How can I stand out to the recruiter? My resume is unconventional and I’m (I think) competent at networking, but it still just feels like a numbers game. Is that all career fairs are? Or have you had different experiences where something worked for you?
Have two talking points based on recent news releases and one on company culture for each A firm. When you go to the fair, learn from the B firms: what are they pitching (they might switch to A status), and most important of all, use B firms to master your general networking/pitching.
Then, and only then, go stand and smile next to the A firm recruiter—yes the one talking to others. Stand patiently and smile. Once they notice andEngage with you, start drawing your talking points from memory. If you like the way it goes, hand then your card. Your card should not be cute, it should be clean. Recruiters talk to a ton of people at student fairs, when you hand them your card after speaking intelligently to them, they take notice and they pocket your card. Given that 99% of the other students don’t have cards, the recruiter will walk away with a dozen or two tops. And, when they receive your thank you email in their inbox the next morning, they’ll grab a hotel pen, find your card and put a start on it.
Congratulations, you just made great impressions on your favorite companies.
Just remember, even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat. So, use that first internship to learn tools, write down ALL the stupid things you see the firm doing, write this down in notebooks. You will fill three this summer and three next summer. Three years after graduation, you’ll have many notebooks covering all the things you don’t ever want your company to do.
Congratulations, you just increased your startup’s likelihood of making it to an A round by 100,000%
I could keep going, but I’m going to save the rest for chapters 2-10.
Final thoughts: be thoughtful, be hyper critical of everything you observe at fairs and jobs—but keep that to your self, and rather than getting frustrated, take that energy and ask yourself how YOU will do it differently when you’re the boss.
I'm pursuing a Math degree, and my strategy has been to tailor to tech companies by getting involved in organizations and starting side projects. I've interned at [LARGE GRAPHICS CARD COMPANY] after my sophomore year because I did signal processing for a student organization.