Good Morning Geographers and Sustainers,

Just wanted to make sure that all of you were aware of the two upcoming job and internship fairs this month. Find all the details on Handshake.

• The in-person event is coming up on February 22 and has 9! pages of organizations attending.
• The virtual event is coming up on February 24. Just glancing through the list I saw that TDEC, TVA, and the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) will be there and may be of interest.

 

Preparing for the Events

• For those of you who took 499 last semester, you know that the best way to find a job is by talking to people and these in-person and virtual events are great opportunities to talk to lots of different people representing lots of different types of organizations.
• Look through the list of attending organizations and identify the ones you want to meet with. If you have to schedule the sessions in advance, reserve the ones you are most interested in for later so that you have some time to “warm up” with other employers and recruiters.
• Remember that most of these organizations will not be sending domain specialists to this event. A lot of these folks work in HR and are recruiters. The only thing they’ll know about geography is that you study rocks 😉 That means it’s on you to translate your skills into the vocabulary that resonates with the recruiter.
• If the organization lists specific positions they are hiring for, be sure to create a customized version of your resume for that specific position. In most cases, the recruiter will take their stack of resumes and scan them all to add to their applicant tracking system (ATS). The more relevant keywords, skills, and experiences you have, the more likely you’ll show up in their post-event searches.
• Dress the part, even for the virtual event.
• Come prepared with questions.
• Better yet, use the information that Alexis and her team provide to brush up on your informational interview skills or check out the interactive exercises for informational interviews on the Big Interview platform.  

 

If you need a crash course in getting ready for the event, be sure to check out my still-work-in-progress career coaching guide. Use the headings on the left side of the Google Doc to navigate to the relevant sections.

 

Michael Camponovo

GIS Outreach Coordinator

Geography Department, UT Knoxville

209A Burchfiel Geography Building

1000 Phillip Fulmer Way

Knoxville, TN 37996

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(865) 974-5348

https://gislab.utk.edu