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[teiresias]

OK, so I'm attending an engineering career fair tomorrow and wednesday morning at my university. All of my work experience thus far has been obtained through contacts and networking, so it's always been a pretty straight-forward affair with everyone knowing exactly what's going on and what is expected of someone.

This fair will be the first time I'm stepping outside my network just to meet new prospective employers. Therefore, I have some resume and cover letter questions concerning "career fairs" in general.

Would you put an "Objective" on a resume you're handing out at a career fair. My resume is fine aside from this, since I'm not sure whether to include it or not. Any suggestions.

Also, I know when you send a resume to a recruiter, or to a company that has a job listing you are supposed to include a cover letter, but should I also be handing out an attached cover letter with my resumes at the career fair? After all, cover letters are generally tailored to a specific job and company when you mail off a resume, so does it make any sense to have one with the resumes you're handing out to companies you may not even know exist at a career fair?

If a cover letter should be passed out at a career fair does anyone have any suggestions on how to write it. It seems like it would be a highly generic letter to me.

This is an engineering career fair by the way - Tuesday is government agencies and Wednesday and Thursday are private companies (though I can only go on Wednesday).

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[xsarien]

Unless you can write the best universal cover letter ever conceived, you're better off not bothering. Anything that you can say in one will be dealt with when you talk to the recruiters. What they're looking for in a resume? That's hard to say. If you're pressed for space, the "Objective" line isn't necessary, just make it look nice, make sure it's nice and readable, and just use variations on *one* font.

 

[Dilbert]

xsarien is quite right -- no cover letter for a job fair.

Usually an "objective" section only makes sense if you have a very narrowly-defined job goal in mind, or if you know what exact positions are available. At your level of experience level, I think a "summary" section instead would be better. Basically, it should be a single sentence at the top of your resume which sums up why you are a better candidate than anyone else.

I've been to job fairs before (though never specifically at a college), and the important thing to keep in mind is that you're looking to find a match between what the company is looking for, and what YOU are looking for. If you pick the wrong company/situation, you will be employed, but miserable. With that being said -- especially in your first job -- be willing to try new and different things. Among the things to consider: Are you willing to relocate, and if so, to where? What kinds of engineering do you want to do, and which simply don't interest you? How much travel is acceptable? If you have your heart set on doing software engineering, and a company offers you a hardware test job, it's not going to be fun.

Recognize that the prospective employers at the job fair have a LONG day in front of them, and try to make their job easier. Practice your "elevator speech" so that you don't take up too much of their time. Be memorable, but not outrageous. If they aren't too busy, it might be good to engage the recruiter in a conversation, and ask THEM some questions -- even if it doesn't lead to a job, you might get some good, free advice. (Our company often sends recent hires -- along with some senior folks -- to job fairs at their alma mater, so you might get some good advice from someone who was in your shoes not too long ago.)

Last but not least -- before you apply to a defense contractor, you should think about whether or not you want (or can get) a security clearance. Defense seems to be a hot sector these days, but it might not be for everyone.

Good luck...

 

[teiresias]

Well, all of my previous work experience has been with NASA, so I'm well versed in governmental red-tape and security stuff (though I don't actually have any high level security clearance, I just had the usual background check to be authorized to have my center access badge).

I actually like the governmental work environment since it's less profit driven. Note I said profit driven - not money driven. Everyone still saves money as much as possible, it's just that the work you get to do is dictated more by interest and need and less by profit potential (though you always look for technology that can be transferred into the private sector wherever possible).

Being in Virginia there are also alot of governmental agencies not too far from home. I'm not sure I'd get the same kind of access to private tech companies to do the kind of embedded system work I'm really most interested in doing in this area. For example, Infineon has a plant in Virginia, but I certainly don't want to be stuck testing RAM chips as they come off a line, bleh!

Obviously, for an embedded system person like myself doing consumer electronics would be awesome, but most of that stuff is done in Japan I'd imagine, so I'm not sure what the job market is like for that in the US - particularly in my area.