Megan Riksen:

Hello, and welcome to the Work Like a Laker podcast. I'm Megan Riksen, and today I'm joined by my co-host Grace Pushman. Hi, Grace. And I wanna ask you a question to kick us off. What was your first career fair experience?

Grace Pushman:

My first career fair was as a student, so I was a graduate student at Grand Valley. I was getting my teaching certification and I heard, I think from a class about a, a career fair for out of state teachers. And I decided to go on a whim. I think I just had like free time that day and I was like, Okay, let's, let's try it out. And see, I didn't do any prep really beforehand. I don't think I brought resumes with me or anything like that. I did dress up a little bit and when I got there, I, I, it was at and Kirkoff in the Grand River room. And I remember being, thinking it seemed kind of fun when I first walked in because there was like swag everywhere. People were, you know, smiling, very friendly and chatty. It was a little overwhelming though because a couple of the employers actually asked me to do on the spot interviews, which I wasn't expecting. So, you know, I, I do think I would've definitely benefited by preparing a little bit beforehand, but it ended up working out okay, because I got my first group job there. I, you know, got a teaching position. So it was I'm really grateful that I had that experience because I ended up working in that job for three years. It was a great first teaching position. And yeah, it was something again that I just kind of did on a whim but it worked out

Megan Riksen:

<Laugh>. Awesome. Okay, so now I'm gonna bring in our in studio guest, Cindy Brown. Hi Cindy.

Cindy Brown:

Hi Megan.

Megan Riksen:

And I'm gonna ask you the same question. What was your first career fair experience?

Cindy Brown:

So, I come from the other side. So I was an employer and actually was at a neighboring universities, their, their career fair. And that was my first one, and it was, I can just, I can still picture it. There's a lot of students there, there's a lot of tables and, you know, the excitement of the career fair. Everyone's stressed professionally, they're excited, the students curious, but then there's also a lot of nervousness, right? So for sure that was one of the things like we wanted to, our company was very outgoing and, and very assertive. So we were constantly talking to people and we were, we would, we would grab a student by the arm, look at their name tags, see the major, and just ask, you know, some questions to 'em. And I think we, I spook some people because we would just go up to and say, What are you like to do?

Cindy Brown:

Right? You never thought about sales. And, and so that, that was kind of what we did. And it was kind of a, you learn as you go kind of a thing. I remember though, I was, I got, I got a little tired, so I remember going to the back of the booth to grab some water. And as I, as I, I had my back to the, to the, the, the group. I, I heard the gentleman next to me, the recruiter next to me say, We're looking for very energetic, outgoing people. That's really our culture. And I remember just whipping my head around and going, Who would wanna work there? Because you're, you're, you're selling a product and you're not selling what you say you are. He was, he was very, very monotone, just no, no excitement. So I was like, man, that's, that was a good tip for me because I did not ever wanna be that way. No matter how tired you get, how much your feet hurt you, you definitely wanted to be on stage that whole time so that you could talk to a student and show that the company was really outgoing and the people that worked there were really outgoing as well.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, absolutely. So I think both of you, Cindy and Grace, mentioned that it was overwhelming on both sides, right?

Cindy Brown:

It was absolutely overwhelming. I, you know, I, you you're trying to, you're, you're trying to talk to as many students as possible, try to remember every student. There's a lot of conversation going on, so trying to stay focused too. Talking one on one is, you know, it's something to get used to, but it's doable and it's fun and it can be a great experience because we would get a lot of the students that were either underclassmen or upperclassmen that were ready to go into a job, but those, those younger ones just wanted to hear about the company and it was a great way to get your name out.

Grace Pushman:

Yeah. And I think it's also good to remember as a student that you're not the only one nervous. So, you know, I think that kind of might help with your nerves a little bit too.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. Agreed. So Cindy, thanks for being here today. As you've said, you've been on the other side of the page from a student as an employer, but now you work here with us in the Career Center.

Cindy Brown:

I know. Isn't that exciting?

Megan Riksen:

It's so exciting. We're so happy to have you. So as our Employer Development Manager and today, if you all haven't guessed it from everything we've been saying so far, we're talking about career fairs and specifically career fair etiquette. So Cindy, we know you kind of jumped into this already, but can you tell us a little bit more about your experience with career fairs?

Cindy Brown:

Absolutely. So the company I worked for we hired entry level management trainee positions. So the college campus was ex absolutely where we went. And so career fairs were they were a really good way for us to get our name out. They were a really good way for us not only to get our name out with the students, but if any faculty walked through if, you know, just getting your name out to other employers of the type of candidate we were looking for, just because, you know you can, you can see a company as you're driving down the road, but you don't know about it until you have that conversation. As of what would it be like to work there? So we, we would bring other people with us to the table and, and we would just talk about experiences so that the student would get an idea of what would it be like to work there.

Grace Pushman:

And we thought this was a great topic for right now because we haven't had really in-person career fairs for over two years. Yeah. So a lot of students out there have never been to one and might not even know any of their friends who have been to one. And it is its own unique it has its own unique set of rules and norms at a career fair that I think it's important to know beforehand so that while you're there, you're not feeling worried or looking around for cues. So we thought that Cindy would be a great person to bring in to give some great career for etiquette tips to students.

Megan Riksen:

All right. You wanna kick us off, Cindy?

Cindy Brown:

All right. So the first one really is, you know, don't travel in packs to employers. And, and what I mean by that is if you're nervous or if you're an introvert, or if this is just something that you're just uncomfortable with, come with your friends and, and encourage your friends to come with you. But then, you know, split up if you can. You know, if as an employer it was really hard to talk to four or five students that came up and only two of 'em were looking for a type of position like you. So you would be talking to two of them and you would have to look them both in the eye and try to get an understanding of what they were, you know, what they were thinking of or what they were looking at. Because you, you only have maybe three, five minute, maybe five minutes. Yeah.

Cindy Brown:

Not very long, Yeah. To try to talk and ask some really good questions to just feel 'em out a little bit. And, and then I only had a short amount of time to be able to say, Hey, this, this is what it would be like to work here. So if I'm, if I've got two other people in the group, I don't wanna ignore them, but I, I really wasn't talking to them. But it was good for them to know about our company cuz you could also take, you know, you could purchase the service that we had, you know, from a retail stand more standpoint. But more importantly too, if they knew of people, they could also refer people to us too. So we, we would pay attention to 'em. But I really was focusing in on the two that, that maybe were interested in business or sales.

Megan Riksen:

I love that. Come with your friends. Yeah. And invite everyone, you know.

Cindy Brown:

Exactly. The more, the merrier.

Megan Riksen:

Oh, it's, then you kind of gotta individualize it a little bit.

Cindy Brown:

Exactly. Yeah. Cool. Exactly what's next? Second one would be to be on stage and to know when you're on stage. So there's a lot of people that have had the Disney experience or know people that worked at Disney. I've done that internship where you are on stage no matter what, even if you're in the restroom, cuz there's gonna be employers in the restroom, right? Even if you're at the, you know, grabbing a glass of water and just taking a break in the hallway, there are gonna be people there that are gonna be looking at your name tag to see what your degree is see what your, you're focused on so that maybe they'll have an opportunity to talk with you because not every student comes to every booth, not every student, you know, has the opportunity to do that.

Cindy Brown:

Cuz it's short on time usually. So, you know, when you're there, be, be ready. This is like an interview, like Grace said, this is kind of like a little bit of an interview and it's a first impression more than anything. And we all know no matter what through a pandemic or not, first impressions are so important. And so for, for being on stage, I really would recommend, you know, just taking a deep breath, have have a little bit of a plan and we'll talk about that. But just, you know, be you don't, don't get nervous because on the other side, the employers, they just wanna talk to you. They just want, they're proud of their company they work for, they just wanna talk to you. So I wouldn't be nervous per se, I would just get up there and say, Hey, let you know, tell me about your company and then talk about yourself and, and just put it out there what you're looking for.

Grace Pushman:

And when you think of them being on stage, how do you feel about students on cell phones if they're walking around the career fair?

Cindy Brown:

So, you know, that's the fun part. You know, as an employer, I've gotta take some sort of note. I, because I'm not gonna remember 35, 45, 50 students or more in that timeframe. So I'm gonna be taking some sort of note and I encourage students to take notes. I encourage you to have a portfolio. If you use a cell phone for notes, then use it, but explain it, you know, just, just let the recruiter know and just say, Hey, I'm gonna take some notes on my phone if you're good with that. And they're, yeah, they want you to take notes because we understand too, as you're going around to different tables, you're not gonna remember everything. So, you know, write down what you can and then you can send a really good follow up email with them afterwards.

Megan Riksen:

What a great sign of engagement. Absolutely. When you see somebody taking notes on what you're saying, you're like they actually care.

Cindy Brown:

Exactly. Not just the uhhuh uhhuh and shaking, nodding of the head, right? Yeah, exactly.

Megan Riksen:

Like, ooh, that's cool. I need to remember this. So I'm writing that down, right? So yeah, I love that you're like, just use the phone if you must. Right. But let 'em know what you're doing.

Cindy Brown:

And and the third one would be, you know, don't assume that they remember you. And, and what I mean by that is, you know, a career fair, you, you come in from an employer's perspective in a mindset, I'm gonna be talking to a lot of students about my organization, I'm gonna be repeating myself a lot. And a really good person that works, these, these fairs understands that I'm gonna be asked the same question over and over and over. So, you know, once again, be on stage, be happy about it. But, but the big point about it is, you know, a student might come up and say, Gee, Cindy, I I remember you from but you may not tell me who you are. And, and, and so, you know, I'm, I'm a person too. I'm out in the public. I may see you at a different event and stuff.

Cindy Brown:

I might see you in a different context. So when you come up dressed up in, you know, your professional clothes, I may not remember who you are. We had Zoom you know, zoom meetings, maybe I couldn't look you right. Dead in the eye, so I couldn't tell and remember who you are. So just re remind us and just say, Hey, I met you at, I met you when you said this, or I asked you this question because that way then I'll have another little bit of an understanding. I may not be thinking I'm gonna see people that I, that I've known before.

Grace Pushman:

And I feel like that ties in to what you said earlier about making a good follow up email, where you also wanna do the same thing in that too. Remind them of your conversation because again, they're, they're talking to a lot of people at the career fair as well. So even though maybe you just met earlier that day or the day before, you wanna still remind them? Absolutely.

Cindy Brown:

You are. Absolutely. So the fourth, the fourth piece would be don't just walk up to a table and say, what do you do? Right? So the company I worked for people would come up and say, Oh, wow, what do you do? Are you hiring anybody like me? You know, just, you have your phone with you, right? So this was a, this was, this was a little bit of a pet peeve on our, on the employer side is at a click of a button you can find out what my company does. And there's gonna be, we're gonna have information for you at the career fair. So you're gonna be able to, to, to, to research it. Even on the spot, you'll be able to research that company. If you're walking by and you say, Geez, these guys look fun, or this company looks like something I might wanna do, you'll have a second to research it. You'll have, you know, you can do that. And then when you come up, you'll be ready to say, I saw this, you know, I saw this about you. I'm a marketing major, I wanna go into social media. I wanna go into I wanna go into a teaching. I wanna, I wanna be a, a, a trainer. Would, would you have something for me? I see that you do this. If you show me any, just anything that you're excited,

Grace Pushman:

Just a smallest amount goes very far.

Cindy Brown:

Smallest amount. Just tell, tell me you know something about me. I'm gonna be excited. Now, on the other hand, if I grab you out of the crowd, you, you're not gonna have the time to do that. So then of course, ask those questions, but, you know, come with a little bit of research and knowledge just so that we can start that conversation.

Grace Pushman:

And I do think as well where students can look beforehand too. So when you're at the career fair, one of the cool things is you might see a table that looks interesting to you, and then you can search on your phone and find out info. But beforehand you can also look through the list and do some prep work before you attend so that you don't have to do that with every company you you're interested in.

Cindy Brown:

Exactly. Which, which leads into don't dismiss a company. Right. there are a lot of people that drive by our healthcare systems and say, Yep, I'm not, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a nurse, I'm not gonna be able to work there. When in all actuality there, there's positions in it and marketing and HR in all these other positions. So really good point. Yeah. And so, you know, you don't wanna dismiss it. If, if someone would've said to me, Cindy, you're, you were gonna work at for 16 years at a rental car company, I would've said what I like, I wouldn't even have thought that. But, but that's where I started and that's where my career was. And I was able to move into different positions recruiting and other things. I, I would never have thought, like in my mind, I never would've thought that's where I was going to work. I didn't know about it. So as, as our, as our world of work is changing and companies are being created, there could be a, a company that you don't even know about that you might wanna work at after talking to them at the career fair. It, it doesn't hurt you to just have a conversation with somebody at that career fair. You never know.

Grace Pushman:

And I remember you saying something to me about like, let's say a student's, a history major, right? And they come up to a table that's like, you know, a business, right? How do you feel like that student might be able to frame a question to that employer to see if they're open to the conversation?

Cindy Brown:

Absolutely. You know, if, if they've got positions available that you've seen, or in the course of the conversation while the recruiter might be explaining the company, if there's a position that you're of that's of interest to you, you just ask and say, Hey, I see that you have a marketing position. I'm getting a history degree. I've had this type of work experience. And if you have then that, that, that helps because it's not only, it's not only the, the degree, it's also the skills, but it's not only just the skills, it's also the education. So it's a little bit of both. And then how do you, how are, how do you use those skills and how do you transfer those skills to the position that you're in today? As a, as a straight up general business major, I mean, every job has had some sort of relation to that. It's related to that. But I know that I've hired history majors and English majors all different types of people for a sales position because if you've served, you can talk about an example of, of sales. Absolutely.

Grace Pushman:

Yeah. Thank you for pointing that out because I feel like that's something we as advisors try to talk to students about all the time is that their experiences really matter and yes, majors do have an impact, but that's not all that counts to employers.

Cindy Brown:

Right? Absolutely. It's a little bit of both. And it, and a lot of its personality. I mean there's, you know, there's things that employers will say, you know, we can, we can teach you the, we can teach you my company. I need you to have those soft skills. I need you to have that dependability it. And, you know,

Megan Riksen:

So many of those things you can demonstrate in a conversation at a career fair. So many soft skills.

Cindy Brown:

Absolutely. And it doesn't, you know, even if you're, if you're a history major, you can be dependable. Right? Exactly. You have sales skills.

Megan Riksen:

All of us you think critically.

Cindy Brown:

Absolutely. All these things. Yeah. Problem solve all of those things. So, absolutely. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. All right. We've got two more. So the, the, the last or the second to the last one is it, it's not Halloween, right? So you don't, one, you don't wanna just go around to every table and just grab all the free stuff cause there's gonna be some cool stuff. Remember, employers haven't done this in two years. Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

So they got probably budgets for this.

Cindy Brown:

There's probably budgets for it. And they, they're trying to figure out a unique way and a cool way to get your attention. Right. And so yes, take the swag cuz number two, we don't wanna take it back home with us either, right? So take the swag, but have a conversation with them. Don't just, you know, when they're in a conversation with somebody else, grab what they've got and walk away. So, you know make sure that you're, you're taking the time to ask a question and then ask if you can take whatever it is on the way.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah. There's some pretty cool stuff now. There's a

Grace Pushman:

Lot little speaker out there out there, wireless speakers

Megan Riksen:

And things. There's

Grace Pushman:

Some good stuff. There's a lot

Cindy Brown:

Of good stuff.

Grace Pushman:

I remember when fidget spinners were right. A thing, every table had fidget spinners. So there's a cool new thing happening right now. There'll probably be some swag of that.

Cindy Brown:

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. And the last part is dress the part. So this is one that I know that we've been internal conversations about, and we're all trying to just get a handle on this. And it's a question that I have been asking employers too. What is your dress code and what is your culture like? So if you have certain companies that you're really interested in and you can research them, you'll have an understanding of what their day is like, I still would recommend you come professional. That's me personally. Yeah. You know, I agree. I'm kind of, you know, business is still a little bit conservative, so, you know, this career fair kind of thing is, is a little more conservative. Be yourself though, right? I mean, I, whenever I'm doing, when I would work career fairs in that I would have my, my Mickey Mouse earrings on. I would have a bright blouse on underneath or, you know, socks if it was winter or whatever. Just something fun that people, you can show that you're not just a robot, Right. That you're an actual person. You have a personality. So there are things you can do. I don't wanna take that personality, your personality out of the equation, but, you know, I, I still, you know, people say, well, the, the recruiters might come in polo shirts or whatever, they have the job, Right?

Megan Riksen:

A lot of them do, jeans and polo shirts.

Cindy Brown:

Right? Yeah. And that might be the new culture. Yeah. But it's still good to come professionally dressed to say, Hey, I'm really serious about these positions. But I will tell you, if you're hearing this on the day of the career fair and you're in between classes and you don't have a professional suit on, still come to the career fair and talk to people. Right. We're not gonna turn you away. We want you to, we want you to get out there and get that experience and have the opportunity to talk to an employer. But, you know, that first impression that kind of, that business dress is, is what I would recommend.

Megan Riksen:

Yeah, that's great. Awesome. Well, this was fun.

Cindy Brown:

I know, right? Yeah.

Megan Riksen:

<Laugh>, I loved being able to, you know, kind of think back to two years ago to in-person events that we actually did. My gosh, that feels like a very long time. Especially for an event this big. Right, Right. Our career fairs this, this one this fall they're gonna be a lot of students and employers there. So we hope that some of these little tips and tricks have been helpful just to kind of calm those nerves a little bit as you're walking over to DeVos Place, walking across the river, taking the bus, however you choose to get over there. So anything else for the, for the good of the podcast today?

Cindy Brown:

I think if you're nervous. Yeah. See one of us you'll see, you'll see the the staff of the Career Center and other volunteers. Just, just talk to us and just That's

Megan Riksen:

Great. We'd love to help, especially at the event.

Cindy Brown:

Right? Yes. I mean, it just help We'll, we'll help you as much as we possibly can and we can, you know, we'll walk you to who we think you should go talk to. Right, exactly. Yeah. But just, you know, we can, we can start that conversation and get you used to it before you go up to the actual recruiters.

Megan Riksen:

Yep. I love that. Great. Well thanks so much Cindy. Thank you for being our expert today. Thank you for having and thank you to everybody who's listening, and we hope you tune in to a future episode soon.