Virtual Career Fair Tips For Attendees

Tips to help you get ready to chat with representatives during the career fair:

• Prepare a short introduction (an "elevator pitch") targeted at each company that you can use when you first connect to a representative
• Prepare 2-3 questions to ask each interviewer
• Check your social media accounts and make sure your online presence is up-to-date and professional
• Prepare your "scripts" (responses to common interview questions) in advance and save them in a Word document that will be easy to cut and paste into your chat (questions such as: "tell me about yourself?" or "why are you interested in working for our company?")
• Prepare a folder of information (paper or electronic) that you can refer to during the interviews; include your resume, answers to interview questions, questions you want to ask, and company research
• Identify a quiet space where you can focus on the chats with employers during the fair
• How to Prepare Your Virtual Career Fair "Elevator Pitch" (includes examples)
• How to Prepare Questions for Recruiters (includes examples)
• You can also refer to our recorded workshops that cover topics like resumes, preparing for the virtual career fair, and preparing for virtual interviews! Links to these are found on our Virtual Office page!
• Maximize your time – Conversations during the fair are limited to 10-minute intervals! Spend time in advance researching the companies and preparing so you can best allocate your time with each company, prioritizing the questions that you have for each.

Additional preparation tips:

Take some time before the event to get familiar with the Brazen platform. Here are some text/video tutorials that can help:

• How to Register for & Chat in an Event
• Video & Audio Chats
• What can Booth Representatives see about me?
• How do I add or change my resume after I register for an event?
• How do I leave a message or a Drop-Off Note for booth Representatives?
• Why am I not being connected to chat with a booth Representative?
• How do I return to the event lobby?
• System requirements
• Testing Internet Connection
• Brazen Accessibility Guide

Research the companies that will be attending the fair. You can do that through the Preview Lobby when you register on Brazen, or through your Handshake account. The career fair will be hosted on Brazen, but employer registration is being handled through Handshake.

Here's a quick video tutorial that will show you how to access the list on Handshake, or you can click on the career fair preview pages below:

September 15, 2022 - Fall 2022 Software, Data Science and Finance Career Fair

October 6, 2022 - Fall 2022 STEM Career Fair

If you don't have a Handshake account, you can sign up for one here. This is an additional resource for jobs and events provided by CAEL, but please note that CAEL staff no longer vet these opportunities ahead of time, so we encourage all to use good judgement when applying for jobs/internships on Handshake. If something feels off, please reach out so we can help you assess the legitimacy of the opportunity.

Starting on August 26, 2022, you can find the registration links for the upcoming Fall Career Fairs through our weekly CAEL Newsletter (emailed to all students and postdocs), or through your Next Steps Caltech account. Alums that don't have a Next Steps Caltech account may sign up for one here, or email career@caltech.edu to request the registration links for the career fairs.

Here are additional tips for the registration process:

1. Complete the registration as required. You must register with your Caltech email address! (non-CIT registrations will be deleted.) Please do not sign up via Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn unless those accounts are connected to your Caltech email address.
2. You will be required to upload your resume. If it's not ready, submit what you feel comfortable with, then you can always upload a new updated resume later, but please upload it to your Brazen registration account at least two days before the live event.
3. If you would like to share your LinkedIn profile, make sure it is complete and accurately describes your skills and experience. Add your LinkedIn profile to your Brazen account so recruiters can pull that up when they are chatting with you.

Here are some tips that will help you during the event:

• Make sure your background and attire are appropriate for the event
• Make sure your computer, microphone (if needed) and other equipment are working
• Troubleshooting Audio & Video for Live Video Features in Brazen
• Additional troubleshooting articles on Brazen

Enter the Caltech/Harvey Mudd Career Services Booth to chat with an advisor

Contact Brazen support at support@brazen.com or submit an on-line request.

In the Event Lobby you will see the booths labeled with the company/organization name. Scan through them and decide which booths you want to visit (hopefully you have done this in advance and have your list ready.) Look for the estimated wait time and how many reps are available to chat to plan your interactions.

You may queue to chat in multiple booths at the same time (simply repeat steps 3-4 below for each booth you are interested in.) We suggest selecting 4-5 companies to wait for. This will allow you to take breaks in between chatting. You can select another group of companies once you've completed those chats.

When you enter the event, your chat availability is automatically set to "Available" during the event. However, in order to accept chats, you must still join the queue for a specific booth. You may toggle your status to "Away" at any time during the event to stop receiving chat requests from booths you are waiting for.

There are two ways to get in the queue to chat in a booth:

1. Manage your chats icon
2. Enter individual booths and click the green chat button

Important: If you are waiting for chats and you set your status to "Away," your place in the queue will be held for you. If you select "Cancel Chat" within a Booth, you will be removed from the queue for that Booth. You can select "Chat" again to be added to the end of the queue.

Click "Enter" on the booth you are interested in - you will be taken inside the virtual booth. From there, you can review the booth's content and any additional tabs, such as "Opportunities."

Click the green "Chat" button at the upper right to join the queue to chat with a representative staffing that booth. You will see that the button in the upper right-hand corner is now red and says "Cancel." You can always click that red "Cancel" button if you wish to give up your place in the queue for that booth.

Note: Some booths will use a feature called SmartQueue which requires you to specify an opportunity of interest and answer questions before being placed in the queue. When you complete the questions, you will be taken back to the booth and placed in the queue to chat.

You will hear an audible "ping" notification when it is your turn to chat with a representative and will be automatically taken to the chat screen. You will chat directly with a representative while on this page.

Note: Please make sure to respond to the chat invitation promptly, as the chat will time out if the invitation is not accepted in a timely manner.

The career fair is configured to limit individual chats to 10 minutes, but the representative can extend their chat by at least 2 minutes. The goal of the time limit is to allocate the time efficiently and accommodate meaningful connections between participants and recruiters.

All chats will begin as text chats. Only representative can initiate audio/video chat, but you can always ask them to switch to video after a brief introduction. Please keep in mind that some representatives may decide to only engage in text chats.

Note: It is important to keep an eye on your chat connectivity and the time left in your conversation. Bad connectivity can affect your ability to chat. If you are having trouble with your video connection, you may ask the representative to continue the conversation through text chat.

At the end of your chat, you will be taken to a conclusion page. This page will allow you to leave a message for the representative ("Final Thoughts"), rate your chat, and take notes about the representative or anything that was discussed. When you are done, click the "Continue with Event" button to return to the Event Lobby and wait to be connected with another booth representative.

Note: You do not have to enter the booths you have already queued in to be connected to a representative. You will automatically be connected if you are next in the queue for a booth, and you are not currently engaged in another chat. You will not lose your place in a queue if you are busy with another chat when your turn comes up in a different booth. You will be connected once you are available.

If you can't spend too much time at the event, or can't attend at all, you are still encouraged to register for the career fair. You can use the "Leave a Note" feature for booths that have enabled this. Look for the hyperlinked phrase "Leave a Note" above the list of representatives. Click on it and type your message for that employer/organization. The employer will receive your message along with your profile and a copy of your resume. This is a great way to connect with employers that you won't have a chance to speak with.

Note: The "Leave a Note" option is available before and during the live career fair event, but not after the event.

You can access your chat history for at least 6 months by clicking "History" in the upper right-hand corner of your screen from the lobby. To access the lobby after the event, enter the event just as you would if it were live.

Note: It's important to add notes and rate your chat, especially if you participate in more than one conversation.