By Marissa Schaeffer
The fall 2019 is fast approaching on Tuesday, September 24 from 9am to 3pm in the Gale Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. There will be 330 companies attending the career fair including AT&T, Union Pacific, Cargill and as well as many more. With such a substantial number of companies attending the event, it is recommended that attendees prioritize the which companies they desire to speak to and mapping the route between booth locations, which can be found on the COER website. Attendees can focus on the companies you want most and waste less time deciding who to talk to next during the fair. To attend the career fair, you must first register through Handshake. Handshake is a career platform similar to LinkedIn, but tailored for Missouri S&T students. While you are registering for the career fair, make sure to update all of your information on Handshake and pre-apply to companies. Many companies at the career fair will encourage you to apply online for positions.
The second step of preparing for the career fair is to update your resume. COER posts a template resume on their website that is a great starting spot and Google is hosting a resume review you can attend on September 12th from 9am-11am at the Student Diversity House. Students also can make appointments with COER to review resumes. The third step is to make sure you have appropriate attire for the Career Fair and all of those interviews you will soon have. For men, a suit and tie is recommended and for ladies, a suit or a professional dress. Every year MS&T coordinates with JC Penny to have discounted suits for sale for the students, so watch out for those deals coming soon! COER also lets you burrow suits from their suit closet on the third floor of Norwood Hall for free.
The fourth step is to create an elevator speech and prepare yourself for commonly asked questions at the career fair. An elevator speech is short statement that “communicates who you are, what you're looking for and how you can benefit a company.” Usually elevator speeches are a minute or less and are a great start to conversation after introducing yourself to a recruiter. Along with that, many recruiters will ask similar questions including “What do you want from a job?”, “Are you willing to relocate?”, and “What can you bring to the company and/or what makes you different?” Practice answering these questions and tailoring them to different companies. The fifth step is to register and attend MS&T’s Night to Network. Night to Network is a resume free event were students can ask questions and get to know recruiters and companies prior to the career fair. The event takes place the night before the Career Fair on Monday, September 23, 2019 from 7:30pm to 9:00pm in the St. Pat’s Ballroom in Havener. Good luck to all this career fair!
