Career week
Posted on Sep 19, 2012 in News
On Sept. 25th, Career and Professional Services will end Career Week with the UAB Job and Internship Fair inside the Campus Recreation Center. From 10 until 3, more than 70 companies -seeking graduating seniors, graduate school students and alumni- will accept resumes and meet with students interested in available positions. Sophomores and juniors who are searching for internships are also encouraged to attend. Professional dress and campus card are required for entry.
Resume building and critiquing will be available throughout the week for all UAB students interested. MCT Campus
Dale Stringfellow, marketing and events coordinator for Career and Professional Services, offered some tips for a successful Career Fair. First, make sure your resume is concise. He said most employers will look at a resume for seven or eight seconds, at most. For a general event such as the Job and Internship Fair, your resume should include a short profile highlighting your strengths and experience; when applying for a specific job, you would do better to adjust your resume to the position’s qualifications and details. For example, if applying for an engineering position, the company most likely isn’t interested in your high-school job at PetCo. Stringfellow also noted that job fairs are great for networking. Often, finding the job you want is about knowing the right people. He stressed that it is never too early to network, and said that even freshmen would benefit from the experience.
Another tip to maximize your efficiency at the fair is to make sure that you bring enough copies of your resume for all the companies you are interested in speaking with. To estimate how many you will need, go to the Career and Professional Services website to find a list of the companies that will be represented at the fair. Also, keep in mind that first impressions matter. Showing up to the fair looking sloppy and unprepared is a great way to get noticed—for the wrong reasons. Keep in mind that no one is ever looked over for a position for being overdressed. Take advantage of the Career and Professional Development Services website that offers videos showing the correct business dress for men and women.
Kaylyn Alexander
Staff Writer
kaylyn@uab.edu