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Eight Steps to Enhance Your Career

If you’ve ever sat at a red light, you know that just a few seconds can feel like an eternity.

During Women For Hire’s Online Career Fairs, you can connect directly with a recruiter or company representative for seven full minutes to learn about exciting opportunities to enhance your career.

Here are eight ways to make the most of your seven minutes:

1. Shift to a Better Career. If you want something different in your career, only you have the power to make it happen. Register for the March 27 Online Career Fair and join the Shift to change your mind for a happier, healthier and better life.

2. Do Your Homework. You can learn tons about who you’re meeting before you chat live. Several days before the event, login to your Brazen Careerist account and browse the company booths. When the event starts, you’ll be fully prepared with conversation topics, making your seven minutes a breeze.

3. Know What You Want to Say. Having your elevator pitch down is the key to maximizing the conversation, especially when it’s all text-based. Perfect it before the event. Copy and paste your pitch into each conversation where it fits. Bottom line: you’ll want a one or two-liner that will highlight your key assets and what value you can add to a company or organization.

4. Keep an Eye on the Clock. The timer will be counting down from the moment your conversation begins. Don’t let it make you nervous! Just keep your eye on the clock and be sure to say your “thank you” and “goodbye” before time expires to create a lasting impression. Don’t worry—if time does run out, you can drop a note or review your chat transcript and pick up where you left off later.

5. Practice Your Typing Skills. Websites like speedtypingonline and 10fastfingers measure your typing speed for free, and even show you how you compare with other key tappers. Practice, practice, practice! Not only speed, but also accuracy in your typing will improve your image at the Online Career Fair and help you excel in your career.

6. Ask Questions. In an Online Career Fair (and in a real life interview) a great way to keep the conversation going is a specific, open-ended question. Come up with a short list of questions for each company you’re planning to chat with before the big event, and use them to fill in any lulls in the conversation. Examples: Can you tell me more about XYZ Position? How does ABC company define or measure success?

7. Brush Up Your Resume. Our Online Career Fairs are your initial introduction. You’ll have more chances to impress with your verbal skills and polished look after the event in follow-up phone calls and interviews, but first you need to get your foot in the door. That means a tip-top resume. Recruiters can see it in real time during your chat, so be sure to format it clearly, and consider including a summary on top that highlights who you are professionally. Click here for sample resume templates and tips.

8. Make Encore Appearances. There are three Women For Hire Online Career Fairs this season alone, and a large handful of our employers are participating in at least two. As a jobseeker, the “one and done” attitude might not get you far, but a presence at two or even three events will set you apart as persistent and ambitious in your career search. Plus (as if you didn’t know this was coming), practice makes perfect!

Here’s some final good news: employers want to meet you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be there. The seven minute chat is your opportunity to learn about new opportunities while ‘wowing’ them by highlighting aspects of yourself that make you shine.

Follow our tips and you’ll be sure to make a lasting impression.

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