Last Wednesday I attended the camp fair in the student union. I was looking for a summer internship, but I also found myself analyzing my conversations with the various representatives in light of the sales principles we discussed in class.
The first person I talked to let me ask a few questions, and then he told me about the camp and its ministries. When I realized that it wouldn’t be a good fit for me, he didn’t try to convince me otherwise. While I won’t be applying for an internship there, it was still a good experience.
The next two tables I stopped at did a really great job. They spent the majority of the conversation asking me questions about what I was looking for and getting to know me. I also got to know the representatives a little bit through the course of conversation. I would estimate that only about one third of each conversation was spent talking about the internship opportunities. Nevertheless, I gave my contact information to both organizations, and I’m probably going to apply to at least one.
My next experience was not nearly as productive, and was even a little bit uncomfortable. When I first found the organization I was looking for, I thought it was going to be a good experience because a friend of mine was already there. It started out well. The representatives asked me my name and my major, but that was it. They never asked me anything else. They just started talking about how the internship would be a perfect fit for me. As the “buyer” in this situation, that was very uncomfortable because they knew almost nothing about me. It just seemed like they were running through their practiced pitch. They also assumed that the most important thing to me in an internship is fun. They talked about how much fun my summer would be if I interned with them for a solid seven minutes while I was trying to figure out how to leave. It was not fun, and I’m definitely not applying to intern for that camp.
These (very different!) experiences cemented in my mind the importance of knowing your customer, and knowing them well.
Ethan David
I like that you approached a recruiting situation as a “buyer.” You were trying to sell yourself as a worth candidate, but the hiring process is transactional. You also need to buy in to where you are planning to work, therefore recruiters must be salespeople, as well. This is a super interesting dynamic that you have highlighted.
The camp fair is such a great example of a sales situation that illustrates what we’ve been learning in class. It’s also interesting to consider that the initial stage of a job fair like this is a sales situation in which the buyer is the student and the seller is the camp. This dynamic flips when the student decides to apply and begins selling themselves to the ministry, which may or may not elect to ‘buy’ the skills and attributes represented in the student application.