Dean Landers, a 2008 mechanical engineering graduate, not only has experience interviewing and helping hire young college graduates looking for their first jobs, but he also knows firsthand what it’s like for those making a career change. He himself made a successful transition from being a high school physics teacher to a mechanical engineer.

Today, Landers leads the recruiting efforts for Kansas City-based engineering design and construction consulting firm CRB. The Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine caught up with Landers to get his insight on how jobseekers should get the most out of career fairs and other interviewing opportunities.

Recruiters like you meet a lot of people at the Career Fair. How can jobseekers and networkers make themselves stand out? 

In general, people will remember you if you can create a personal connection. Try and engage the people at the booth as people and not gatekeepers to a potential job. That general principle is true regardless of the specific interaction — for example, a potential client is a person first and foremost, not a paycheck.

There is no formula for this — Georgia Tech emits a collective gasp! — but one tactic is to try and squeeze in at least one short story that helps connect what you want to talk about with the recruiters. We employers love and remember a beginning, middle, and end. By the way, telling stories that demonstrate your abilities is an excellent interview tactic: Past behavior predicts future performance.

A simple and much less subtle tactic I’ve seen was a candidate who included a thumbnail-sized professional photo on his resume. We engineers tend to be visual thinkers, and the photo really made that candidate easy to remember.

Is there anything jobseekers do that turns you off as an employer?

For one, bragging — about GPAs, or just in general. Bragging is very different than confidence and self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses.

Other turnoffs include: lack of eye contact; poor handshakes; mumbling; the expectation that a resume can do all of the talking and selling, or that they are entitled to a job strictly based on their resume and experience; and treating us as means toward an end instead of as people.

What is your current role in your firm?

I am a mechanical engineer at CRB. I’ve had the opportunity to design a few different types of mechanical systems, do some cool simulations, and get my hands dirty in the field. I also lead the recruiting efforts for our Atlanta office, do a little business development, and assist some with project management.

Have you noticed any changes or trends over time in the way people approach meeting with potential employers?

No, but I expect to over the next couple of years. It was pretty universally acknowledged by my teaching colleagues that there was a big shift in how students saw the world in the brief time I spent in the classroom — that generational divide will be graduating in the next couple of years. It is easy to speak doom and gloom from the data points provided by their worldviews, but that is unfair and narrow-minded. It is nothing new for a generation to be coming at employers with a new spin on how they think the world works and how they fit in it. Generations have been different for eons. The specifics of our problems today are only shocking when they are detached from the bigger picture. I’m not certain how people will approach their potential employers in the future, but I do know that when people see themselves and the world in a new light, they will bring fresh perspective to our companies. That is usually a pretty good thing.

If you want an answer that is a little more specific and generic, I honestly think LinkedIn (and social media) is increasingly important. Do not be flippant about the image you choose to project of yourself through the Internet (I’ll often Google people after an initial interview). But everyone should be savvy about their social media presence by now.

Read the full interview with the Alumni Magazine.