[NFBMI-Talk] Announcing 2021 Virtual National Career Fair - National Federation Of The Blind

[Kane Brolin]

Greetings to fellow members and partners of the National Federation of
the Blind.

This comes from Richard "Dick" Davis, who chairs the NFB Employment
Committee and who has worked tirelessly for some 50 years to help
blind men and women attain equality, opportunity, and productivity in
the workplace.

Our virtual 2021 Career Fair occurs on Tuesday, 6 July from 1:00-4:00
PM Eastern Daylight Time.  You do not have to be a Federationist to
take part in the Career Fair.  You do not need to have registered for
the 2021 National Convention, either; you have 26 more days to
register for Career Fair than to register for National Convention as a
whole.  But it is important to follow the various rules and procedures
set forth below--particularly the deadline.  As you will see, we have
a hard deadline for the Career Fair of
Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 5:00 PM Eastern. .  This same procedure was
emphasized last year, and I know from personal experience that no
exceptions will be made to the June 26 deadline.

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Dear Job Seekers,

For the second year in a row, we are conducting the National
Federation of the Blind National Convention virtually. Our 2021 Career
Fair will also be held as a virtual event on the Zoom platform on
Tuesday, July 6 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

You are now able to register for the career fair at
https://nfb.org/form/career-fair-jobseeker-registration. Registration
will close at 5 p.m. ET Saturday, June 26. Nobody will be able to
register after that date.

Cutting off registrations a week before the career fair will enable us
to send employers your resumes and send you their contact information,
so you can touch base with them and perhaps set up a  time for them to
talk to you at the career fair.

When you register, make sure that you attach your resume, as you will
not be able to attach one later. You can find a useful resume format
in an article I wrote for the May 2021 Braille Monitor:
https://nfb.org//images/nfb/publications/bm/bm21/bm2105/bm210516.htm.
It is extremely important that you check your resume and registration
carefully to make sure that both accurately show your qualifications
and the type(s) of employment you are seeking.

Two complaints we have received from career fair employers are that
some job seekers did not have resumes and did not know what they
wanted to do. Our employers are looking for people to hire; they are
not career counselors. Please register only if you are looking for a
job, whether full-time, part-time, summer, or internship.

I’m happy to say that after a year of Zoom meetings, we know a lot
more about how to run a career fair, so I hope the problems some of
you had last year will be a thing of the past. If you attended our
career fair last year, you know that some employers choose to expand
their space to have a waiting area and interview breakout rooms, while
others may greet and interview people in the same room.

Last year, we had a Zoom room for the Employment Committee, in which
we were able to provide help to job seekers. That service will be
expanded this year. In addition, we plan to hold an online meeting in
June to provide more information to job seekers about the career fair.
We will let you know when it happens. On Tuesday, July 6, from 10:00
a.m. to 12:00 p.m., there will be an orientation to the career fair.
You will be able to meet the employers and learn what they offer, as
well as get any last-minute questions answered.

Following the career fair, we will hold our annual Job Seeker Seminar
from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. On Wednesday, July 7, our Upward Mobility
Seminar will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and on Thursday,
July 8, our Employment Committee Meeting will be held from 10:30 a.m.
to 12:00 p.m. See the convention agenda for more details.

Questions? Please contact John Dubay at
jdubay at strategiccontactsolutions.com or Dick Davis at
ddavis at blindinc.org.

Best wishes,

Dick Davis, Chair
NFB Employment Committee
==============================