Fast Track Your Career at a Fed Job Fair

Here are a few tips Monster has passed along to Fast Track Your Career at a Fed Job Fair:

Refresh your resume and make copies

Having an update to date resume is important obviously. Try your best to keep it under one-page.
Read our Federal KSA Writing Guide for tips on how to prepare your KSA for a federal application.

Dress professionally

With such little time to make an impression towards a potential
employer, it is important you look your best. For Men: Sport jacket
with shirt and tie. For Women: knee-length skirt and appropriate top.
Most public servants and government employees dress in professional
clothes every day. If you don't have a suit at home, there may be
services in your area that can provide a suit for you:

http://www.careerwardrobe.org/


http://www.dressforsuccess.org/



http://www.careergear.org/

Prepare your elevator speech

What makes you, well YOU! This isn't an
easy question to ask as you may be shy about highlighting your
achievements. You may even be embarrassed or think you're foolish to
talk about previous workplace success if you searching for a new
career. With All of this is ballyhoo. Having a strong pitch
demonstrates that you are comfortable in who you are what value you can
provide a company. As important as it is to understand your strengths,
it's equally important to be aware of your weaknesses. Here's a quick
way to break this down. It'll take you 10 minutes tops:

1. Grab a sheet of paper


2. Title it with the position you are interested in


3. Fold/draw a line in the middle.


4. On the left side, write down what you think are your strengths or previous experience for the job in question.


5. On
   the right side, write down the tasks, skills that may not be your
   strength, or are things that don't appeal to you about this position.

Once you have this done, practice what you are going to say. The more comfortable you are, the more confident you will become.

Smile - wear your positive attitude

Being positive is all that matters. According to happier.com,
happy people have less anxiety and depression. Happier.com provides
tools to help you track your happiness and increase your resiliency.
Having a positive outlook can give you a leg up on the competition.

Bring a pad of paper and take notes

If you attend a Keep America Working event, Monster has career
guides available to give tips to help you shine. But it's always
important to be able to jot down notes, names, emails, and phone
numbers of the people you met while at a career fair.

From GovCentral

Job Seekers waiting in line to speak with the Department of Homeland Security about current openings. (Photo: GovCentral)

Chris McConnell | GovCentral

WASHINGTON - We.
Are. Hiring. Reassuring words to hear, especially when the economy is
still giving mixed signals. On Thursday, hundreds of job seekers and
dozens of employers participated in Monster's Keep America Working tour
stop in Vienna, VA, outside of Washington D.C.

Since March, the Keep America Working tour has canvased the country
connecting employers who are ready to hire immediately with
high-quality job seekers. The tour is free for job seekers and will
last through the end of the year. Find the next KAW tour stop in your area.

Of the 20-30 employers booths, but I was most interested in the four
federal agencies who were in attendance and wanted to see what jobs
they currently had open..

The booths manned by the Department of Homeland Security, United
States Postal Service, Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the Board
of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (The Fed) received a lot of
attention while I was visiting the event. This was a wise move for a
job seeker.

As we reported last week, the Partnership for Public Service, in
their "Where the Jobs Are" report, expects over 600,000 new hires by
the end of 2012. DHS is projected to hire for 65,730 mission-critical positions in that time. The Department of Justice, which the FBI is a part of, is projected to hire 18,767 employees. More specifically, DHS as well as the FBI are looking for contract and acquisition specialists to help write, mangage, review, and procure millions of dollars in federal contracts. The Fed and USPS were not included in the projections.

Speaking to a representative with the Postal Service, he indicated they are hiring for marketing positions as well as a variety of engineering jobs.

I wasn't able to speak with the Fed, but according to their website, they are openings for economists, attorney's, and law enforcement professionals.

Rep. Jerry Connoly (D-VA)
who represents the Vienna area, sent staff to the event to provide
information about the constituent services they provide. Members of
Congress aren't allowed to assist your government job search, but they
can help you navigate the federal bureaucracy if you are in need of,
and have been unable to receive, veterans benefits, medicare, medicaid,
etc. These consituent services are provided by all members of Congress.
You can look up your representative at http://www.house.gov/.

Here are a few tips Monster has passed along to Fast Track Your Career at a Fed Job Fair:

Refresh your resume and make copies

Having an update to date resume is important obviously. Try your best to keep it under one-page.
Read our Federal KSA Writing Guide for tips on how to prepare your KSA for a federal application.

Dress professionally

With such little time to make an impression towards a potential
employer, it is important you look your best. For Men: Sport jacket
with shirt and tie. For Women: knee-length skirt and appropriate top.
Most public servants and government employees dress in professional
clothes every day. If you don't have a suit at home, there may be
services in your area that can provide a suit for you:

http://www.careerwardrobe.org/


http://www.dressforsuccess.org/



http://www.careergear.org/

Prepare your elevator speech

What makes you, well YOU! This isn't an
easy question to ask as you may be shy about highlighting your
achievements. You may even be embarrassed or think you're foolish to
talk about previous workplace success if you searching for a new
career. With All of this is ballyhoo. Having a strong pitch
demonstrates that you are comfortable in who you are what value you can
provide a company. As important as it is to understand your strengths,
it's equally important to be aware of your weaknesses. Here's a quick
way to break this down. It'll take you 10 minutes tops:

1. Grab a sheet of paper


2. Title it with the position you are interested in


3. Fold/draw a line in the middle.


4. On the left side, write down what you think are your strengths or previous experience for the job in question.


5. On
   the right side, write down the tasks, skills that may not be your
   strength, or are things that don't appeal to you about this position.

Once you have this done, practice what you are going to say. The more comfortable you are, the more confident you will become.

Smile - wear your positive attitude

Being positive is all that matters. According to happier.com,
happy people have less anxiety and depression. Happier.com provides
tools to help you track your happiness and increase your resiliency.
Having a positive outlook can give you a leg up on the competition.

Bring a pad of paper and take notes

If you attend a Keep America Working event, Monster has career
guides available to give tips to help you shine. But it's always
important to be able to jot down notes, names, emails, and phone
numbers of the people you met while at a career fair.