The amount of disappointed job seekers would fill up half the little American hamlet I live in, 900+.

The second thing to note is that Shea replied to every applicant, something jobs seekers are highly critical of these days – lack of employer follow-up. After all, it’s a lot of hard work to target and construct a great résumé and cover letter and send it out. It could take hours of work. He didn’t miss this important step in recruitment best practices – not to mention professional etiquette, business correspondence deserves acknowledgement. Heaven forbid it didn’t arrive OK to the inbox.

He gets a big gold star.

How about reading 900+ résumés? How long would that take? To put it in perspective, the standard two page version would require about four reams of paper. Not to mention the occasional cover letter that should have made it but in too many cases likely didn’t. I’m going with six reams of paper. That’s more than 1/3 of a tree (had he printed them all out – I’m taking an educated guess that he did not).  That’s bothersome to me because so many of those résumés would be completely unqualified and a waste. Not a waste of paper, because I just said I’m SURE he didn’t print them all out – a waste of time. A lot of time. A lotta lotta time. Theirs and his.

He gets another big gold star for reading 900+ résumés for one job and not going crazy. Or did he?

The typical candidate rejection letter goes something like this:

Thank you for your interest in the Writer position you applied to. Though you had many of the skills and qualifications required for the job, you were not selected. Please note, your résumé will be kept on file and should a position become available for which you are a potential match you will be contacted.

But not Shea’s rejection letter. All those hours of pile A, pile B and pile C (for circular) – clearly he saw some trends going on. Why not compile them and educate the masses? Shea’s 3,000 word 42 point candidate rejection letter, outed here to Gawker by a whiner (we just had a discussion about whiners here if you missed it, or need to read it again) though apparently highly unappreciated by some, did just that.

Gawker writer Emma Carmichael helped set the tone for negative feedback by titling her post “42 DOs AND DON’TS FROM A DICK.” Excuse me, did she say a dick? I see it as free AWESOME coaching he could have charged some big bucks for and made enough money to go on a much deserved vacation after all that hoopla.

Shea retorted in a post on Salon and recounted what inspired him to send the lengthy rejection letter and the absolutely vile things said to and about him in comments, as well as the replies he received thanking him for such good and honest candidate feedback.

By the way, it’s a really good example of ‘we are the media’ when an email makes it to an online digital rag who posts it for the world to see… Don’t want what you write to reach the world’s eyeballs? Have a face to face conversation in a public place after patting down the other person for a wire, pen recorder or other spy paraphernalia, otherwise you simply cannot be sure it won’t happen.

Though the advice Shea gave in his email was directed at candidates for the particular job they applied to, the advice is golden and valid for anyone applying to any job. Need the link again to read it?

I have helped candidates, coached them when I didn’t have time, sent them resources to help them, even reformatted more than a few résumés in my time. But I have never taken the time to provide this level of acute care.

Shea gets a third gold star.

What are your thoughts on his advice? Is it as brutal as some made it out to be or is it simply brutally honest good advice? 

After all, sometimes we all need help getting out of our rut. Know that if the current way you are searching for a job isn’t yielding the results you expect, it’s time to change your strategy. If your job search consists mainly of scouring the big job boards and registering on your state’s one-stop-shop website, know that there is so much more you can do to improve the odds of getting off unemployment or into your first professional gig post graduation.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein

Here is the 10 step strategic job search plan I discuss when I go out to talk to college students, job clubs and with individuals I coach on their job search.

1. Identify the position you seek (be realistic or this will just be a futile exercise in fantasy and frustration). You may be open to or skilled in multiple jobs but pick the one you are most qualified for and most would like to be employed in.
2. Pull up your resumé on the screen and tailor it to this position. Mentally assume the position you have selected and review your resume to see that the professional you are in that role is talking. It must look, smell and feel like it’s you, the Forensic Accountant, Account Executive, HR Coordinator etc. in charge and talking. Note that most people simply do not do justice to their own resumé. If you cannot hire a professional resumé writer then at least go to book store to the business books section and find something like Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer by Susan Whitcomb. And don’t stop there… by all means have a couple of friends who who are managers and hire people (doesn’t have to be in your field) review, proof read and critique it for you. Remember, opinions are like #$$&()^!@ - literally everyone has one – just make an informed decision based on the critiquing and edit accordingly. The last two letters in resumé are ME so don’t be a template be you.
3. Think about 10 companies you would really like to work for – not 10 companies you ‘would’ work for if a carrot were dangled in front of your face. If you don’t know 10 companies that hire people to do what you do then you have a huge area of opportunity for research, and you will have increased your competitive  industry knowledge significantly – only to your benefit. Search on Google, LinkedIn, Hoovers if you have a subscription, etc. Check out this short instructional video for tips on How to Research Companies Online- Power Prospecting with Google Search. Yes, it is geared toward client prospecting for sales… I’m certain you can figure out how to adjust to your needs as a job seeker. You’re prospecting too!
4. Start a shareable spreadsheet (I love Google docs). The first tab is the summary sheet with the 10 companies on it. Then create a tab for each company. On each company sheet plot the following across the header row fields: company, contact 1, contact 2, contact 3, date resume sent, date response received, date of interview, next step, notes. Customize as you see fit but the idea is to chart a process and be deliberate not hari-kari, shot in the dark or random hit and miss.
5. Contact a few people you admire professionally and who are good networkers you think could help you with intelligence on or connections into these companies. Share the spreadsheet with them and give them access to edit it. In the email to send them the link, attach your resumé, let them know how much you admire their careers and value their expertise and assistance and you are asking that they be part of your personal advisory board during your job search. Ask that they help you fill out the contact information in the spreadsheet and make introductions for you via LinkedIn, email, phone, coffee, however they can. Ask them for their ideas on how you can network into these companies. Ask if they know of other companies who could use your talent. Research their suggestions and if you like them, add them to your spreadsheet.
6. Spend 2 hours Monday – Friday (except holidays) researching, networking, connecting, and charting your progress daily on the spreadsheet until you A) Get a job or B) Exhaust all options with your advisory board and the companies. That means until you receive a rejection from each company and rule it out. Don’t delete the row, highlight it in red and sort the row to the bottom of the list. Spend the rest of the day volunteering and taking care of and being good to yourself/family.
7. Keep 10 companies on the list at all times. When one is ruled out research others to replace it. This way, you’ll never run out of options until you get a job but never have more on the list than you can focus on. It’s strategic, it’s a plan. It’s doable.
8. Send a weekly progress summary in an email to your personal advisory board with the link to the spreadsheet and ask them to review your work and make suggestions. Doing this each week without fail (except if you are in a coma) keeps you and your advisory board committed. If your advisory board members all know one another then send a group email and revel in the groupthink that begins to take place. If not, ask for permission to make the introductions to one another. The advisory board members can get a lot out of this too!
9. Be gracious to your advisory board members, thanking them profusely for their time and energy and be patient and kind to yourself as your network grows and you begin to get more interviews and chart progress in your job search. No more blindly surfing job boards, just calculated actionable and measurable steps to success…
10.  Get your job and then spend time teaching this method to others. Forward this post to other job seekers, get your personal advisory board to do a panel presentation with you at a job fair or job club, blog about your own job search and what worked and what didn’t – to help others. Be a personal advisory board member for someone else, the way others did for you.

P.S. I didn’t post about HOW you should network -you have to do what works for you. I suggest a combination of in-person and on-line networking – neither exclusive of the other. That means LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, online communities, professional mixers, job clubs, association meetings, professional community events where you live. You know, stuff like that.

Think of the marketing campaigns companies use for the brands you know and love to make them stick in your mind, for you to grow an affinity for and loyalty toward. You wouldn’t think of eating another type of cereal or wearing a different brand of athletic footwear, right? When that same thought process is adapted by a job seeker, unique key identifiers are established as a recognizable personal brand tied to you and you alone.

Your personal brand becomes marketable in the same realm and dimension as other services and products through a scaled and streamlined branded personal marketing campaign. What you offer and who you are become linked to your brand and your name – exactly what you should strive for in your job search. To think of it in algebraic terms, employers look for a specific type of individual (X) to fill a specific need. X = U.

Becoming known by friends, family, co-workers, peers, professors, social networking contacts and recruiters as X is what personal branding for the job search is all about. Have confidence in your talent and create, live and market your personal brand to make your professional dreams come true.

Most fall into the third category – Most likely that means you.

Feel comfort in knowing you’re not alone and remember, there is no such thing as being overly prepared. Roll playing with someone by phone and in person is  indispensable, however there are also several other steps you can take to improve your interview performance and lessen your nerves.

Start by recognizing that some level of nerves is normal if you are taking this potentially life changing event seriously… it depends on your level of interview experience, self-confidence, how aligned you are with the job description and employer expectations, what’s going on in your life at the moment… the variables are endless here.

Depending on how much interview experience the interviewers has, she could be could be as nervous as you are. This happens often with smaller companies that direct hire without a recruiter on staff or with a new hiring manager. I have trained and coached interview techniques to many managers and a lot of them are nervous. Remember, they need to hire the right person. A lot of companies look at candidates who don’t work out as “bad hiring decisions” and place a lot (if not all) of the responsibility for a new hire on the person that made the decision. No one wants to regret the decision they made or have the boss or others saying “Well, you hired him/her”. The point here is that it is an even playing field when it comes to nerves….

Interview nerves come from at least some level of lack of confidence and/or low self-esteem combined with self-pressure to perform  and emotional discomfort from someone we have minimal to no rapport with being “in control” of our situation. Here are some things you can do to be more confident and enhance your performance at game time:

Research the company. Learn as much about it and the job you are applying for as you can. Devour the company website, spend time there and take notes. Showing you “did your homework” says a lot about you in the interview….namely that you want the job badly enough to be interested and prepared, but it also shows your initiative and mental energy.  In addition, you will have more confidence in the interview if you are prepared and you’ll find you depend less on your notes and are able to maintain more consistent eye contact. This can be the differentiator between you and your competition.

Ask the HR representative or receptionist what the dress code is if you don’t know. Ensure you go dressed appropriately. An office setting requires a suit or at the very least business casual clothing. Regardless if it is an executive position or unskilled labor, you must be detailed in your appearance and appropriate. Women should always dress conservatively unless they are applying for jobs where they would be expected to wear revealing clothing to work. The bonus here is that when you look your best you are more confident.

Arrive as early for the interview as you calculate you’ll need to relax and feel confident to walk in the door with good self command and composure. The drive there is always stressful enough, arriving last minute will just increase your adrenaline and make you more nervous. Sit in your car or in the lobby and give yourself a chance to calm down and prepare yourself. While you’re at it, check your #1  first impression weapon – your smile. Smile at yourself in the mirror, check your teeth, lipstick, whatever else your face has going on – to make sure it looks the way you mean it to. Smiling, Job Qualifications, and Ratings of Job Applicants, a study by Western Carolina University, clearly shows that “Smiling applicants were more likely to be hired and received higher ratings on additional attributes.”

Remember that an interview is a two way street….you should also be interviewing the employer to see if you really want to work there as much as you think you do. It has to be mutually beneficial or one or both parties will not be happy and it won’t work out. Go prepared with questions about the company and the position. In addition to showing the interviewer your interest you will get the answers you need to know if you really want the job, if you would just be settling or if it’s not for you at all.

When we are tense we tend to raise our shoulders and fidget with anything in reach. Make a conscious effort to relax your shoulders by taking a few slow deep breaths, lowering them a notch with each exhalation until they are in their normal position. Maintain good erect posture and resist the urge to act like you’re all strung out on caffeine or whatever.. A candidate playing with a rubber band missed taking out my left eye by millimeters once. His behavior completely sabotaged the interview. He became embarrassed, red in the face, started to sweat, could no longer look me in the eye and forgot his lines. He squirmed until it was so uncomfortable for both of us I ended our misery by cutting the interview short. I couldn’t tell him it was OK – because it wasn’t.

If answers aren’t generating themselves as fast as you would like, it’s OK to ask for a moment to formulate the response to a question. Just say, “I have several examples, I would like a moment to give you the one that best exemplifies my skills and abilities”. No interviewer will have a problem with that.

Refrain from TMI and speaking about personal things unless they relate directly to the job. Remember it is an employment interview not a date (though there are similarities), stay on on topic. People who tend to discuss their social life and outside of work interests usually do so to fill in those awkward moments of silence or when they don’t know what to say… and it is apparent to the interviewer. If you face an awkward moment of silence just smile, ask a question you have prepared or comment on your vast wealth of knowledge of the company that you gained from your research. It will be much more impressive than whatever beans you were about to spill…

Most importantly, remember that an interview is really a sales presentation of yourself. The employer needs to “buy” your skills and talent to hire you. Your objective is to present yourself in the best possible light to show the employer why you are the best possible candidate. You must prove that if you are not selected the loss will be theirs. Sometimes, thinking of yourself in the 3rd person as a product is helpful.

Here is an exercise. Let’s say your name is Sam. Take a piece of paper and write down all the qualities you should be hired for. Stand in front of the mirror and sell Sam’s qualities. Tell the person in the mirror why they should hire Sam. Be convincing, and if you are not convincing to yourself you will not be convincing to the interviewer. Do this exercise until you are convincing to yourself and then ask a friend to listen to you give your presentation. You can “program” yourself to understand or believe just about anything. When you write, see and listen to a message multiple times you give yourself repeated mental impressions. Whether they are positive or negative, they will be deeply ingrained. That is why this exercise is valuable.

When it comes down to evaluating your performance, your advanced preparation will give you a clear advantage over the arrogant know it all who “doesn’t need to prepare”, and the self-sabotaging candidate who doesn’t want the job as much as she thinks she does – or she would prepare for it as if it were an Olympic moment.

Unless you were born with crazy mad communication and presentation skills – you’ll need to practice and refine yours if you want to walk out of the interview leaving them running to the nearest computer to draft your offer letter…..

Are you a job seeker? Ask me your questions….. Are you an employment professional? Tell me your thoughts…..

Dust off your LinkedIn profile, ensure it is updated and get familiar with new features that were added over the past year. Read the LinkedIn blog for all the skinny.

Join 50 groups (50 is the limit and they are free and all contain a job board) according to industry, location, Alma mater, etc. and introduce yourself through a post on the discussion board with a mini bio and mention you are a job seeker.

Search the Questions & Answers feature for questions you have expertise in and can answer and ask questions of peers – great way to get your name visible and dialog with people you would likely otherwise not have the opportunity to.

Export your contacts and send an email to them monthly, the first time with a re-introduction and monthly with an update on your job search. Be sure to bcc everyone so you don’t disclose their email addresses.

Learn how doing your job search via LinkedIn jobs shows you who you are connected to at the companies you are interested in that have jobs posted. This allows you to apply through the front door and network through the back door.

Follow companies you are interested in employment with by doing a company search and clicking the follow button. See who works there and get busy making connections.

If you have a professional blog link it to your account to introduce it to visitors.

Don’t link your Twitter account to LinkedIn if you tweet random things – it’s truly annoying to everyone but you. Use select tweets. Actually, please use select tweets with Facebook too.

Do a strategic contact search, pick up the phone and start calling!

Realize that every time you make a profile enhancement or post an interesting status update you show up in the time line of all you connections – stay in their face, in a professional way – of course.

There is a lot I haven’t covered, what’s your hot LinkedIn tip?

Give up a job search? I sent a DM (private message) to call me. The phone rang almost immediately and I answered it with three little words…

Hi, what’s wrong?

I listened patiently to the story of someone desiring to be successful and unique, not just another digit in unemployment statistics, month after month. Downsizing, advice and rewrites by career coaches and resume writers, experimentation with self-branding and video, job search and failed interviews. There was pain in the voice, a sense of defeat, kind of like someone being at the bottom of the proverbial well, trying the same way over and over again to get out and not getting anywhere except more wet and exhausted.

So you get called to interviews?

Yes.

And what happens?

I go, I think I do well and then I don’t get the job.

What’s missing?

I don’t know.

It was a classic case of someone who had aggregated all the advice she could wrap her mind around, had all her ducks in a row so neatly like in a textbook she blended in with everyone else and didn’t stand out at all. She could get face-to-face but not an invitation to fill out a W-4.

I offered to review the resume but not to critique it, because I knew I would only be able to offer style preference advice from my own perspective. After all, it was getting her in the door. So were her phone screens. She had experience, her tone was pleasant, not monotone, she was well spoken, had good pacing, didn’t talk over me, she was responsive and I could see why she would be invited to interview in person. I wanted to see how the resume matched the image I was getting over the phone.

She was a stable, responsible  steady-eddy, wouldn’t let you down, would give a gazillion percent, work extra hours without complaining, never violate a company policy, treat others with respect and you could trust her with your life…So, the Queen could give her the keys to the palace and when she came back the crown jewels would still be there… But, the objective was sales not security.

Sales is about being noticed, people wanting to take a risk based on your relationship and word, being persuasive through more than your gilded tongue.. It’s about the ‘takeaway”. That was it, that’s what was missing. She was selling herself too hard in the interview, just like every other candidate. There was relationship building but no takeaway…

What do you take to the interview?

My portfolio.

What’s in it?

Work samples.

You need a 90 day plan.

What’s that?

Good question.

Here’s what I sent her:

Like with any new job, there are a lot of things to learn when you walk in the door. But, when it comes to a sales job that needs to be balanced with the almost immediate results they are looking for.

Some Ideas for a 90 day plan in your case might be (in no particular order and these are just off the top of my head, clearly there is more to think about):

• Learn CRM system
• Order business cards
• Plan to attend all networking events on the organization’s calendar
• Connect with the company’s social media and review Facebook/Twitter  testimonials and active members. Reach out to them and ask for referrals of friends that have businesses (I just checked and they have some great ones). Also they have LinkedIn groups, join and start to network with members and send all your LinkedIn contacts a message that you have joined the organization.
• Press release to media and spotlight on organization website with your photo and a message how happy you are to be on board.
• Get involved in some non-company focused networking groups so you can introduce people to the benefits of the organization. Be strategic, these should be groups that small business owners and CEO’s belong to. NAWBO, Rotary, Toastmasters, etc.

For your first 50 calls, be sure you look at the member’s directory on their website when making your list, you don’t want to call someone who is already a member. Look in your newspaper and anywhere else (because I don’t know your area) new businesses are announced to find prospects for the list. Try to find out who the new restaurants are – they generally always become members and new ones open daily. Does your city hall have to give occupancy permits to new businesses and is that public record?

Just some ideas I hope you’ll find helpful as you plan your strategy!

The 90 day plan is something 99% of candidates don’t have and will set you apart 100% of the time. It’s your personal vision of your first 90 days, your personal on-boarding plan for success. It gives your interviewers an idea of your analytical process driven creative mind. It shows you’re comfortable with proposals, have done your research, how you establish goals for yourself and leaves something very meaningful and unique with them when you walk out the door for them to remember you by and reflect on. It demonstrates you are mentally invested, that you have already stepped into the position and started to work. And in sales, especially in sales… that you have assumed the sale.

A 90 day plan cannot be a template, it is unique to every job you prepare to interview for. It is possible to create one for any job, any level of responsibility, any company. It’s how to distinguish yourself from other candidates to give you the interview edge.

The result in this case has been a series of call backs and interviews with the same employer. I fully expect to get an email about a job offer this coming week.

Do you have experience with creating or presenting a 90 day plan you can share?

What do you do when a recruiter calls and says you would be a great candidate for the position they are looking to fill, saw my resume on line….You ask what the job pays and the answer is $11.00 to 13.00 a hour. What do you do or say?

Karla says:

I guess it depends on what you are prepared to do. From our conversations I think I know what you are looking for but the truth is, that type of job is few and far between here and everywhere.. and candidates with competitive experience are rather abundant. The job market is not going to be well for a very long time.

So, if you need to get back into the job market and it is a job you would like, you could just be honest and say that it seems very interesting and a great match for your experience and either:

A) Go through the interview and take it if offered to you, to get back to work and stop the gap from growing on your resume. When offered the position, try to negotiate a little more (but not more than 10-15% is advisable) and pick up some freelance work on the side to pick up the slack in salary, make yourself very valuable in the company and grow the position and your worth and hopefully in a couple of years you’ll be right back up to where you were before.

B) Say that it sounds great however, your salary requirement is X…. and see what happens.

B rarely if ever works out, especially these days.. there is a line behind you that will take what they offer. People’s unemployment checks are running out and $13. is a lot more than $0. People are managing more than one job to make ends meet.

I’m sorry, I don’t have anything rosier to say. I hope it puts things in perspective and helps you reflect to form a strategy. Too many people went to school for communications, most don’t actually work in it. That includes me anymore. It’s highly competitive due to the gross over saturation of candidates.

As always, I wish you the best.

Karla

PS. Your question is EXCELLENT. I am going to use it and my answer without your name or any way to identify you, in a blog post.

If you have questions about the presentation don’t hesitate to find me on a social network or just click the G and you’ll be connected to me.. I love it when I rhyme =)

Social Media 4 Older Job Seekers

Traditionally, the job fair has been of the standard variety with employer booths and newspaper advertising. My contributions to the event in my first year as a planning partner were the upgraded website & blog, social media and seminar.

There was nothing wrong with the job fair as it had always been for the past 19 years except that in my opinion it lacked modernity of the times, the use of technology and an educational component. Actually, it wasn’t just my opinion. As a vendor in past years I often heard the word on the street that every year it was

The same old thing

I vowed not to allow that happen another year since now I was empowered to have influence and make change. Here are some reflections on what went down and what I learned.

Contrary to what you might think, the most popular seminar session was not using social media for job search (it was 3rd place). The most attended was how to get government employment. It requires no networking at all… The attraction is all too understandable why all the seats were taken and the overflow of people stood in the back of the seminar area.

The second most popular session was how to do well in an interview. There were a lot of questions on what to say, how to say it, how to cope with nerves, how to know if it went well.. Attendees appreciated hearing the “real deal” because the process is confusing to a candidate who doesn’t understand it. We could do a much better job on our websites and in our candidate selection process of letting job seekers know expectations, time lines, process..

Social media for job seekers was interesting, a lot of questions on Myspace (I attribute this to a cosmic vortex) and what to do once one creates an account. In other words, what does one do to “social network”? This is making me think a lot. There were a lot curious people there that either haven’t created accounts because they don’t know what to do, or started accounts and didn’t do anything with them – because they didn’t know what to do…  It seemed the crowd was comfortable visiting websites and job boards but they didn’t “get” the networking angle. So, we covered the basic principles, and because an hour is not nearly enough time to really delve into technique – I promised to hold workshops.

These are people who have been out of work a really long time – some go to the library for internet because it isn’t within their monthly budget. Perhaps a sponsor will offer to help. If not, I’ll do a series for free because I can’t fathom charging the unemployed for this.

The résumé tips session was fraught with questions on what and what not to include, what style to use, how many pages it should be, if references are required, the normal stuff… What was clearly obvious to me was that the average job seeker doesn’t understand the document is a marketing piece for Me Inc. I referred them to the free résumé writing classes offered at the local branch of the State one stop shop. It’s not the gourmet service offered by some of my certified résumé writing friends.. but none of these individuals was in the situation to be able to afford paid services.

What do you people want from me??? That was the question answered in the session on employer expectations. You would think this is work 101 stuff – but not.. Some people think they should be able to bring excuses to work and not be charged PTO, others don’t agree sick dependents should affect their attendance or be cause for separation when it does. How to “move up in the company” is interesting to many and “I shouldn’t have to so someone else’s job” is common. We need to do a better job with employer branding and marketing to educate prospective employees on what our expectations really are so that they are empowered to be decision makers in the process too on whether employment with XYZ would be a good “fit”.

How to work with a recruiter had an executive gathering of note takers. So many people think the title recruiter has one definition and clearing up that misnomer is important. When and how to follow up, what to do with the feedback, everyone was curious and confused about these things. I’m thinking we don’t put out enough information on what a recruiter does… like it’s some secret order or something. OK, maybe it is =)

Imagine if everyone understood the importance of psychology in the job search and workplace. The session on emotional intelligence was incredibly interesting, if not too short and poorly attended. The presenter understood why. People in general aren’t really in touch with their emotions, don’t understand how they sabotage quality of life, and many push them away and are horrible at managing them. When it came time for interactive exercises it was men in the session that volunteered. There were some women sitting there with their eyes glazed over. <— Look, this is just my observation. I’m trying not to be judgmental.

I thought adding a Job Seeker Strategy seminar to the job fair was a good idea. Now I think this seminar needs to go on a road tour to high schools and colleges, one stop shops and job fairs in every community and town across the country.

If you work in HR or recruiting, please implement it in your community. Or if you would like to sponsor my roadshow, let me know. I could really dig a national tour…

Once a year there is another type of event at the Arena that is totally different. It’s an interactive event that can literally change your life. It’s the NEPA Job Fair. Similar events are held in cities across the country every year. So, if you’re lucky enough to have landed here through finding this blog in a Facebook or Twitter post or Google search it’s for you too.

Now of course, you can walk in the Arena doors and on to the floor and weave in and out of the maze of employer booths like a spectator – that’s what most people do. Then you’ll go home and talk about how it was, “OK but nothing special, there are no opportunities around here.”

That’s the big mistake most people make, they treat a job fair as a spectator sport. Find out how to work the job fair over at the NEPA Job Fair blog…