Science career job fair: It's a networking affair

On Tuesday April 21^st 2015, iJOBS and BioNJ sponsored the Life Sciences Talent Network Career Fair at Rutgers University, Piscataway. More than 30 companies were represented and I was there, early in the morning. It was my first attendance to a job fair ever! I was more excited than nervous. This was the opportunity to really make sure I connected with people and companies that I am interested in, and to make sure that my resume ended up in their hands. Call me old fashioned, but sometimes applying or sending my resume online makes me feel unsure about whether it was read or received. Overall, participating on this event was a great networking experience for me. I talked to all the companies I was interested in such as Actavis and Novartis. Within the next day I was sending emails to some of these companies with my resume. I even applied to open positions and as a result I got two screening phone interviews. This shows that when you go out there and promote yourself to the right group of people, things will start to happen. Here are few tips on how I prepared myself for this career job fair. I hope these tips will help you to make the most out of the experience if you ever find yourself going to one of them. Tip #1, before attending any career job fair, look up each company and find what they are about, whether your expertise could be a fit for their goals or whether they have any positions open at the time. It will help you to develop a strategy when introducing yourself to each of the companies. Tip#2, make a list and order the companies according to your priorities and interests. This will help you to focus and organize the time you spend with each of them. However, if there are any big name companies, I would advise to stop at their table or booth first to avoid big lines and frustration. Tip#3, try to arrive early to the event. Ten or fifteen minutes should give you plenty time to settle your nerves down and to find how companies are arranged across the room. This is a great advantage because you will be there ahead of everybody else. You might have more time to talk to representatives from the different companies, and they might give you more of their attention. Remember, you are competing with the person next to you. One thing I did was to drive to find the place the weekend before, just to make sure that I knew where I was going to go the day of the event, and it did help me. Tip#4, bring more than enough copies of your resume and of your business cards, trust me when I say they are going to go flying. When you give away your resume, offer your business card as well. Remember to ask for a business card in return, you are going to need it. Tip#5, make sure to follow up with the companies representatives that asked for your resume. If there is any open position that you might be interested in applying to, do so within the following days while their memory of you and the fair still fresh in their minds. Make sure to mention about your conversation with the company’s representative at the career job fair in your cover letter. This could make your letter stand out more. Lastly, don’t give up if you don’t hear from any of them. It is a tough market out there nowadays but if you just keep sending out your resume and reaching out to people, making it part of your daily routine, it will work out eventually.