Megan Odom: So my name is Megan Odom and I'm the director of the Career Center and I'm basically kind of coming to you today from, I've been in office for 11 years and before I had my position here I actually used to work as a manager and recruiter and I attended lots of different career fairs and came on many different campuses to interview students and when I came to Chico State we realized that a lot of students were asking kind of similar questions about the career fair so they would all come in the day before and they would all have somewhat similar questions. We thought you know we should just put a workshop together and then you can all benefit from hearing each other's questions and you know we can basically just give you the best information so you can be most confident when you go into the career fair tomorrow. So I am going to start out with just a little video and then I'm hoping to have an employer join me today to give you kind of her feedback as to what her expectations are at the career fair and then we'll move on from there. Basically the format is we are going to watch this video and I am going to take questions and I am going to write them down and then we'll go through question by question and answer them. So as you are watching this just think of anything that you might be curious in learning about the career fair. 1
Brad Karsh: A career fair is pretty cool, when you think about it. A bunch of companies are getting together just to hire folks like you. To make sure you land that sweet job, there s some definite dos and don ts 2
when it comes time to working a career fair. Let s get into the four steps to make sure you land that sweet job. 1. Do some homework I know, that s the last thing you want to hear, the preparation is key. Go to your Career Center, find out what companies are going to be there and check them out online. If you can walk into their career fair knowing a bit about the companies you re interested in talking to it sends a strong signal that you re a serious candidate. 2. Make a plan of attack A good opening line is not, Hey, I ve never heard of you guys. What do you do around here? Sometimes students race into the career fair, and go to their number one company right away. That is not a great approach. You want to make sure that you practice a bit, and you have your mojo going, before you take it to the big leagues. So try it out on a few other companies, before you go for your #1 employer. 3. Create your pitch Working a career fair is a lot like speed dating. And just like dating, you have a limited amount of time to make a connection. It s not the best approach to go up to a company, drop off your resume, spend 10 seconds and move on to the next one. In fact, you don t want to say, I have a 3.8 GPA, and I m a member of the finance 3
association, I d like to give you a copy of my resume. Please contact me when you have a moment. Thank you, bye. Believe it or not, that s not going to be your best approach. Instead you want to be relaxed, be confident, strike up a conversation. Be relaxed, confident and just talk. Talk a bit about their company, talk a bit about yourself, and ask them a few questions. The goal is to make a connection. Here s a sample interchange. Candidate: Hi it s really nice to meet you. Employer: Hi, my name is Courtney, I m the Director of Recruiting at JB Consulting. Candidate: My name is Brad Karsh. This is really exciting for me Courtney, JB Consulting is a company I admire quite a bit. It seems like a great place to work. Employer: It is. I ve been here for years and love it. Candidate: Wow, I ve done a lot of research on the company and it seems like you have a wonderful relationship with all your clients, and long standing relationship as well. I also noticed that leadership is really important for some of your newer employees. Employer: It is, it s critical to success here. Candidate: I been fortunate I ve had some great leadership experience; I was one of the student senators at my school, and I was also Resident Advisor for my dorms. 4
Employer: Oh wow, I d love to see a copy of your resume. Candidate: Absolutely. How does the hiring process work for your newer employees? Brad Karsh: So there s a little snapshot of how it might go. Now some interactions might be a little bit longer, some of might be a bit shorter. Just be prepared to go with the flow. Follow up Follow up and write a thank you note. So you did your homework, you made a plan of attack, you even made a great connection with your recruiter. The sad truth is, it doesn t end there. Remember, companies are going to be meeting dozens, sometimes hundreds of students at a career fair. You need to stand out both during and after the event. Send a thank you note, make it personal, and try to reference something you discussed during your brief encounter. So there you have it, a sure fire way to be a big hit on the career fair tour, and land the job of your dreams. Good luck. 5
Okay so he is kind of goofy right, but he makes a lot of good points so it is short enough to where you kind of get the gist of what he is talking about. Okay so now we are going to get into questions, 6
so you came here for a reason you want to know how you best prepare for tomorrow's fair. What questions do you have for me and hopefully for the recruiter when she arrives? Megan Odom: Not all at once. Audience Member: If we don't have our resume yet or if it is outdated or something is there someone here on campus who would be able to help us out between now and tomorrow at the fair? 7
Megan Odom: Okay how to get your resume updated right. Who, where, when... Okay great what else. Audience Member: How many resumes would you recommend printing out? 8
Megan Odom: Oh, good question. Question over here. Audience Member: So the video talked about doing research on the companies you are interested in but I was wondering what would you want to know about the companies that you do research on? Megan Odom: Perfect so I am just going to put company research, we will cover that in depth. Yeah that is great. 9
Audience Member: How vital is it that you have a cover letter for each resume? Like, should we have specific cover letters for specific companies we want to talk to? Megan Odom: Great that is a great question. Do you need a cover letter, got it. Okay yeah. Audience Member: You mentioned that you were a recruiter earlier, what was like the biggest factor that set people apart when they were talking to you? Megan Odom: Okay, good question. Apart is one word or two? Audience Member: One 10
Megan Odom: One? Okay just testing you. Okay yeah! In the front with the glasses. Audience Member: Oh so if I done my research and I see that there is specific jobs but I don't know where I would fit in exactly is it, how much of a certainty and flexibility can I show the recruiter? 11
Megan Odom: Okay, Okay. Right would you say that? Audience Member: If you have done the research but you don't know where you fit in. 12
Megan Odom: Okay. Okay. Yeah! Audience Member: I know that employers love to be asked questions, what are some good questions to ask them if you have already done your research and you already know everything about them what other questions would you have? 13
Megan Odom: Okay, good questions to ask. Good that's great. Alright, what else? 14
Audience Member: Basically how should you carry yourself, like what should your hands do, how much eye contact? 15
Megan Odom: Would you say mannerisms, eye contact, just how to interact in general? Audience Member: Yeah just like what is awkward or like yeah. Megan Odom: Okay, yeah, that is perfect, so good, okay awesome. Awesome. Hey Chantal! Chantal: Hey how are you? Megan Odom: I'm great you know what I'm gonna go ahead and have you introduce yourself if you don't mind and to the students. We are lucky enough to have a recruiter from Kohl's here who's been, I am sure has been to lots of career fairs a time or two. Chantal Horton: Yep. Megan Odom: So yeah go ahead and introduce yourself and then we're just basically taking questions from the students and then I'm gonna have to go through and we can just answer them one by one. Chantal Horton: Okay, perfect. So my name is Chantal Horton, I'm from Kohl's department store been with the company for about 12 years most of my experience is actually not been in the, the, HR sense as a recruiter it's actually been stores so if 16
you're looking for management, careers, things of that nature I know a lot about that. Most of my career again about eight years of it has actually been in stores I was a apparel and accessories assistant store manager, I was an operations manager, a store manager in the LA market as well. And then I kind segued into University relations and external recruitment so, I have a lot of years under my belt in that realm. And so if you have any questions about interviewing and obviously the topics that we're going to talk about please, please ask and I will put my input as much as I possibly can. Megan Odom: Perfect so thank you, and thanks for being here that's great. Okay so we will take a couple more questions then we will start answering them so yeah. What else do you want to know? Yeah! Audience Member: What is the maximum time you can spend with the recruiter without getting them bored? 17
Megan Odom: Okay, okay. Oh I don't think I have ever been asked that so great question, great question. Okay so let's go back, maximum. Okay, yeah! 18
Audience Member: If there's a company that you have already done research for and there's a, you already know the position available how would you go about asking them like jumping straight to ask for that position. 19
Megan Odom: Okay, okay. You are, you guys are prepared. Okay is that correct? So if you already done your research how do you ask about that specific position? Audience Member: You already know about the position, how do you go straight asking about it? Megan Odom: Okay. Audience Member: So, I don't know how to word it. 20
Megan Odom: Okay well we're just going to take it from there. Okay what else? Yeah! Audience Member: They mentioned a like follow up thank you letter to the recruiter, maybe like what is appropriate in that or what to say or how to outline it. Megan Odom: Okay. Okay yeah that's great. Yeah! 21
Audience Member: Is the size of the company, like, should that play a factor in your decision or where you should apply like let s say there's Chevron and then compared to, I know there's like a small winery that's on there. Would the experience that you get come from like the same or would it, I mean it's the same line of work if you understand what I am saying. But would the experience that you get might be different? Megan Odom: Right. No, I think that is a good question. What else? Any other things about the fair? No more questions, let me see if we missed anything that's usually asked. Audience Member: How you dress? Megan Odom: Perfect, what to wear. Alright so we will go ahead and get started and we will start and work our way down. But if you have more questions please ask because we want to make sure we that were, you know making you feel really confident for when you are walking into that career fair tomorrow you re like "I got this" you know I'm going to rock it tomorrow. So, okay so I can answer the first one so how do you get your resume updated between now and the fair? We at the Career Center have drop in hours from 1 to 4 today, so you can just stop by and all of our advisors are going to be on, out here working and usually the wait time is fairly minimal and we would be more than happy to look over your resume. And we do have drop in with the exception of the day of the career fair Monday through Friday from 1 to 4, so you can always drop and get your resume reviewed and but if you 22
want to have a more in depth conversation with an advisor you just want to set an appointment. Okay how many resumes to bring? So hopefully everybody, I'm I just handed out the list of the employers that are going be at the fair, this is also online, so there's 71 companies that are going to be coming to the fair tomorrow and I basically just printed them out, sometimes it's just kind of easier to have a physical copy but how many resumes should you bring for 71 companies. Chantal do you have an estimate, what would you say? Chantal Horton: It depends on how many resumes you want to give out, depends on you research. So if you have done your research and you want to see specific companies, I think that is going to dictate how many resumes you will hand out you also want to have some extras. So if you see that there is 71 companies and there are 10 that you really, really want to get to, I would maybe bring 15 to 20 because you may see some other companies that you said "Aw man I didn't think about it", but you talked to that rep and you are just totally alert about that particular company, their culture and you want to talk to them, and I hate when candidates come to me and they say "Darn, I just gave my last resume". It kind of makes you feel like you're last pic essentially as a company. So just bring extras just in case. Megan Odom: Right, and I don't know about you but my own personal example is you know I ended up getting hired by a company at a career fair that I really have never considered working for. So a lot of times, and even if you go through this list you might not recognize recorders of the names on their, and some of them are just outstanding companies but maybe they just don't have consumer products, so they just don't have the name recognition like a Kohl s or another company. So, definitely bring more resumes than you need, they're very minimal cost to print them and the worst thing is when a student comes up and says "Oh I ran out of resumes", and I'm like "Ugh your missing out you know, these companies only come to campus you know once a semester". So company research, so do you have it you required, do you think that a student has to have done research in order to come up and talk to you at the fair? Chantal Horton: No, I don't think they have to have done research, it looks nice, I mean it sounds nice. If I know that the student is committed to us and if they've researched, and they've done their work, and they know little bit about us. You know if you're really looking into retail or you re looking into management, I definitely would do your research about the companies because it does give you a little bit extra you know kudos when it comes to us thinking about, "Hey, you know I interacted with Sally and she knew about our company culture, she knew about our charitable events that we've done, how we give back to our communities. She knew a lot about us that was great you know", and that is something that we can reflect back on. So. 23
Megan Odom: Yeah, do you have a question? Audience Member: [Inaudible] Megan Odom: Yeah, I always say start with like a Wikipedia search, and just get an overview, how big is the company, where are they located, do they produce a widget or do they provide a service, you know what's the latest news, you know you can get all that from a quick you know one page Wikipedia search. And then if it's company you re really interested then I would go the website and start searching around and you know just learning some of the kind of the pillars of the company to see what their you know what they kind of hang their hat on. So and again it's not a requirement, if you go up to Chantal tomorrow and you just say "Hey you know what I love shopping at Kohl's, I love to hear about your manager training program", she's going to tell you about the program just like she is anybody else, and you know you re going to have a great interaction. I think it is ideal if you done research but by no means, if you haven't done research please go up to the company, any company because that is what the career fair is about. It is just you know sharing information. But if you have your top five or top 10 it's going to be a good, good use of time tonight to do that research. Do you need a cover letter? So I have my opinion but I would like to hear yours. Do you think that students need to have a cover letter at the career fair? Chantal Horton: Not at the career fair, I mean that's my personal opinion. As recruiters we're seeing hundreds of students, we don't have time to look at your cover letter and I hate to say that. But if you're doing an individual interview with us, let's say you get through that first process and we bring you on board for an on campus interview then yes you can bring a cover letter, it's a nice I guess icing on top of the cake. But at career fairs I like short and sweet, I like to be able to see a one pager and say these are the highlights, and quickly assess. Megan Odom: Of a resume. Chantal Horton: Of a resume, and quickly assess what you have done, what you haven't done, charitable work that you've done, maybe things that you do on the side,maybe you re a part of Girl Scouts I don't know, and those things do really shine on a resume. So quick highlights I think are probably the easiest way a one pager, no cover letter when you're doing events like this. That's my personal opinion. Megan Odom: I know you're all disappointed because you want to go home and write a cover letter tonight, right. So yeah I completely agree 100%, I do not think a cover letter is necessary, I don't, I think it's just kind of, it's probably something that I wouldn't utilize as a recruiter so it is not a great use of your time for the fair, it's a great use of your time when you re applying in other ways. 24
Okay so what sets a student apart from others? Like what type of approach do you like for students to take when they come up to your booth, what really you know makes you think "Oh this student is impressive". Chantal Horton: Um, the research again, you know if you come up to me and say "Hey, you know I have looked up Kohl s and I really like that you give back to the community, or you know I was looking at your greatness agenda you guys have totally revamped your core and your pillars, tell me a little bit about that". You know knowing that information is a really good icebreaker. I think being engaged, making sure there's eye contact, I think that's imperative, just be I think smile making sure that you are dressed appropriately I think that is a big thing for us. We're a fashion driven company so I like to see students be able to kind of integrate that fashion that kind of you know that fashion versus professional look, and be able to integrate that in who they are and how they dress, so we are looking at the whole package. Iron your pants, iron your dresses, make sure that your shoes are tied and they match your belts for men, belt matches your shoes, you don't have a black belt and brown shoes those are little things that we look at because perception is everything it's about 80% of what we do, we look at you and not that were making a judgment call but it's the first impression right, so we want to make sure that you know what we see is what we get and typically when someone's put together we can say "Okay their approach is very strategic, they think very highly of themselves, they're confident, they have a good present of themselves, and that goes along way. So we do kind of look at you know the way you come at us and your first you know handshake, is it firm or is it kind of like a dead fish, that is something we look at as well. Megan Odom: Yeah that's great and I think, just to add on you know I think confidence. So you know just like she said, and me walk up there, give that great handshake, look him in the eyes, introduce yourself "Hi, my name is Megan Odom, I'm graduating this May with a degree in psychology and you know I was actually online did a little research last night and I learned whatever, or I was just curious what you were hiring for today", or you know whatever it is that you want to say. So, but I think just kind of the way you carry yourself says a lot about you as a candidate, and like she said in those first impressions. Any questions about, any other questions pertaining to that. Okay, is it okay if you don't know about the employer or the job opening, how do you figure out where you fit in the company? 25
It's kind of similar to what we said, I think it's kind of the employer's role, so I don't see that as a student s job to try to figure out where they fit, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's something that they're going to be asking you questions tomorrow to figure out where you re going to best fit in. And maybe it's going to be really cut and dried, maybe they have the management training position, that's is what they are recruiting for and that is where exactly you fit, and it's awesome. And maybe you're an IT person you're talking to Chantal and she's thinking "You know I don't really know about the management training, you could be a good fit, but maybe there's other places you're such a good candidate that you could fit in", and that's something that the recruiter's going to do but not typically I think the responsibility of the candidate. Chantal Horton: I would agree with that, and a lot of times there are specific requirements to those programs as well. So if you re sophomore and you re asking to be in the you know internship, we only take junior's so there's you know there are certain requirements that we will actually be looking at as well, so we will definitely tell you that as recruiters. Megan Odom: That's great. Yeah? Audience Member: If you are a sophomore do they have internships for sophomores or is it mostly for juniors? Megan Odom: No, so the question is if you are a sophomore do any companies have internships for sophomores. Yes, I mean I think that when a company is hiring an intern they're looking for a potential candidate, a candidate that is going to potentially fill the career level position. Okay I mean most of the goals of a corporate internship program is that they're going to get hired as an intern and then you know when they graduate they're going fill, like for Kohl's for example, correct me if I'm wrong, they're going to go into the internship program but really they're hiring you to be like a manager right, so you re going to be an intern and then hopefully they're going to convert into manager a position, that's the goal. So as a company is trying to make that decision if you re a sophomore then it just gives more opportunities I would say for you to, you know you haven't taken as many classes that are related, you're maybe not as mature, and there's more opportunities for you to fall through the cracks would you say? Chantal Horton: Yeah. Megan Odom: But sometimes you re like the most amazing sophomore candidate, and I've seen it happen time and time again, where the students get internships. So I never think its cut and dry. So although Chantal might say "We are really looking for juniors", there might be a wiggle room, not to put on the spot, but there might be 26
where if there is just the most amazing sophomore who you know has it together, is at this workshop, you're coming to the career fair tomorrow, I have seen it every single semester where sophomore's get internships. So. Chantal Horton: She is exactly right. You know it is for juniors, but there are some sophomores that know what they want to do, they have a really good idea of the vision of 'three years from now this is where I want to be', and in those cases we definitely set those specific cases aside and say "Okay it's possible that they can definitely be an intern", but we are looking for juniors, but it doesn't mean that we won't take a sophomore. We have taken sophomores in the past, and I think, I think the issue is a lot of the time sophomores or freshmen s are not really sure what they want to do yet and they are still exploring, they're still researching, and really trying to come into their own and figure out what's going to be the best fit for them. And so we don't want to take away from that process of you really figuring that out, and, and in most cases juniors and sophomores, sorry juniors and seniors, tend to have a little bit more of a concrete "This is what I want to do, this is what I want to be part of, this is what I researched, I'm ready to go", so I think that's a big piece of it too. Megan Odom: Yeah that's great. Okay. Good questions to ask, and especially what types of questions if you already done your research, you already feel like you know about the position, then what types of question you know do you ask? You know if that was the point of the question. So did you have any feedback for them? Chantal Horton: If you already done what the questions asked, what. Megan Odom: Like they like they've already read all your job description, they did all the research on the website, and they come up and they just don't even know what to ask you because they feel like they know, you know have a good grasp on it. Chantal Horton: You know what is the trajectory look like, like what, how quickly can I move, I think that's a question that a lot of millennial's tend to have, you know I know when I came to the company too that was the question I had, you know I wasn't sure I was going to stay in retail it was you know what are the steps after, what comes after MIT, can I be a store manager, can I do this, can I do HR, I think to ask those questions means that your thinking outside the box, it means that your thinking future long term versus shortterm. So I think that those are always good indicators for recruiters that you are definitely thinking on a long term scale versus just here and now, if that makes sense. So questions about how to move up, and you know what's next, what else can I do. 27
Megan Odom: I think it is also interesting, ask about the recruiters themselves. You re going to, I mean the people that are going to be representing their employers tomorrow at the fair are going to be everything from a manager, to a recruiter, to you know somebody who just got hired, I mean it is just you know sometimes some of them are human resources people and so they're representing their company and their job is to hire you know candidates into certain positions, they may or may not have been in a position that they're hiring for. Some of them like Chantal have been in a position that she's hiring for and then has moved into more recruiting human resources role, some of them are going to be a manager and they're actually hiring for students to work for them on their team, some of them are hiring to work on other people's teams, so it is interesting to say you know how long have you been with Kohl's you know, what is your career path been, because you can learn a lot and you know sometimes if you re seeing people that been with the company for a couple weeks, you know, well gosh you know then that, they might not have as great of information to share but I mean it is just kind of interesting to figure that out. If they been with the company for 13 years that's a great sign that it was probably a really great career choice for them. So also tomorrow on their nametags will have a little ribbon if they are an alumni, so you can say what was your major you know when you attend Chico State, you can ask them questions like that, and that kind of breaks the ice as well. Mannerisms, eye contact, what's the kind of, any advice on the kind of non verbals, what you look for in candidates. Chantal Horton: You know all those things, making eye contact, you know the handshake piece, just being engaged, and being in the moment, being an active listener as well as an active speaker, I think just having good communication skills are great communication skills is what we're really looking for, so those soft skills, you can hold a conversation, it doesn't have to be very, it doesn't have to all be professional, like Megan said it can be about, tell us a little bit about you, tell me a little bit about your story, how long have you been with Kohl's, you know for us all of our campus team members are actually store managers or assistant store managers, so they're all in the positions that they are recruiting for. You know and, and again I've been in the stores for eight years so my career has basically been built on the positions that we're you know recruiting for, so ask us questions, stay engaged, I've talked to students where I'm talking to them right here and they're looking over here and it's kind of rude so I would just stay in the moment, you know make sure you re being respectful to their time and your time as well because you're going to find a lot of information that may be you didn't know, so. 28
Megan Odom: I think that's great, and you know tomorrow hopefully you will have something that's you know, here's an example you know, just like a portfolio, something that you can, you'll talk to an employer and then you might just walk off to the side a little bit take a couple of notes, so all recruiters and all the companies at some point are going to blend together and you re going to say "Was that their program or was that someone else s program?", or at least it was for me and that's what I hear from students, so I would just take a couple minutes after you talk to each person, write a couple of notes, I would be super impressed if you did you know if you're talking to an employer and you step aside and they out of the corner of their eyes see you writing out some notes, that's impressive, that means that you're taking it seriously so don't hesitate to do that if you have you know, bring some note paper. So what do you think is like the average amount of time that a student spends at a booth talking with you and then what would be like the maximum amount of time? Chantal Horton: It really depends on how many people are in line, and how many reps we have, you know I think you have to really be aware of the environment, if there's 50 people in line and this is happened many times where we're talking to someone and they just keep asking and asking, and some of these conversations can be you know via email, you can ask for the business card of the recruiter so that you can continue the conversation, but if you see 50 people waiting in line to talk to two recruiters and we're trying to get through the line and talk to all of you guys, I think you have to kind of say all right at some point I got to stop. You know I would say 3 to 5 minutes is probably tops, if you see 50 people in line 5 minutes is probably way too much, so you know maybe that three minute quick snapshot, practice your elevator speech so you can get everything out that you need to within those three minutes and make sure that you made the best impression you possibly can within those quick three minutes. Megan Odom: And they will probably give you some cues, my guess is when you're at the fair trying to talk with the recruiters "It was so nice to meet you", I mean that is kind of your cue to great and you're on your way to the next you know person. So I would say just try to pick up on those and like I think it, it seems like you're trying to be there for a long time but really it goes so fast and it is a kind of a very short interaction, just to 'hey let s get to know you and then you know we're kind of moving on', so. Okay. I do, I do say if it is a company that you're, let s say that you have talked to Kohl's, you really liked what you were hearing, and you know really interested in the internship program, and you go around and you talked to let s say your 10 other people on your list, and you know you're getting ready but you're thinking "Man that Kohl's internship would just be amazing", if you walk back by and they don't have anybody in line you can go back by and say "Hey I just wanted to follow up, I talked to several 29
other employers and your internship program just sounds so amazing, and thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today, you know enjoy your afternoon", they would be like oh yeah that's impressive. But if she has a line of you know 20 then that wouldn't be, you know you just kind of got to cue yourself in as to you know what's appropriate and what's time permitting. Okay I think we've already answered that if you re already done your research how do you ask about the specific question if you already know what it is, did we answer that, or does somebody still have a question about that? Yeah. Audience Member: The question was that if you already know about, like let's say for Kohl's the manager training, like if you already know you want to go for that how do you just jump straight to that? Megan Odom: Okay. So you mean when you first introduce yourself. Chantal Horton: I think the best way is just saying what you mean, you know and mean what you say. I think it's very about being direct and deliberate, and being very strategic, so coming up to us and saying "Hi, I've researched your internship program or your MIT program, I'm interested, I really like how it's structured", maybe you done the research right so you know some of the main points, "I love how it incorporates to this and that, management, as well as accounting, and finance, and I really appreciate that there's a project at the end so can you tell me a little bit more about that", just being I think open, honest, genuine, direct, and deliberate, I think all those things, I think we really look at, and appreciate, and really respect. And also from a time perspective you get to the point, you get to the, the meat and potatoes of what you're asking right, we can answer your questions better if you just tell us what you want right. I know that's probably a little, that's straightforward, but that's really what we want you to do, we want you to have already done that research and say these are the questions that I have can you please help me and answer those questions so I can make a more informed decision about where I want to be in my career. Megan Odom: And I say, one thing that didn't come up, but if you're waiting in line and you know you can, correct me if I'm wrong, kind of how I felt, if you're waiting in line and you are overhearing me talk about the position that I'm hiring for and you know you've heard pretty much all of it and you come up, I don't want to repeat the same exact thing right, we're standing there as employers they're standing there for four hours saying basically the same thing like a gazillion times, so if you came up and said "I hope you don't mind I overheard you know, I think I have a great understanding of your management training program, actually I have a couple follow up questions", my guess is Chantal is going to be like yes that is awesome because I don't want to repeat the same thing again, which she is happy to do, but it's so 30
refreshing, so don't hesitate if you're standing in line to kind of listen, don't be obvious about it but just kind of stand and listen. Sometimes they will bring you over if they have a couple people they will say "Oh yeah, come on in and let's yeah", I would too. Chantal Horton: I just "Come on, I'm just going to talk to you guys all at the same time". Megan Odom: Yeah, Yeah. Chantal Horton: "Let's do it", so it's like five of you guys or like more. Megan Odom: Yeah, much more efficient. Chantal Horton: It's the same information. Megan Odom: Absolutely so, yeah don't hesitate to do that. Okay so follow up, what type of follow up do you like to see from a candidate, from a career fair? Chantal Odom: Right, I like to see if I ve given you my business card or you've asked for my information, I do like to see a follow up email. You know if we've had a great interaction and it's something you've asked a lot of questions and your you're really serious about the position, and emails always good, it doesn't have to be a letter, I think handwritten letters are very personalized but I don't need it you know, I as a recruiter you know I'd rather just have a simple email you know I think we've evolved technology is where it's at, that email, text, all that stuff is really good. You know so, you know I've had external interviews where we had such a great connection with the candidate that they text me the next time they talk to me and they're like, "Hey Chantal just checking in, wanted to see if you had an opening", and I'm like "Hey! No but thanks for asking hope your weekend was great", but we have already established that report, so but understand where were at in the time frame right. Technology is for us to be efficient and be effective and quickly communicate, so emails are great, send me an email and just say "Hey, was great meeting you, I had some follow questions, or you know just wanted to tell you, you know had a really good conversation with you, really look forward to you, you know setting me up with interview if we've said that you can go to first interviews", so follow up emails are always great. Megan Odom: And I recommend that they have attached the resume. Does that, do you recommend, do you like that? 31
Chantal Horton: That's helpful, it's very helpful because you know, but we will have a copy of it, if they haven't given us a copy of it then yes I would definitely say attach your resume. But yeah I would say for reference it's always good because I like to kind of keep them in a little file, to kind of quickly reference, especially if something happened and we lost your resume or something which doesn't happen very often but sometimes in the shuffle of things, you know may have been misplaced or whatnot and it's like darn I talked to that one candidate and I can't remember you know, I don't have his information, so I think it's a really good idea too. Megan Horton: And what would you say, what would you say, let's say that you attend a career fair on average, let's say there is 800 students that attend, how many of those would typically follow up with you? Chantal Horton: Wow. So you said 800 students or... Megan Odom: It's a typical career fair, you leave and how many emails did you get? Chantal Horton: Not many right now, I think I would say I probably get maybe between 10 and 15 which I guess is a lot because we're not talking to all 800, we're talking maybe to 250 people. You know but I guess between the whole team because typically it's my campus team that's out here, they receive several emails as well, so we probably see between all of us maybe 50 emails of people replying to us and say "Hey thanks for the answers, can I ask more questions?", and it's good because it means you were engaged in the conversation,, it means that you were serious. I get a lot of follow ups, and half the time I'm going to give you more information that maybe you were unclear of, I'm going to be able to answer some questions that maybe you didn't have enough time to ask, so yeah it's always a good thing I think. Megan Odom: Yeah, I would say it sounds like about 5% of student s follow up from the fair, so you know it really does make you stand out, so I would heavily emphasize to follow up with the employers after tomorrow. Yeah? Audience Member: Chantal do you personally have a LinkedIn? Chantal Horton: Yes of course! Audience Member: So with the follow up would you prefer a follow up email or a follow up message to LinkedIn? Megan Odom: That's a good question. Chantal Horton: That's a really good question. It depends on what your intent is, I would say, I get a lot of students that will say "Hey can I, can I find you on LinkedIn?", 32
and they'll connect with me that way, well my LinkedIn is connected to my email like I have two accounts, so you can get me either on my personal account or my recruiting account, either way is fine but if it is going to be an at length conversation I prefer it to be on email just because sometimes I can't connect to LinkedIn via phone, it's not as efficient, so I said the email just depending on what you're looking for. If you're looking to make a quick connection LinkedIn is great right, but if you're having a long conversation, you have questions you need answered, you need an attachment, you need me to send you talking points on the MIT program internship, you need something from me, do it email it's just easier to work you through that because I have to go through a couple different windows to get into there so... Megan Odom: I know exactly what you mean. And I think you'll have varying answers from different, I think some employers are open "Hey, yeah, connect on LinkedIn that's great", other employers are like "I don't know you, I'm not going to connect with you", so just know that tomorrow, I mean everybody s going to have, there s different expectations all across the border, there's 71 different people that you are going to be talking, you know representing their companies and so just be aware of that. But I think it's a valid question to ask because it could be really helpful tool. Chantal Horton: Oh yeah, and I would say, I would, hundred percent of us should have LinkedIn accounts I mean if you don't as an HR person or recruiter it's kind of scary because that's how we connect, that's how we recruit externally because most of, you know I know some reps are just for University relations but I do all external recruitment for California as well, so that is my engine to connect with people and again most of us will have two separate accounts, I have a personal account, I have recruiting account so either way you know we want to connect with you, so yeah reach out I think sometimes it's really nice to say "Hey do you mind if I look you up on LinkedIn or do you mind if I reach out to you on LinkedIn?", and we'll almost always say yes. Audience Member: Would sending to both be too many? On email and LinkedIn? Chantal Horton: No, because LinkedIn I think you're trying to make the connection, right? You want to be part of the network, it's networking right. Email, "I want some more critical information, Chantal can you send something?" No problem, and it's easier again for me to send attachments, I can do it through LinkedIn too but again if we are going to have at length, to and fro conversation, back and forth, emails just my preference personally. Megan Odom: Great. Yeah? Audience Member: So I had a question, do you ever actually go and look up students on LinkedIn? Is it very important if you do have a LinkedIn account? 33
Chantal Horton: That is a very great question. Megan Odom: So I am just going to repeat the question, in case you couldn't here. The question is do employers look up candidates on LinkedIn? Chantal Horton: External candidates as in people that have been in the industry and I'm looking for a particular background and experience, yes all the time. That's actually how, that is one of my main vehicles or my main engines that I use to recruit is LinkedIn. LinkedIn, Indeed, CareerBuilder a little bit, Monster, all those things, but students? Not so much, if they connect with me then yes I'll look at it, but no I would say not as much, it's more external candidates, when I'm looking for someone to fill a particular position, it's really when I do see it because I don't see very often, it it's pretty cool that you guys have already like got into there and created a profile and even if you don't have a lot of experience, just to have your name and a basic profile of what you do, maybe you don't have a job but maybe you re a part of a lot of organizations or different groups that you're proud of and maybe you're the treasury or you're the vice president, to be able to see that especially when we're forwarding your name to OCI, to on campus interviews, it's nice to see that so I think it just gives you extra kudos, extra brownie points I guess again to see that you've kind of tapped into that networking because networking is very important in all these industries and business, whatever it is, very important so it's just another avenue that you can go down to network with these employers. Megan Odom: Yeah that's great. Does the size of the company matter in your decision of who to work for? Chantal Horton: I thought that was a really good question. Megan Odom: Yeah it is a really good question. Chantal Horton: I will say, I think that there is, there's a lot of things that you want to look at, and there are so many different layers to this question you know. I would say that you really want to look at a few things, longevity, stability right, so how long the company's been around, you know financials, are they going to be around in five years or is this a flyby night company that startup that just started or maybe that's what you're looking for, maybe you want to be a part of something that's just starting and you want to be the person that really implements change and a captain of change and doing something that's revolutionary, maybe that's what you want to right. So I think it's a matter of what you want, also culture, I think that that's probably the biggest piece, culture I know from a millennial sense, I've done research on this and there's tried and true information that tends to be probably the biggest thing that that students look for is culture, am I going to fit in, is this a culture that I 34
want to be part of, am I going to be happy long term, is this a culture that is casual is it really stuffy and professional, are the people that work there very traditional old school jaded people and they're not going to be open to my ideas and suggestions, that's a big deal, that's a big deal to me and I'm on the older spectrum of the millennial, but I'm still a millennial right so I want my voice to be heard and so if I am going to go into a company I want to make sure that I do research and make sure that my ideas and my perspective is going to be heard and their going implement things and we do that, even with our internship program, we have projects and our interns will say " These are things I think that really need to be changed", and we have implemented a lot of those change with technology in our business practices that we've done across the company. So I think you can learn things from small companies and large companies, it depends on what you want, I think culture is a big piece, size is a big thing, what is the trajectory, how can I move up, how do I fit into the organization is a big deal, location where are they at, am I going to have to relocate to Vegas you know to live there because that's the only corporate office and I talk about a particular business when I think Vegas. But Zappos for instance, their corporate office is in Vegas, they have no other offices, that's where you have to work, if you want to work for Zappos you're going to go to Vegas, are you okay with that? So I think there's a lot things, if you want to work for corporate office in Kohl's you got to go to Menominee Falls, Wisconsin... do you want to be in the cold, those are decisions that you have to make and really look at, and that's why the research, research, research, you don't have to do the research but it will behoove you to do the research so you know what you're getting into before you get into it right. So I thought that was a really good question. Megan Odom: Yeah I think so too. Yeah? Audience Member: I kind of have a separate question, but how would you go from the career fair to getting like a personal interview? Chantal Horton: It's all about the interaction in the first, think about you meeting us that's really your first interview. If we think that you would be a great fit and you have represented yourself as such, we will let you know right then and there, we actually hand you a half pager and it will have the directions and you have to go into both the school website as well as our website, you have to apply and then you apply on online as well, two separate links, we will also send you another email to confirm that we selected you for OIC, so you will know within those three minutes if we selected you or not. So think of it as an interview, it's an interview, those first three minutes that's what we are gauging on, we don't go back and say let's powwow on these 50 resumes because how can we remember all 50 of you that we've talked to, there's no way, so we have to do in the moment on the spot, so be very aware of that, and that is our process. 35
Megan Odom: And I was going to say, so I will just give you kind of other plans, everybody's different, unfortunately. So some employers you're going to go tomorrow, they're going to have their interview sheet, and you're just going to sign up for a time. We have all of our interview rooms on Thursday are full, so if you look around and you see all these doors, those are all interview rooms to 13 employers that are going to be interviewing on Thursday. We have lots of other employers that are going to be interviewing on Friday, and the next week, and the next week, and the next week, and you know what I mean it's going to be a process throughout the semester. Some employers don't have a formal program, so they're going to be at the career fair tomorrow, they have no clue when their interviews are going, I mean honestly you know they just don't have a formalized process. Some of them you re going to email a follow up and you will never hear back, some of them you're going to email them a follow up and you're going to hear it within five minutes. I mean and unfortunately there's just, it's it's completely different, but I think what is the most, what the best thing that I would do is ask, say what is the next step in the process, because you know that is why you're there right, you're there so that you can talk to these employers and get interviews so hopefully you can get a job. So definitely ask you know what their process is because most of them will know what their process and they will say "Great we are going to be back on campus in two weeks, you want to just go ahead and apply through job cat, or you know we are going to take the resumes, we're going to go ahead and notify you in the next week", and if you haven't heard back from them follow back up, they say you should hear back from us by next Friday either way, well great than following Monday shoot them an email and say "Hey just wanted to follow up, if you need any additional information let me know, blah, blah, blah", we're always looking for reasons to follow up with these employers. So, yeah? Audience Member: So with on campus interviews are those for the up front people, or you know the number one candidate, or are they mostly for everyone, or does it vary from company to company? Megan Odom: It completely varies, so some companies are going to be selective and they're going to say you know, it sounds like Kohl's is going to give the half sheets out to candidates they feel are a really good match, some companies are going to say "Hey I'm open, if you meet these requirements sign up for an interview", some of them are going to go back and have that powwow with their teams, they're going to bring back the recruiting team and they're going to talk about it for hours they are going to say these are the six candidates were going to choose to interview and then it's like you know, they're going to move forward. Some of them are going to, I mean it's just like all across the board, unfortunately. So yeah? Audience Member: Would it be appropriate to ask how they go about that or is that usually private? 36