Bullseye’s Blog

Come next May I’ll be finally leaving the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Computer Science and heading out into the “real world”.  This means I need a job, so beginning last September I made it my mission to find a good one.  Advance 3 months later, I’ve done 7 on-campus interviews, 6 on-site interviews, gotten 4 job offers, and finally accepted a position with Jump Trading in Chicago.

There are plenty of places providing good advice on what to do when you’re in an interview, but not too much on actually getting invited for interviews in the first place. Hopefully the advice below can help fill in the gaps.

Kick Ass at Career Fairs

Up until a year ago, I took the on-campus career fairs at UIUC for granted.  Then I studied abroad for a year in London and I realized these events are gold, because it’s really difficult to find a job when all you can do is email resumes.  In comparison to that experience, getting interviews out of a career fair (at least at a school that is recognized as good in CS) is like shooting fish in a barrel.

1. Research Companies
   Find the list of employers who will be at the fair and who are hiring CS grads, visit their websites and make your own list of companies you want to chat with.  Learn something about what each company does, and note what in your past experience (in industry or in class) is most closely related.

2. Customize Resumes
   You should hopefully already have a default resume – but you should customize that to each company on your list to visit.  For each company modify your “objective” (or purpose, etc) section to specifically mention at least the following:
   1. Whether you are looking for a full-time position, an internship or a co-op position
   2. The name of the position you are applying for (don’t just say “software engineer”, look on their website)
   3. The name of the company you are applying to
   4. A rough time-frame of when you’re looking to start

   For example, my Microsoft resume read something like “Seeking a full-time position as a Software Development Engineer with Microsoft beginning Summer 2009″.  This accomplishes two goals – firstly, the recruiter is going to have to ask people for this information all day long, so they will appreciate you providing it up front.  Secondly and more importantly, it shows you aren’t just carpet-bombing the career fair with your resumes, you already know something about the company and specifically wanted to speak with them.  The majority of recruiters I talked with specifically mentioned they liked that I had targeted my resume to them.

   It’s also a good idea to bring a couple generic resumes with you in case you end up talking to a company you hadn’t planned on visiting.

3. Dress Smart
   I don’t think you need to wear a suit to a career fair or an interview (at least not for software jobs) – I don’t even own a suit.  That said, I think it’s to your detriment to waltz in with jeans and a t-shirt.  Interview attire seems to be a hotly debated topic, but personally I wear business casual and I think it makes a better impression.

4. Bring a Schedule
   If you’re doing well, you should be able to get a couple of on-campus interviews the day or two after the fair.  From personal experience, if you don’t bring your schedule you’ll start getting confused about when you can and can’t schedule interviews, so plan ahead and write down when you’re free.

5. Approach in Order of Importance
   No matter how much you’ve prepared, it can still be a little daunting to approach companies at a career fair.  It’s better that you save your dream companies for last, and approach other companies first to work off your nerves and get a feel for what you’re doing.  Failure is a part of life, including the job hunting part, so take it in stride and move on.

6. Control the Conversation
   With the prep work out of the way, you just need to execute.  Here’s how I think a good conversation should go:
   1. Walk up, introduce yourself, give a firm handshake.
   2. The recruiter may ask how much you know about the company, here’s where the research you did beforehand comes in handy.  Let them know you’ve got the basic idea, and then ask them one or two intelligent questions to show your interest and get some more specific information.
   3. Hand them the custom resume (don’t give them the wrong one!), point out what you think is most relevant, and discuss!
   4. Don’t run away too early – wait until you are either offered an interview, they elaborate on what you should do to be considered (submit online, etc), or they thank you for stopping by.
7. Don’t Forget to Follow Up
   Some companies have a special process for arranging on-campus interviews, for example many companies that come to UIUC use our online system to accept resumes and do interview sign-ups.  If a company mentions you have to do some extra steps to be considered, get them written down and do them ASAP.

If you follow these steps (or your own version of them), you should stand a good chance of getting interviews.  In my experience many people go to career fairs unprepared and don’t do very well, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you take a couple hours beforehand and do some preparation.