Speaker 1: I literally got my post-grad job from the career fair, so I'm a big fan of the career fairs. Hey, Radsters. Welcome back. Today I'm going to give you my top five tips for any kind of career fair that you would potentially be going to. Oftentimes these are used for juniors and seniors to find post-grad or internship opportunities, like no matter your age, like freshmen's a little early, but sophomores you can go to and kind of get that head start within recruiting. For background, I'm a senior at the University of Michigan studying psychology. Kind of just like wanted to do like the corporate route instead of like I don't know whatever you do with psych or it doesn't really matter. Like kind of navigated this all in the beginning of this year in October during that career fair and just like learned a lot from going to a ton of recruiting events and just want to share with you guys. Before you start anything with like going to career fairs in person, you need to beef up that resume. No matter if you have a ton of experiences or not very many, like, get that resume all sorted out. I will link it in the description below, kind of like the outline and template that I use. The University of Michigan, at least, I'm sure other schools have it as well, have various career development offices and centers that you can go to. The University Career Center is a good one. They have like one-on-one sessions as well as group resume work sessions. There's the LSA opportunity hub for LSA students. Ross has the career development office or something. SI has it. Engineering has it. Like every school will have some kind of resume review workshop and so I highly recommend bringing in your resume to like one of the coaches and getting it looked over in order to make sure that like you have the best opportunity to like get it making it past the initial screening. If you're in any sort of like professional clubs or you have a friend that's like an upperclassman or whatever, just ask people to review your resume. It doesn't take very long, it's fairly simple to do, but making sure that that's like all nice and ready to go is great. Okay so that's pre-career fair. Next up we're gonna go approaching career fair and like kind of more towards the career fair day. So what you're gonna do is find like a mini game plan. So they will release the companies that you that are coming as well as like the types of roles that are available. So I always like wrote down each day, sometimes over multiple days, multiple hours, and just do like the top companies I for sure want to talk to, and then everyone else is like, bonus. But make sure you have like at least five companies in mind, you're like, I need to hit these people. And when you're at the career fair, you want to warm up with some of like the smaller companies that you're like not really interested in, just go and talk to them like have a conversation like say you're interested and whatnot. But don't start off with like your number one goal company in the beginning just because like you need some warm up. So I like to do like just smaller companies I don't really know about, then into the companies that I wrote down and I listed out and I was like, I really like you. And then I finished off with like whoever's left if they looked interesting. So kind of formulate a game plan before you go in. So you kind of have like your resume, you have a pre game plan. So now you're gonna like get this stuff to prepare for. So I personally am so happy that I bought this padfolio folder. And so here are notes, and then this has like pockets for whatever papers that I amass, as well as a space for my paper resume and pens and pencils. So I highly, highly recommend bringing one of these. You look really good carrying it around. Super easy to open it up, and I just like took a bunch of notes, wrote down recruiter's names and emails, whipped out my resume, and it like went really well for me. I got this from Amazon. I am obsessed with it. So get yourself a padfolio. And then also get some business clothes. And so here's my favorite blazer, this is the only blazer I have as well. And then my favorite shirt from J.Crew Factory. So some of my favorite places that I like to get my business casual wear is from J.Crew Factory because J.Crew is very expensive but the factory is super cheap and you get a discount with your student ID. I like Express. Express has really good deals and really great sales, everything else is expensive. Nordstrom Rack is also pretty good. So those are like my top three places. I know the University of Michigan has the clothes closet where you can actually go in and pick out three different pieces of business casual wear, make an appointment through the University Career Center. It can get expensive, but I think if you really just get a pair of black pants, a blouse, like one of these, and then a blazer, you should be good. Shoes are always an issue for me, but I usually just wear a pair of clean, white tennis shoes just to make it look a little bit more casual. When you're preparing, just make sure that you have your padfolio and you have like a nice business casual outfit that you feel very confident in. So we've prepared up to the career fair and now the day of the career fair. I know what people say to like do an elevator pitch and be like, hey, I'm Maddie, I'm a senior at the University of Michigan. I'm really interested in a marketing role, which is okay. Like it's not a terrible way to approach a career fair, but what I've done and what's worked out really, really well for me has been just talking to the recruiter like a normal person. Started off with a compliment, like, oh my God, Like I love your hair, how'd you do it? And so one time I like talked to this recruiter for like a long time about how she curled her hair. And then they like really like that because they're having the same conversation with a ton of kids about the same thing. And so if you can like say something unique or just like start a normal conversation with these people, I personally think it makes me stand out. And when I've gone back to such recruiting events, they like remember who I am. Like one time I went up to this one company and I was like, oh my God, like, does your company sponsor this concert venue? I went to a concert there over the summer and it was just like the best concert of my life. And they're like, yeah, like that's us. And we started talking about concerts and then the recruiter really liked me. And he's like, yeah, you have an interview on Monday. And so like, that was really cool. I don't think you have to worry that much about the elevator pitch, cause that'll eventually come up. And then you have your conversation. They'll probably give you some promo materials and information. And then you can just say like, thank you. Make sure you grab their email too. You're done with the career fair. You probably have like a huge stack of folders and papers and pamphlets, and you're gonna go home, take all their business cards, every single email that you have, and write a follow-up email. My name is Maddie, I'm a senior at the University of Michigan. We met at the career fair and spoke about this marketing internship position. I am super excited for it, I just submitted my application, or whatever, or just say like I really enjoyed our conversation, really looking forward to the rest of the recruiting process. So like, do those follow-up emails so then they'll remember you. ask if there's any other upcoming events or any other deadlines that you should be aware of or any other questions that you have. And so by sending those follow-up emails, I also do connect with them on LinkedIn too. So I do the follow-up email, I do the LinkedIn. It'll just like help them remember you, so I'll do that, and then you have their contact information in the event that you have a question or they need to reach out back to you. Side note, this is why like career fairs are awesome. You get so much free stuff, okay? Here's my bag of free stuff. I got a hat, another hat, this hat, all of these hats too, a straw, like a portable charger. From P&G I literally got Tide Pods, a bottle opener, pizza cutter, which was awesome. I got a Hydro Flask, I got a Yeti cup. This unfolds into a backpack, or like a cooler fanny pack. So you just get like a bunch of free stuff and it's so awesome. So that's also why career fairs are the best. I don't know, I hope this was helpful. career fairs take a lot of getting used to. If you rush a sorority, it is very, very similar to rush. But really, my biggest tip is to just like talk to the recruiter like they're a normal person. The firm that I found and I'm going to post grad, I just was like, Hey, like I really love the colors of your table. Like this just looks really cool. Like that was my intro sentence. And then I just talked to the recruiter for a really long time and she got to know me and then like was like, Hey, you should really apply for this role. And there we go. So, just try to have those personal connections, personal conversations, and it's really, it's kind of fun. You know, you just like talk, you get the free stuff, and I like it. I hope this was helpful, let me know if you guys have any other questions, and good luck at the career fairs. Bye Medsters.