Before we jump into our topic for today’s post, let’s take a
brief moment to say congratulations to everyone who completed their internship
applications due on or around February 15th!
This mid-month deadline is common for summer internships,
and before you get ready for the next round of due dates (usually March 1st),
take a second to pat yourself on the back for taking conscientious steps
towards your career goals! (For everyone who hasn’t submitted an internship
application yet, either because they haven’t had any encroaching deadlines or
they haven’t started applying, good luck and keep going! Also, for everyone
who has finished all their applications and maybe even heard back about an
internship, give yourself an even bigger pat on the back.) Remember to
celebrate the little victories as much as the big ones!
Now that congratulations and best wishes have been dealt, we
can discuss the SciTech Fair. For those who came, you may have
seen me at the welcome booth swiping students’ ID cards from 1 to 2. Before
working for such an arduous hour, however, I had the opportunity to briefly
walk around the fair, chat with employers, and make some observations about the
day. Some of these observations, which involved a harmless dose of
eavesdropping, offer some key insights into what
employers are looking for at a career fair, particularly one aimed at STEM
students. Here are some of the more interesting observations I made:
Dress to impress – because you always leave an impression. It
was hard to find people at the fair who weren’t dressed in business attire, let
alone business casual (I counted maybe ten people in jeans). Even if the
employers are dressed casual, and the environment of the job you’re applying
for is casual, it’s important to look the part – that is, the part of a
motivated, ambitious, and interested job applicant. If nothing else, dressing
up shows employers how seriously you take this opportunity to speak with them
and how important you find the job/internship to which you are applying. Therefore,
this is one of those cases where you should go with the flow and dress as
nicely as your peers. Keep on being classy, Tufts.
Be assertive, but not arrogant. While I was walking around
Gantcher, I caught a few sentences here and there from conversations between
students and recruiters as well as recruiters and their colleagues. As I walked
by a pair of employers, I heard one of them turn to the other and offhandedly
mention that the last student he’d spoken with had “come on too strong.” As the
heading of this section suggests, it’s important to be confident and poised
when talking with a recruiter, but there’s a line to be towed between confidence
and arrogance. You want to treat employers (and people in general – sorry for
sounding like an after-school special, but it’s worth noting) with enough deference
to indicate that you are an ideal person to work with. Try practicing
your self-pitch to a friend and ask them to critique your presentation before
you try it out on a recruiter.
Don’t show up late... just don’t do it. The SciTech Fair ended
at 2, so I worked at the front table during the last hour of the event. For the
most part, the traffic began to slow down around 1:30, but I swiped in a
student at 1:50. Ten minutes to walk around the fair, find the employers he
wanted to talk to, and explain to them why he was a great candidate for the job
(despite already being out of breath at the welcome booth). I think we can all
agree that this student did not find a job that day. Not being
late is part of a bigger concept that this blog has touched upon many times:
preparation is the key to success. The most organized students I saw at the
fair came with portfolios of resumes and a detailed list of each company they
were looking to speak with. Model yourself after these students. Remember, be a
Leslie Knope, not a Jerry Gergich.
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| What you should aspire to. |
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| What you should avoid. |
A lot of these points (and more) are addressed in a great article from Vocation Village entitled "What Recruiters Wish You Knew About Career Fairs", a piece written by a recruiter-turned-career-counselor who has some great and perhaps unexpected insights about the do's and don't's for students at a career fair.
Overall, the day was a huge success, and the Career Center
excellently pulled off two career fairs targeted at widely different types of
students in one day. If you’re a freshman, sophomore, or junior, be sure to
check out the SciTech Fair or the Spring Job & Internship Fair next year to
take advantage of such a great opportunity!
Until next time,
Sean Boyden
Class of 2017
