Now let’s talk about Company Information Sessions.  The basic idea with a company info session is that one single company will come during lunch (or dinner), provide food, and give a PowerPoint slideshow stacked with information about their company.  They also will take resumes, which can be very useful if the info session is before the career fair (i.e. you can use this to make an impression on the company before you even go to career fair!)

How do you find out about these sessions you ask?  Typically, they are student sponsored events, and advertising is done by flyering on campus, whiteboards/message boards around student-group offices, and by websites.  You simply need to do a bit of work to find out what groups are hosting companies, and go from there.  Email someone from the organization if you need to, they can usually point you in the right direction.

Info Sessions are underutilized and underrated in my opinion.  Most people use them for the free food.  I would say that most people who attend have to be at least moderately interested in the company, but that isn’t always the case either.  That gives you another advantage in that if you find you are interested in the company, you can stay afterwards and ask questions of the recruiters to learn even more.  I strongly believe that if you give them the impression you are genuinely interested, you will be much more likely to see positive results from them (possibly by getting an interview invite!).

There are a few things to look for in the company presentation:
            What positions are they recruiting for?  Do they adequately describe and detail them out so that you can understand what they are?
            What industry is this company in?  Is it an industry you want to be a part of?
            Are the company presenters you meet young?  Old?  Nice?  Mean?  Do they like their job and company?  Are they passionate about it?

Those are just a few of the questions you should be asking yourself as you go to these presentations.  You can learn a lot about the company that they aren’t saying by paying attention to they way they talk about their company and their attitudes about it.

Back to The Career Fair...or... continue on to School Job Posting Websites

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