Preparing for RCF

Agenda

• Preparation• Know Your Audience• Your delivery– Communication skills, etiquette,

follow-up

How to prep

• Know what you want to communicate–What are your skills/aspirations–What was the process like?

• Practice your “commercial” - intro & demo

• Prepare questions (FAQs)

Your Commercial• Name • Class (senior, junior, sophomore) • Major • Professional areas of interests/skill

sets and strengths• Lead-in to your project

Commercial Example• Hi, my name is John Zaro and I’m

a senior majoring in Information & Computer Science. I’ll be graduating in June and am particularly interested in multiplayer mobile game design for both Android and iOS. This is one of a handful of projects that I have worked on during my time at UCI.

Your demo and description

• Purpose of project– How did you get the idea?– What was/is your objective?

• What were your steps (planning, implementation, iterations)– What does is it do and how?– What technologies did you use?

• Demo your project and summarize

*If a group project, all members should be prepared to talk about both the whole and individual roles

Be prepared - FAQs• Why did you decide to do this project?• What was the biggest challenge/roadblock that you

had to overcome?• How does this relate to your professional

interests/goals?• What was it like working in a team setting?• In retrospect, what would you have done

differently?

Know Your Audience

• Which companies might drop by? – Check Zotlink for Career Fair attendees– If possible, attend the Career Fair beforehand

and let people know you will be presenting

• Recruiter or engineer (or both)? Prepare for both– Prepare for both the technical and non-

technical representative– Focus on what skills/tools you applied and

lessons learned

During the Reverse Fair• First Impressions

– Handshake– Non-verbal

communication– Eye contact– Smile– Speak with

enthusiasm/use hands

• Run Your demo & explain your project

During the Fair

• Ask if they have any questions

• Ask them questions!– Make sure to talk about

other projects or internships, research, start-ups, etc.

• Ask for a business card or have a sign-in sheet to collect contacts

• Thank the recruiter, ask if they are taking resumes

After the Fair

• Get organized• Follow-up with company

representatives• Be patient

What to Wear

• Professional attire• Be comfortable• Neat, clean, and pressed• Simple and conservative is usually best