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January 28, 2008

Rose-Hulman offers opportunities for students to prepare for job fairs

The familiar adage “Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail” could be used to describe Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students and other college jobseekers preparing to participate in career/job fairs in the home stretch of the recruitment season for full-time, summer internship or co-op work positions.

Devin Cook, a 2007 Rose-Hulman graduate, says that lessons learned before attending his first job fair on campus helped him land his first job at Valdes Engineering near Chicago.

He participated in job fair training workshops offered by Rose-Hulman’s Office of Career Services before attending his first fair.

“They taught us how to sell ourselves, how to write attractive resumes and how to dress,” Cook recently told The Chicago Tribune for a story published in the newspaper’s Jobs Section.

Before attending the engineering job fair in 2006 that would lead to his job, the civil engineering alumnus took this one step further. He researched the companies that were going to be at the fair, narrowed his choices and wrote constructive questions to ask recruiters. And, he asked some engineers to critique his resume.

The result: After the fair, Cook secured five interviews, then landed his current job as a structural engineer. Cook was way ahead of the crowd, says Kevin Hewerdine, director of Rose-Hulman’s Office of Career Services and Employer Relations. A veteran in the college career services field, Hewerdine has seen it all — from well-prepared job seekers, like Cook, to those who read from their own resumes during impromptu job fair interviews.

“Just like acing an exam, preparation, preparation and more preparation is the key to making the job fair work for you,” Hewerdine says. “For the same reasons that job fairs are the number-one resource companies use to hire college graduates, interns and co-ops, students want the personal, face-to-face interaction that fairs give. Job fairs offer a sense of real and quality opportunities available to students and helps reinforce for many students the reasons they work so hard in college.”

The Office of Career Services offers workshops throughout the year to get students prepared to take advantage of career fair opportunities, and improve job interview skills, resumes and cover letters. Staff members also assist in conducting practice interviews.

Hewerdine offers the following tips to persons wanting to take advantage of career/job fairs:

• Appearance is important: Brush off your best suit, slacks or dress and prepare to look as good in person as you do on paper. Career fairs are professional events and even if company representatives are wearing jeans, it doesn’t mean you should wear them. Pay attention to grooming, hygiene and your attire. Always dress for success to impress and error on the side of being conservative if you are uncertain. First impressions can make you or break you.

• Take plenty of resumes: Plan on visiting a lot of company information booths. You will be handing out a lot of resumes and you don’t want to run out. You may even want to consider having a couple of copies of your academic transcript with you, just in case. If your number-one company is very interested in your coursework, having your transcript to share with them may be helpful.

• Do your company research: Lists of companies coming to career fairs are available on Web sites, along with company profiles. You can sort the list by major and then look to see what types of positions they are hiring for at this time. Make some quick notes for yourself about each company and review them before approaching their table at the fair.

• Know what you want: Are you looking for an internship or full-time work? Make sure you know and they know, too. Practice your introduction and let the company know exactly what you are hoping to find with the job/internship. It is also helpful to review your career so that you can easily tell what skills and abilities you bring to the company.

• Have a top 10 list: Make a list of the top 10 companies you want to visit at the fair. Start with the bottom of the list and work your way to the top so that by the time you visit your top choice, you will have your sales pitch down to perfection.

• Prepare questions to ask recruiters: It will be your responsibility to keep the conversation going with a company representative. Recruiters may have some basic questions to ask you, but you need to be prepared to ask them questions as well. Ask about their programs, their training and opportunities at different facilities. Your questions indicate your level of interest in them.

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