Seemed like the most relevant thread. wanted to post some career fair advice
So I just went on my first recruiting trip at a career fair at VT. Being on the other side of things gave me a helpful perspective. I was just at these things on the other side a year earlier and I wish I would have known some things I know now.
1. Don't depend on your resume to talk for you- I met over 300 people. I got over 200 resumes. I fully read 0 resumes. They didn't send me on site to read resumes and sort through GPAs. Don't get me wrong, a strong resume is important, formatted well etc because when we hand off the resumes to HR they sort through the resumes before deciding who to call. But for it to get to HR in the first place you have to give us a reason to want to pass it along. Most importantly, if you have something you think would make you a good candidate for the job, or would generally set you apart and it is on your resume do not think it is redundant to bring it up. Because unless it is in 26 point font on the resume you're leaving it to chance when I skim through it whether or not I completely miss something that might have made me pass along the resume for the next round. Think about it on our end. As a group of 3 we spoke with 60 people per hour. That's literally one a minute. It is nothing personal. The volume of the event doesn't permit us to spend too much time with each individual resume. But if your pitch about yourself is good, and you seem like a good fit for the job, that was all that mattered to me. Most of the time I didn't even look at the GPA on the resume. There were 4.0's that we didn't advance, and sub 3's that we did (Again GPA is still very important because we pass these off to HR who proceeds to filter. But if you sounds like a great fit I even made a few notes when I saw the lower GPA on the resume along the lines of GPA may be low, but great (insert skill). Or highlight something that really impressed us on the resume.
2. Please don't ask what a company does- I think a lot of people go into these things with a quantity over quality approach and just play the odds game of hitting every stand. Maybe some would argue for this, but I don't think we passed along a single resume where the conversation started with 'so what does your company do.' Like I said, way too many people there for a few spots to seriously consider someone who can't even google search the company they are about to approach to know what industry they are in. We are a fortune 500 company, the first line of wikipedia will at least tell you what we do which should tell you whether or not you have any interest in it. I personally don't expect someone to come up and ask what the results on the 3rd quarter margins were after product X was rolled out. Just knowing some background information. I am a big proponent of "you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you" as far as a mutual fit goes, but "what do you guys do" is not an interviewing question. It shows you didn't take your approach seriously.
3. Conversational follow up questions, or questions about specific parts of the business are awesome- If you ask a followup question to something I mentioned, or want to know more about some specific product that a company offers I view that as a more serious candidate than someone who has pre-written questions such as "what is a typical day at your business like" that they ask every stand. A conversation is better than a script
4. A lot of people recruiting are not HR- Our stand had no HR. A lot of recruiters in booths near us I talked to were not HR. A lot of times it is early career employees who might have been in the roles that you are now applying for. Especially internships. This is your time to make the case for yourself if you have some red flags that won't get you passed online applications that go directly to HR with no interaction. If you have a lower GPA this is your time to sell how awesome you are at everything else. Because we are given guidelines of minimum requirements for a candidate, but I overrode quite a few yesterday because the person really impressed me in other areas.
5. Don't assume anything is irrelevant and play up things that show you as a leader or problem solver: While it shouldn't be your opening sentence, if you have "unrelated" items that show leadership or initiative they go a long way. Someone told me about a business he started when he was in high school. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember it impressed me enough to pass along his resume and make a note of it. Another girl told me about a non-profit unpaid internship she had. This internship had very little to do with the role she would be interviewing for. She kind of just slightly mentioned it and went in depth in other more traditional things until I asked her more about the internship. It was an organization that helped homeless people develop plans to get back on their feet, help them with resumes, finding jobs, looking for apartments, etc. I thought that was some cool shit. And our company is heavily involved in volunteering so I thought it would be a great culture fit. She had no relevant experience, but I starred the shit out of that resume. Don't assume stuff like that goes unnoticed.
6. You are interviewing us too, and you shouldn't want to work somewhere you hate- Here's the cliche I alluded to earlier, but really, this is about finding a mutual fit. I talked to one guy for 5 minutes. He was a great candidate. I passed his resume along. I told him I don't recommend he apply for anything. His interests were very much marketing. We were not hiring for marketing. I would have loved to have him interview for marketing because I think he would have been a great candidate, but I don't think he fit any of our other openings. I made a note on the resume that if a marketing role comes open to contact him. Sometimes it's just not the right place at the right time. If you don't feel like it would be a good role for you after talking about it, that's completely fine too. I personally would do it just for interviewing experience, but that's up to you. Questions about the company's culture, the amount of group work/individual work done all are things that can give you an idea of whether or not there's a fit.
There's other stuff, but those were the ones that stuck out the most. Other than that really it is just about selling yourself. If anyone has any specific questions I'd be happy to answer.
Oh and almost forgot: these were all my opinions. A different recruiter might think entirely opposite of me. Though I think some of these are pretty universal (no company wants to be asked what they do). But that's the beauty of a career fair. Different strokes, different folks. There is more than one way to land a job.