Association for Women in Science Virtual Career Fair
By Antonia Kaz
On August 24th, the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) held its summer virtual career fair for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals and students. The event was an excellent resource for first-time job seekers or individuals interested in new or alternate opportunities for career advancement. If you missed the event, you’re in luck! The AWIS is planning to host a Winter 2024 Virtual Career Fair, and below are some tips to prepare you for the next event.
What is the AWIS?
The AWIS is a non-profit organization that provides resources for professional development, recognition, and global networking. The organization stemmed from a series of champagne brunches among informal women’s caucuses during the Women’s Rights Movement, and, shortly after its founding, took part in lawsuits of gender and race discrimination against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the early 1970s. The AWIS continued to make headlines on a national and international scale throughout the late 20th century and is currently the leading organization advocating on behalf of women in STEM.
What is the AWIS science career fair? And how does it work?
The AWIS website features a diverse range of events and resources. One of their most popular events is the science career fair, a networking event for job seekers. The Summer career fair, held on a virtual platform, hosted representatives from seven companies involved in the pharmaceutical industry, nuclear and electric energy, aerospace, and defense and security. During the three-hour networking event, all attendees had access to a “lobby” filled with virtual company booths where they could learn about and communicate with different representatives. Attendees were required to provide contact information, educational background, a resume, and LinkedIn profile while making an account. Additionally, it was recommended to use an advanced search tool to find specific jobs related to an attendee’s field of work.
August 2023 career fair lobby: Virtual booths of each company were available for attendees to enter and engage in chat conversations with representatives
What should I know for the next event?
Tip #1: Join the queue to speak with a representative early
While three hours may seem like ample time, you want to ensure that you have enough time to communicate with the representatives who are in high demand by getting in line early. During the last hour of the event, the wait time for a major pharmaceutical company like AstraZeneca was over an hour, prompting representatives to send out an online form to continue communication after the event.
The virtual booths, such as AstraZeneca’s here, provided tabs with information about the company, job opportunities, representatives present, designated to networking with other attendees, and more!
Tip #2: Use the discussion tabs as a networking opportunity with other attendees
The discussion tab is a great way to make use of the downtime between chats with representatives. Here, attendees provided short paragraphs with their education, relevant skills, and contact information or a LinkedIn profile. You may consider preparing a similar paragraph with your background information to add to the discussion tabs of one or more companies. Doing this before the event can save more time for networking with recruiters. Plus, you will have more time to read through other attendee’s posts in the discussion tab before chatting with a representative. Many attendees invited others to reach out on LinkedIn as well, so be sure to connect with individuals who share your interests to have one-on-one conversations with other attendees after the event.
Tip #3: Treat this as a first-round interview or a way to see what jobs are in demand
Talent acquisition team leaders and partners, recruiters, outreach associates, program assistants, and human resources coordinators were among the representatives from each company who were available to chat during the event. For job seekers, this is an excellent opportunity to make a good first impression with potential employers. Make sure to practice your elevator pitch before entering a chat! If you are currently seeking a new job, consider preparing questions for the representatives to get a feel for what the company is looking for in terms of skills and personality.
You may find these tips helpful or applicable to other virtual career fairs and networking platforms. For example, I frequently use a brief introductory message when networking on LinkedIn. While searching for a job or company, I often find profiles of people holding positions at a company that may be of interest to me. Inserting a semi-personalized introductory message containing your background information makes the connection request more personable. Here is a simplified template that you may consider using “Hi, [insert individual’s name]! I am a [insert year] graduate student in the [insert graduate program] interested in pursuing an industry position in [insert position] after graduation. Your position at [insert company] is of particular interest to me. It would be great to connect!” In my experience, most people are willing to connect.
For more information about the next career fair event, check out the iJOBS newsletter or the AWIS website before the end of the year. You may find additional AWIS events of interest on their events calendar.
Edited by: Natalie Losada (Senior Editor), Shawn Rumrill (Senior Editor)