Virtual Life Sciences and Bioengineering Career Fair!

Hello all, and welcome to 2018!

As you’re gearing up for WPI’s Career Fair on February 15, you may be wondering where you could get more face time with employers. Your opportunity lies in the Virtual Life Sciences & Bioengineering Career Fair! This event is hosted through Brazen, and you have the opportunity to connect with employers by chatting on your laptop!

Much like an in-person career fair, you must register for the event (and make an account on Brazen – follow instructions on the link above). Add an updated resume, list your major and class year, and include your objective and any certifications you have in your profile. After registering, try out the tutorial to get more familiar with the look and feel of Brazen. When you enter the fair, you will be in the “lobby”. Here you will see wait times for chatting with the employers. You can get “in line” for an employer by clicking to Chat with their booth. When a representative is available, your chat will become active.

Your best strategy for this event is to prepare, prepare, prepare. Each chat is time-limited, so you want to have certain “drafts” of your elevator pitch and anecdotes about your experience in a document so you can easily copy-paste pieces into the chat. Another great strategy is to link your up-to-date LinkedIn profile when registering for the event so employers can see it. During the fair, be sure to also have your resume and LinkedIn open on your computer so you can quickly reference them.

Another part of preparation for this fair is applying to open postings that you may be interested in. Many of the employers for this year’s virtual fair have already posted positions on Handshake and/or their own company’s career pages. Applying to open positions before the fair not only makes you a more compelling candidate (you show you’re already willing to put in the work), but it also gives you more insight into the employer that will help you formulate insightful questions to ask the representative at the Virtual Fair. In addition, being familiar with open job postings will help you speak about your skills in terms of that posting (matching YOUR skills to the skills the EMPLOYER wants – a career development match that dreams are made of).

Best of luck as you take advantage of this opportunity!

Lauren

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