Making the rounds on the D.C. networking scene, a lot of people ask me how I got my job with the Washington Nationals. I’m starting with a post on job fairs because the D.C. United are hosting one later today.

Last September I signed up for two job fairs, held about a week apart, hosted by the Washington Mystics and the D.C. United. I hadn’t been to a job fair since college, so I didn’t really know what I was going into. Some people were disappointed by the lack of open jobs, and that a lot of the ones that were available were internships and entry-level sales positions. It’s still a networking opportunity. The Nationals weren’t even doing interviews until November, but when November rolled around, they reached for that stack of résumés.

Job fairs can be scary and if you don’t go about them the right way, can be frustrating and seem like a massive waste of time. Here’s some advice for job fair navigation:

Have your elevator pitch ready. Know what you want to do, and how your strengths make you an ideal candidate for the position. As you probably haven’t been on the inside of a professional sports team, it takes some research to understand what jobs are available. TeamWork Online is a great resource for looking at examples of the organizational structure, as well as job descriptions. Another good place to look are team websites. You’ll find a list of front office executives,  helping you to see how departments are broken up and where the most jobs are.

Be realistic. I cringed every time someone said that they wanted to be a GM. You have to start somewhere. Take a look at the bios of general managers and executives and you’ll see how they got where they are. Those are the jobs you should be looking for. I worked in PR for five years and took an Inside Sales job. It got me in the door and when another position opened up, I was able to apply from the inside.

Be memorable. The guy who ended up hiring me told us he wrote notes on everyone’s resume so that he could put a name with a face. I’m sure seeing mine twice in one week helped me, but I like to think there was something about our conversations that made him call me when a job opened up. Find something that sets you apart. Don’t monologue or give a cookie cutter speech. Actually talk and listen to what they say back.

Be confident – even if you’re not. I fall into the school of “Fake it till you make it,” and tried to act like I knew what I was doing. A fellow job fair attendee came up to me later in the evening to ask me a question, and was surprised to find that I didn’t work for one of the teams. “You walk around like you work here.” I took that as a compliment.

Talk to the heavy hitters. If there’s an opportunity to pay extra for a networking event at a job fair, do it. One of the complaints I heard most often from people walking around the job fair was that they were having a hard time breaking into sports and had found that “it’s who you know.” Yet these same people balked at having to pay to sit down with CEOs and VPs. This baffles me. I can honestly say that I met people at these events that helped me tremendously throughout my job search – even if they didn’t have an open position at the time. Everyone knows everyone, and there is a lot of employee crossover among different leagues.

Follow-up. Then follow-up again. Now on the flip side of the job-seeking world, a lot of people contacted me after SEME looking for internships, jobs, advice, etc. I was still working Inside Sales at the time and was crazy busy with generating leads and building relationships. Sometimes an e-mail gets forgotten or gets buried in my spam folder. Sure there’s a line between being aggressive and being a stalker, but a second e-mail, or better yet, a snail mail letter, never hurts.

My bottom line: In the world of online applications, databases and e-mail, job fairs are a unique opportunity to put yourself in front of a group of employers who are traditionally harder to meet – especially in sports. You are more than your résumé, and job fairs give you the chance to prove that. 

What do you think? What’s your best advice for job fairs?

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