ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals For America) was the first national Latino professional association in the United States. For 50 years, the organization has been Connecting Latino Leaders for Impact. ALPFA’s mission is to empower and develop Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy.

ALPFA currently serves more than 100,000+ professional and student members across the country. In addition to networking and professional leadership development opportunities, ALPFA members have access to over 50,000 paid summer internships through hundreds of Fortune 1000 corporate partners. Click here to learn more.

Talk to your manager, explaining the value of this personal and professional development opportunity. A good manager that has your best interests at heart will understand and be supportive.

The ALPFAmilia is an open, welcoming and warm community. Everybody is there to network, make new friends and help each other. Within 2 hours, you will have connected with several like-minded people. By the time you leave, you'll have friends all over the country.

Professional recruiters are there to meet you, talk with you, and potentially hire you!

It is also not too late to invite a friend to join you! Catch your free and discounted tickets while they last!

What is it worth to you to get an opportunity to land your dream job?

Is it worth a last-minute change in your plans?

If you make the effort to prepare, attend and get the most out of Convention, and are strategic in your approach, you are almost guaranteed to land an internship or job. Students who have attended Convention in the past have left with multiple job offers that pay $60-80k/year or paid internships that lead to full-time job offers after graduation.

Attending the ALPFA Convention can help you stand out from the crowd and eliminate the worry of not getting a job.

Top global companies receive millions of applications for entry level jobs and programs every year. Most of these applications will not be seen by a human being.

Companies do not have the resources to travel to schools all over the country to find and recruit talent. They send their recruiters to top schools, and to the ALPFA Convention.

These companies have successfully hired top talent from ALPFA for decades. They attend Convention because they know that they will find some of the most talented Latino students in the country, all in one place.

Being associated with ALPFA significantly increases your chances of getting hired.

1. Look at the agenda

This might seem overwhelming. Use this strategy to plan your convention experience in advance.

1. Study the list of workshops and programs.

2. Identify your ‘Must-attend’ sessions. Then identify your ‘Nice to attend’ sessions.

3. Add each to your calendar, differentiating between each category using colors. Your goal is to attend all of your ‘Must attend’ sessions and as many of your ‘Nice to attend’ sessions as possible.

In about an hour you will have a plan to get the most out of your 4-day convention experience.

2. Prepare for interviews:

Pick your top 5 companies (out of 75).

Research. Find the latest CEO letter on their website. (Usually found on the investor relations page of their website) Either skim or read it and note your top 3 takeaways. Public companies also publish an annual report. Read or skim the ‘Management’s discussion and analysis’ section. Between these two items you will learn everything you know about the company to prepare for an interview.

Prepare questions for your interviewer. These can be based on what you learned from your research or questions about company culture.

Make a list of the people in top management positions. (E.g. CEO, CFO, COO, etc.)

When you do this properly:

Companies will compete with each other to hire you when you interview effectively.

3. Don't try to network with everybody (don’t collect 150 business cards)

Focus on 1-2 high quality connections per day. Follow up (LinkedIn, Email). Nurture those relationships.

Take notes about the people you meet. Mention notable facts about your conversation in your follow-up note. Remember, business is people. People appreciate when you listen actively.

If they give you advice, in the follow up say: “I took action on your advice and this was the result. What do you suggest I do next?”

When you take action on advice received, people will begin to feel invested in you and will want to see you succeed.