How do you rise above the crowd at a Career Fair? The rivalry can be considerable, but you can help yourself stick out from the herd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a straight-forward 6-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, research the companies that are going and pick your objectives. Use the internet to check out the organizations that are there beforehand. Go to their web sites and see if they have their openings listed. Pick a sound number to target, and get ready to spend an hour or more researching each one. It’s hard to do more than 10 in a day, and three or four is a much more reasonable target. For each company, you want to know: key product lines, recent news, and executive names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You will end up with with a page or two of research for each company/job.

Second, if there are job openings on the web, read them to see what the organization is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the terminology match. If the hiring organization calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The achievements should be written in the style of the hiring company.

Third, create a ‘brief sales pitch’ for each likely company/position combination. Write down a ninety second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat verbally depicting why you are a special candidate for that job. You’ll use this in your resume and when you meet the company at the job stall.

Fourth, modify your resume for each position. The objective on your resume should exactly match the job you’re going after. The executive summary should be a written form of your “mini sales pitch” for the job. Then choose the accomplishments and skills that most clearly match the job prerequisites. Especially at a Career Fair, the purpose of your resume is a sales tool for you – to get you on-site job interviews. It should be simple to see that you’re a fit based on your resume.

Fifth, rehearse your ‘mini-sales-pitch’. Collect your research and the resume for each spot – bring a couple of copies for each – and put each in a understandably marked folder. Keep them in a light briefcase or folio.

Finally, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be properly groomed. Avoid strong cologne or perfume…use any eau de cologne or scent meagerly, if at all.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!

“This message is sent in compliance with the new email bill section 301. Under Bill S.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this message cannot be considered Spam as long as we include the way to be removed, Paragraph (a)(c) of S.1618. Further transmissions to you by the sender of this email may be stopped at no cost to you by sending a request to be removed to __”

Well it is, in plain language, a bunch of BULL!

U.S. Senate Bill 1618, an Anti-slamming Amendments Act, contained a Section 301, relating to transmissions of unsolicited commercial electronic mail. S.1618 was approved by the U.S. Senate on May 12, 1998. It was then referred to the House Committee on Commerce on October 21, 1998. The Bill DIED in committee and was never passed into law by the 105th Congress. Nor has the 106th Congress passed anything similar at this time. I was able to confirm this information both by checking the U.S. Senate records and specifically by an inquiry with one of my Senators.

So first, the quoted paragraph above is in error since the bill never became law. Secondly, if it did become law the messages I generally receive citing the above, are quite deficient in compliance with the alleged law that they reference. Here, in part, are the exact requirements of the bill that would have been law in respect to email if in fact the bill had passed:

————————- SEC. 301. REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO TRANSMISSIONS OF UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.

(a) INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN TRANSMISSIONS-

(1) IN GENERAL- A person who transmits an unsolicited commercial electronic mail message shall cause to appear in each such electronic mail message the information specified in paragraph (2).

(2) COVERED INFORMATION- The following information shall appear at the beginning of the body of an unsolicited commercial electronic mail message under paragraph (1):

(A) The name, physical address, electronic mail address, and telephone number of the person who initiates transmission of the message.

(B) The name, physical address, electronic mail address, and telephone number of the person who created the content of the message, if different from the information under subparagraph (A).

(C) A statement that further transmissions of unsolicited commercial electronic mail to the recipient by the person who initiates transmission of the message may be stopped at no cost to the recipient by sending a reply to the originating electronic mail address with the word `remove’ in the subject line. ————————

How many messages citing this “Law” as justification for sending you SPAM contain the items in Para. (2)(A) & (B). I haven’t seen any out of the 1000’s I received. In fact, in those that I try to send a message back to, the reply address is usually invalid.

Plus, even though they furnish you with a means at the end of the message to “Remove” yourself from the mailings, it is usually a false address or url when you actually try to remove yourself.

This type of mis-information spreads like wildfire once someone makes it up and pretty soon everybody takes it for the truth. It is similar to all those emails, forwarded by the thousands, proclaiming that Microsoft is going to pay you over $200 for each person you forward the message to.

The use of this statement of the “Law” in sending unsolicited email advertisements does not diminish the fact that they are still SPAM no matter how a mailer tries to camouflage his or her efforts. It should also make you think twice, no matter how great the offer looks, about the integrity of the individual and/or company sending it to you and whether you want to deal with them..