Attending a Job Fair - What to Do and What to Expect
|
Over the past several years, attending job fairs has become almost a requirement if you want to find a job, especially if you are a recent graduate from college, even if it is a leading university. Although I graduated at the top of my class, with two graduate degrees, I still found it difficult to find my dream job - the job I had worked so hard in my university career to be qualified for. Now that I have finally found a job that will lead me along my desired career path, I can look back on my journey and appreciate the things that I learned along the way.
Be Prepared
One of the things I quickly learned is that my resume had to be complete and I had to have all of my background paperwork at hand when I attended a job fair. My background and field is social services. Even with two graduate degrees on my resume and a stellar academic background, what I discovered was that potential employers wanted to know my skill set immediately and for me to be able to demonstrate my knowledge immediately.
At my first job fair, I did not bring copies of all of my internship paperwork or copies of any of my leading papers. Quickly, I figured out that not only did I need to bring this paperwork, but also bring copies of all of my degrees and transcripts to the job fair with me.
Be Ready to Demonstrate Your Knowledge
Also, one of the things that surprised me was on-the-spot interviews that included practice vignettes and real life scenarios. In social services, often you have to be able to use your clinical skills while thinking on your feet in a crisis situation. Interviewers wanted to see if I could demonstrate this ability under stressful circumstances and would often give me an unexpected scenario to show them my clinical skills. Given that this is an area where my skill set shines, I was able to pass this type of challenge without much difficulty. However, I can also see where anyone who gets nervous in an interview would find it challenging. In order to prepare myself, I did practice interviews with friends who were also in my field.
Be Open to Alternatives
While my area of expertise has been working with troubled teens, I quickly discovered that many social services programs have suffered greatly as a result of the huge budget cuts that have occurred in the current economy. After attending several job fairs, I found that if I only focused on what I thought I wanted to do, then my options were few and far between. Once I was willing to look at other employment options, then I had more choices of places to apply and people to talk to and interview with for a potential position.
Ultimately, I discovered that I had more skills than I realized. I was offered a position as a mental health counselor for a private camp for troubled girls. While this is not what I envisioned myself doing, it is a good starting place and I am happy to be using not only the clinical skills I learned in school, but to also be discovering that I have more abilities than I realized. Although this is not the position I anticipate I will be in for the rest of my career, it is a good segue into gaining experiences that I will ultimately use later in my professional career. |
|
Author Resource:-
If you are a woman or an ethically diverse job seeker, you may want to consider attending a Diversity job fair such as NSHP's events in major cities.
|
By :
Edith Flamand
Submitted
2011-10-17 11:50:28 |
Article From Article Mayhem
 Ezine ready view |
|
|
|
Related Articles
|
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlemayhem.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlemayhem.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")