WEBVTT

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My name is Adry Clark, and I am the director of 

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Service Learning and Career Development here at Western. 

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And I am here to talk to you about 

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how to be successful at the career fair.

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So as you probably know we have a 

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experience fair coming up on Wednesday. 

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We are going to have 55 organizations and companies here recruiting students

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for internships, and volunteer opportunities

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Career fairs are really about meeting

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people. So there are going to be all these people, coming here, setting up tables, 

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and hoping to meet our students.

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They are interested 

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Its maybe because they like the majors, or they like the 

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students they have met from Western before, 

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and they are interested in recruiting you for internships 

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volunteering, jobs, or just to get to know you 

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and kind of mentor you. Before going to a career fair it is always

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a good idea to do a little preparation. So one of the things you want

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to do is you want to look up who is coming. And you want 

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to research the companies and you kind of want to rehearse a little bit and what to say. 

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One of the things I wanted to show you real quick,

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is on Handshake, which you can access on your Portal

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you can see who is coming. 

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And here you can view all employers coming. 

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So you will have The Red Cross, Anytime Fitness, The Boys and Girls Club, 

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Catholic Community services, there are a couple of 

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healthcare companies, all kinds of different organizations that are 

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looking for students. So I would really strongly 

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encourage you to go on and find out information 

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maybe click on their website, and maybe learn a little about them. 

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So that when you come to the fair you can have some really good questions 

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and conversation points that you can bring to them. What you want to

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bring to the fair is, you want to bring a portfolio. 

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And that is really where you can keep some resumes, maybe a notepad, 

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to write down some points that you learned, or things you want to ask.

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It is best not to have a big 

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backpack, and you want to look as professional as possible. 

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So what to wear, thats always a big thing to think about as you are preparing for a fair. 

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What do you want to wear, that shows you are a professional, and shows you are going to 

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fit in with whatever environment you are going to. 

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you want to be professional, but for this type of fair, depending on who you are

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interested in, you are probably going to be more like a business casual type

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of outfit. So not necessarily a full on suit, 

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and things like that unless you want to talk to one of the accounting firms or 

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a corporation, you might wear like a sweater set or just

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more a slightly casual outfit. Dark slacks and a

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top, a button down, is a very safe choice. 

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So this is something you do not want to wear. You do not want to wear something

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that is to casual, or funny, or something like that. In a couple

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of weeks we will have a criminal justice fair, and its probably not a good idea to wear

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your terrorist shirt to that one. So introductions are really important, 

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so when you go to the fair you will see all these different tables that

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are set up. Some of them are going to be very popular, there is going to be a crowd

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of people around them, but when you really get your chance to talk to them, 

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and make that connection, you want to make eye contact, 

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You will make a comfortable eye contact so your body 

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language needs to be very positive and bright. So you want to smile and just

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be very friendly, and you want to offer a firm 

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handshake. So why don't you go ahead and practice with eachother real quick. 

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Give a nice, firm handshake. Just kind of grab 

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like somebody said,  couple of pumps, and 

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say your name, introduce yourself. So introduction

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is a really critical part, and we are going to practice that a little bit. 

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So what I have here with me, is something called the 30 second infomercial. 

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As a kind of a fill in the blanks, and I would love for you to

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if you want to you can fill it out now or you can just 

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fill it out in your mind. But what you want to include in a 30

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second introduction is something about 

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your major, your experience. Maybe some skill

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that you have been developing, and a little bit of 

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your goals. And just kind of practice giving 

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out a quick infomercial. So this is just practicing

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and by the time you go you are going to feel confident when they ask you

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so tell me a little about yourself. So during the fair, 

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you want to work your plan. you want to have maybe five or six

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organizations that you really want to visit and really impress. 

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But I recommend warming up 

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with some other ones. Warm up with some that you may not be as interested

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in, just to kind of get comfortable in that situation. 

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And then when you are ready, take a deep breathe and go talk with your employeers

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that you want to talk to and you want to connect with. What I would really 

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recommend, that in your research you kind of find some questions for each

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of them. Tell them that you went on their website and you read about this program

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and tell me a little more about that, and you will impress them. 

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More than you know, they will be so happy and they will think you are the smartest

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 person they have ever met. So some questions you may want to ask. 

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You want to ask something a little bit deeper. You might ask what are the traits 

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and skills of people who are most successful in this role?

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Why did you decide to work for this organization? What are some things 

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that your company has done that you are proud of? So you 

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can ask some deeper questions even if you do not have a lot of information. 

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What you do not want to ask is, so what do you do? 

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Because you can look that up. Its so easy to look that stuff up now. 

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What can your company do for me? You do not want to ask that. 

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You want to be about what can you do for them. 

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How many hours do you work? How much do you get payed?

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You do not want to ask those questions. Right now you are just

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exploring, and you are trying to make that connection. 

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At the time if they offer you a position then you can ask

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more about those things, and they will make you an offer and they will 

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give you that information in due time. 

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Before you leave the employer, ask for a business card.

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Often times they will hand that to you or you can ask, is that ok 

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if I get your business card. And then you can ask them what might be a way

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to follow up with you. Would it be ok if I emailed you? 

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I would love to follow up and send you my updated resume. Is that ok? 

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And then you want to thank the recruiter for his/her time. Afterwards, 

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make a few notes, if there was something you noticed cause what you want

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to do is send an email later, a thank you email, 

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but you also want to reflect on it. How did it feel

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to you, what was it like for you, what did you learn? 

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And is that something that you may want to explore?

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What does it say about your possible career exploration. 

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Cause you may have gone thinking one thing, and you are going to learn a lot, 

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and it gives you some food for thought as you are exploring your career options.

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And then follow up, write a thank you letter. If you write or just send 

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an email, if you write an email thanking them and referring to a 

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point in your conversation, I really appreciate what you told me about this, 

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and tell them what you learned, and helped you realize you

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it was a great fit for your goals. You just want to reiterate your interests, 

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they will be very very interested in talking to you because 

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now you are showing some good manners, and good professionalism. 

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Alright. So thats it, good luck!

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