Letter To The Editor
Here are some Spring Career Fair tips
- Attend one of our many events at the Center for Career and Professional Development to help you prepare for the Career Fair:
- Sophomore Career Experience: Searching for Professional Away Experiences | Wednesday 1/30 | 4pm or 7pm | DCC 324
- Career Fair Preparation | Thursday 1/31 | 6pm | LOW 3130
- Graduate Student Career Development: Career Fair Preparation | Monday 2/4 | 5pm | CCPD
- Freshman Career Compass: Career Fair Preparation | Monday 2/4 | 5:30pm | DCC 337
- If you haven’t been able to get your résumé critiqued, use our Career Development Guide for résumé examples. Remember, one page, 10-12 sized font, a ½ inch can be your smallest margins. You can also leave high school information on until the end of sophomore year. Stop in to any of our walk-ins, programs or Resumania’s for specific questions!
- Upload your résumé to JobLink for employers to see and apply for On-Campus Recruiting and Open Job Postings. Some OCR deadlines are before the Career Fair.
- RSVP and see the full list of attendees for the CCPD Career Fair on Wednesday, February 6 through your JobLink account. Download the Career Fair+ app to see all of the most up to date information the day of the Career Fair.
- Practice your pitch: include your name, major, class year, the opportunities you’re interested in, and a little bit about you.
- Dress for success – please come dressed as professionally as you can! We will have a separate area available for book bags, coats and snow boots to store that day. If you need to borrow an item, stop by the CCPD to use our clothes closet.
- Get a business card! Follow up to thank them for their time, remind them of your conversation, if you have applied to anything, and attach your résumé. If they don’t have a card, write down their name to connect with them on LinkedIn afterwards. The note you send when you request to connect should be the same information you would include in an email.
- Speak to everyone you want to, even if they don’t indicate they are here for your major. If you have an interest in them, show it!
- But what about Arch? This is a great opportunity to meet employers face to face to find out when they recruit! Asking specific information about their timelines and if they tend to have semester only positions and co-op positions available will be helpful in your follow up. Some positions that require a security clearance may take up to a year to process and large investment banks’ summer internship applications could close the fall prior, so networking and starting early is key. By meeting employers now, you have a contact at that company to reach out to when you apply to their positions. While the CCPD has notified employers and shared program details about Arch on many occasions, the recruiters who attend may not have been informed on the specifics about it. Share a bit about the program – the fact that you will have completed at least your first semester of junior level classes by the time you are pursuing your away semester and are able to work during the fall or spring.