on practicing your impressive elevator pitch because there is only so much you can talk about your interests and skill sets in one minute. This whole set-up of career fair based on mutual responsibilities shared by recruiters and students have worked great in the past but not anymore since most of the time we fail catastrophically in doing our part of the deal. The situation has deteriorated to an extent where it is very common to see inadequate and uninformed representation from the company. Students undermine the importance of making a lasting impression in a timely manner and they tend to rely heavily on their resume instead of their in-person pitch.
An interaction in a career fair is essentially a polite greeting followed by a one-minute pitch by the student to impress the employer, and ending with answering any quick questions they might have. It is so so easy to lose track of time and there is so much to talk about; interesting background, cool projects, those hard earned A’s, ambitions and aspirations, et cetera. It is a shared responsibility of both the recruiter and the student to politely enforce the timing constraints, failing to which will make the interaction go off the rails and not being fruitful enough to make any kind of decision. More often than not, a recruiter will spend more time with a candidate without realizing the queue buildup which is quite annoying for the waiting students. It is a recruiter’s responsibility to be listening very carefully and ensure they get reasonable data points for that student without taking long. They are there to judge the students primarily by their first impression and they should stick to achieving that without drilling further unless absolutely necessary. Every touchpoint and words spoken in that two minute interaction should be weighed to evaluate a candidate for considering them for the next series of assessment rounds. Questions to ask yourself as a recruiter would be a) Did the student’s demeanor, their style align with the company culture and their people b) Were they able to succinctly describe a relevant project leaving you excited and asking for more and c) Did they express their interests with clarity to help to find a suitable role for them. If we don’t get to answer these in the two minute window, realize that it is absolutely fine to cut short the conversation and use the available information to decide further. It is very important in the end to happily thank the student for their interest in the company and wish him/her luck for the future.
As a student we can easily prepare our pitch in advance to checkmark all the recruiter’s generic questions but we often find ourselves in situations talking in detail about our novel projects and it’s unique and intriguing challenges that we overwhelm our listener and overshoot the time restriction. Truth be told, it’s not your fault, there is so much hard work that has fueled you to this stage in your career. To avoid being disrespectful, recruiters avoid interrupting the student which is misconstrued as extra interest in the student and keenness to know more on the spot. This might be the case sometimes but most likely it is safer to assume otherwise. It’s very hard sometimes to read the face of your listener in order to adjust your pitch accordingly. While most recruiters expect something similar, they are all unique people with different requirements. So the big question is, how do we get the best out of Career Fair as a student ?
I have come to realize it all starts with a friendly and joyous greeting. It’s no mystery that the day would be exhausting on everyone and thus taking a few seconds to greet cheerfully really sets everyone up in a good mood and gives an energy boost. It can be as easy as acknowledging the rough day, the hall full of people, asking about their experience so far, mentioning something unique about them or the company, et cetera. Then you should hand your recruiter a copy of your resume which they might use in anyway like taking pictures, highlighting skills to be considered later and jotting along as you are talking. After this you have a full sixty to ninety seconds to yourself to talk about whatever you feel is important to convey about your profile. Generally you want to mention all the following in the order a) your name, qualification and major you are pursuing b) what are you seeking in terms of job role and type(full-time/internship) c) a line or two on why you are interested in this field d) a project that would further corroborate your liking of the field and reflects hands-on experience and e) anything atypical you want to briefly mention like awards and recognitions, academic or extracurricular skills, community contribution, et cetera.
Our aim as a student is to help a recruiter recognize that we could be a good fit for a certain role within their company. Mentioning our educational qualification, current level of enrollment, job role and job type help the recruiter with the first level in filtering the open positions and also prepares them for what they will be expecting next from you. That is, what is it that drives you and satiates your passion for the field you are interested in. This is also clearly communicated with your project and allows your listener to get an understanding of your experience in that. What projects you choose to share is totally up to you. Some factors that could be considered while selecting a project to talk about could be a) is it a reflection of my true interest and experience b) is the intention of project sound and clear to me c) is it something that would excite my listener and make them curious about it and d) am I personally proud of it. If you are convinced of all these aspects and are able to succinctly communicate the same to your recruiter, they would be left impressed with your overall profile and it would be visible on their face. At this point, it would be great to pause, relax, take a deep breathe and let your recruiter drive the remaining aspects of the interaction. Though rare, if they are still showing interest for you to talk more, then you should totally seize this opportunity to mention your next best project or anything you like. In the end, it is recommended to express gratitude for their time and consideration and bid bye on a happy note.
Without a doubt, career fair is one heck of a day which you can remember as hours full of waiting in queue and awkwardly interacting with random people or feeling inspired by so many great companies and extremely talented peers out there. If nothing, it’s definitely a day for everyone to question themselves if they are on the right track in achieving their end goals.