How to ask professors to network for jobs?

What to ask job recruiters

• Going to a job fair hosted by the local community college next week. My interest is I.T. (Network/Sysadmin, preferably) I'm going to it to gather information on how to get a job, rather than the actual job. What questions should I ask the company reps? Background info: The fair is at CCAC South Campus, Pittsburgh. My preferred area of focus in IT is network or system administration. I am 75% through an associates degree in information technology. I already have an associates in computer aided drafting. As far as experience goes, I am the typical go-to guy for my friends and coworkers when their computers get a virus, or otherwise screw up. I am currently volunteering with a small IT department at a non-profit. I've been there 6 months. They have me working on figuring out how to deploy Windows 7 to 300+ machines, which is a learning experience to say the least. I don't see myself as being very employable yet. I finish my degree in the fall, and can hopefully continue to volunteer until then. I'm learning fast, but I have a long way to go. It would be nice if my CADD degree helped me out when looking for IT jobs with architecture or engineering firms. I would like to ask the recruiters exactly what they are looking for in an entry-level candidate. I worry that I will get a fairly boilerplate response if I phrase the question that way: "Good written and oral communication skills", "ability to handle deadlines" etc. I suppose the question I really want to ask is "what do I need to do/learn now so that, later on, I'm not wasting your interviewer's time?" Is there a better way to ask that that would get me a deeper response? Or am I on the right track?

• Answer:

  Ask them what their hiring process is, when the key times of year are to apply, what sort of resume format they want, can you get their card, find out if they're pr/hr/managers/grunts who do the work, ask them to critique your resume (maybe not to see whether your resume is any good, but to see their thought process for evaluating resumes in general), try to find out which jobs they're having a hard time filling, whether they have a program for new interns that allows an abridgement into full-time employment, how long the hiring process is, etc etc... I never had the nerve for job fairs but they're a great chance to network if you can hack it.