Standing out at a Career Faire can make a difference in your job hunting. Career Faires are starting to pick up, and a major job search company is running some nice ones, called Targeted Job Fairs. At a San Jose Area Career Fair in early 2010, 10 companies as showing up, and Dice has 82 career faires scheduled for this year across the States.

How do you get to the real interviews at a Career Faire? The contention can be noteworthy, but you can help yourself jump out from the crowd with advance preparation. At AA-Careers, we have a simple 6-step process to get ready. Plan to go? Here’s how to prepare:

First, investigate the organizations that are going and pick your targets. Use the internet to research the companies that are there beforehand. Go to their websites and see if they have their openings posted. Pick a sound number to target, and get ready to spend up to an hour researching each one. It’s hard to do more than ten in a day, and four to six is a much more reasonable target. For each hiring company, you want to know: recent news, key product lines, and exectuve names. Try to see if you know anyone at the target companies. You’ll end up 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 hiring department is looking for. Create a mapping of your achievements and skills to the demands of the job. Make the nomenclature match. If the hiring company calls customers "clients", your resume should do the same thing. The accomplishments should be written in the style of the hiring organization.

Third, create a ‘mini sales pitch’ for each potential company/position combination. Write down a 90 second ‘thumbnail’ that you can repeat out loud describing why you are a good 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 job type. 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 achievements and skills that most clearly match the job requirements. Especially at a Job Faire, 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 match based on your resume.

Fifth, dress and prepare as if you’re doing on-site interviews. Dress well and be well groomed. Don’t over do-it (this isn’t a date!) and don’t underdress (no jeans or t-shirts, no matter how much you paid for them). Avoid strong cologne or perfume.

Finally, 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 intelligibly labeled folder. Keep them in a lightweight briefcase or folio.

Remember to smile, and good hunting!