Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a nice winter break, both relaxing and productive. As we’re fast approaching the second career fair of the year on Feb 14th, I wanted to provide some hints on how to manage job hunt. The career fair makes life easier for all WPI students that are looking for jobs, but you need to know how to attack it. Here are some useful tips:

http://comerecommended.com/blog/2011/09/26/7-tips-for-career-fairs-whether-you%E2%80%99re-actively-seeking-employment-or-not/

http://www.career.gatech.edu/plugins/content/index.php?id=14

First of all, log onto your JobFinder. Every student at WPI has a JobFinder and for the first log in your username is your WPI student ID number and your password is the first 4 digits of your student ID plus your birth month and day.

Example: student ID# 333444555   Birthday Feb 14, 1990  Password=33340214

Once you’re on JobFinder, check out the companies that are attending the ‘2013 Summer Career Fair’ which is actually Feb 14th. You can also do an advanced search to see the posts that specifically list your major.

2- Research the companies that interest you. Look for the company values, mission, industry, products. Know the positions that fit what you’re looking for. Get ready to answer a couple easy questions about yourself or the company if you’re on the spot at the career fair.

3- Use the business cards database at CDC! Most students don’t really know about this resource, but it’s very helpful. There is a computer located at CDC lobby. It has a database for the business cards of all employees that scanned their cards for CDC when they attended career fairs or interviews. You can especially contact WPI alumni and ask them for a little insight about the company.

4- Prepare an elevator pitch. This should be a 2-3 sentence intro that you use to introduce yourself to employers at the career fair. It should be something that is like. ‘Hello my name is ___ ____ . I am studying ___ ___ and I am a senior. I am interested in your company because ……… I recently completed such and such class / training / internship and I could utilize the ….. skills I obtained from this experience at a …. position in ….. company.’ Then you ask a follow-up question like ‘Can you please give me more info about …… position?’ to start a conversation.

http://georgiatechdopp.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/top-10-career-fair-tips/

5- Select some ‘experiment’ companies where you can stop by and practice your conversation skills before you go to the companies that you are highly interested in. You don’t want to directly go to the company you love and lose an opportunity just because you stumbled with your talking.

6- Always get a business card from each table you stop by and send the employers thank you emails either the evening of the same day or the next morning.

7- Don’t forget to bring enough copies of your resume to drop at the tables you stop by.

 Don’t worry, if you’re dedicated and do your work, there is no reason why you wouldn’t get a job you want! Good luck and a have a great C-term!

Evy  😉