All Careers Considered: Finding Information about Employers (+ Why You Need To!)

Or let’s actually do our research.

Howdy Neighbor, 🤠
It’s time for the ACC show notes again. In this episode, we talked about:

  • Why it’s important to do some fact-finding about organizations that are going to be at a career fair before you get to the fair
  • What to know about an organization before you go
  • And then I gave you some gold-star preparation tips as a treat for listening all the way through.

To summarize, just over half of the employers who came to the Fall 2018 Career Fair reported to the Walter Center for Career Achievement that students were not adequately knowledgeable about their organization when they came to talk to the recruiters at the fair. Students who don’t know much about the companies they’re talking to rarely move on to an interview or an offer of an internship or full-time job.

So, what should you know before you go? The basics:

  • What an organization does
  • Where it’s located
  • If the organization has appeared in the news lately, and what that news said
  • What some of the organization’s core values? What is its mission? What is its vision?
  • What positions might they be hiring for? (Look on the org website, not just The Fairs App)
  • What do YOU actually, really LIKE about the organization? Why does what they do interest you, personally? (“I just need a job/internship” isn’t what recruiters care to hear.)

⭐ Gold star tip: 

Employers are deciding who they want to talk to before the career fair starts. Go-getters who seek them out before the fair have more opportunities to ask questions, and are more likely to get interviews.

  • Find out about & attend on-campus info sessions or table talks that the organization is hosting BEFORE the career fair
  • Check out the informal networking night the Walter Center hosts the evening before the career fair

Get your reading on:

By Maureen Langley
Maureen Langley Designer & Marketing Coordinator Maureen Langley
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