How to Enhance the Value of a College Job Fair

Job fairs are an integral part of college life. Every year, universities and colleges across the globe organize job fairs to help their students get recruited. However, with the competition increasing in the job market, it has become difficult for students to get the job of their dreams easily through college job fairs. 

At physical fairs, the number of recruiters compared to the number of students is always less. The booths in a college fair are also not big enough to entertain more than 5-10 people at a time. Additionally, recruiters tend to get paper-based resumes from students that have a high chance of being misplaced. Hence, students find it hard to stand out to the recruiter of their choice at physical college job fairs.

So, How to Fix This?

A solution to these problems is a virtual job fair. Virtual Job Fair is an online event, taking place within a certain time period, in which employers and jobseekers meet in a virtual space via chat rooms, teleconferencing, webinars, and/or email exchange regarding job possibilities. 

Virtual Job Fairs negate the expensive venue rentals, logistics, and administrative costs – while also facilitating the participation in equal opportunity to all interested parties. State, national, and continental boundaries are no longer a restriction of access.

With increased attendance guaranteed and a wider range of marketing tools available to the hosts, recruiters consistently on the hunt for new and innovative talent will retain the provisions to succeed in their talent scouting courtesy of Virtual Job Fairs.

Not only are they important for employers seeking established and quality employees, but they are also important for universities to engage to promote and link their rising talent with top corporations across the globe.

How to Get Started

Universities should be the first virtual fair experience for all students close to graduating. Students nowadays are born into a tech fluent world thus ease of navigation through this process will not be a concern. Universities, however, may feel some trepidation moving away from traditional means.

But, they needn’t worry as it really is quite simple and effective to organize a virtual job fair for your students. Virtual job fair platforms like vFairs walk you through the process in a step-by-step approach, even assigning you an Event Manager to guide you through the virtual event space.

They also extend constant support throughout the event to make it a success. Compared to physical events, virtual job fairs are very easy to organize as everything from start to the end is handled by the hosting platform. Thus, a virtual college job fair frees the organizers of all the hassle of event organization and management.

Embrace Recruitment Efficiency

Virtual Job Fairs are sure to improve the graduate recruitment rate of your university. Providing your students with direct links to exciting and innovative recruitment opportunities will see the successful employment rates of your graduates increase dramatically. 

The virtual event can be enriched with applicant tracking technology, allowing recruiters or employers present at the event to sift through your students’ applications to focus on their best-suited match. Smart resume features will even enable exhibitors to filter applicants based on their selected criteria. This means both students and recruiters alike will be able to navigate through the job fair maze to find their best-suited positions with ease.

Promote Efficient Talent Pools

Recruiters and students can register to the event online, from any mobile or desktop device with internet connectivity. Removing travel constraints means that what was once an event the students had to plan and save for, has become an event they can look forward to and use their time in advance to prepare for the recruiters they may encounter – rather than planning travel dates and a budget around an already busy schedule.

Leanne Gavin, Human Resource blogger with Gumessays explained that “not only does it increase the talent pool, but recruiters in attendance will gain access to a diverse range of student backgrounds and skillsets. Recruiters will leave the events with an impressive and eclectic database of prospective employees to consider – a stamp that will certainly reflect well when shared with prospective students, by the hosting university”. NYU was one of many successful universities that benefited from the process.

Allow Employer Branding & Marketing

Virtual Job Fair provides employers with the opportunity to develop their brand further online within the minds of prospective employees. The university is, therefore, able to develop personal ties with some of the most influential corporations operating today, providing unique and exciting opportunities for its students – a huge competitive advantage over those colleges not engaged in the process. 

With some simple and effective pre-event marketing from the university, assisted by the hosting platform, employers can easily master email marketing and effective social media campaigns within their campus. This delicate balance is usually a typical stumbling block for many with physical event fairs but is easily negated on the virtual platform alternative.

Provide a Sleek and Modern Experience

The excitement of the virtual experience is a modern phenomenon – and one which has proven to be an effective and impactful experience with younger people, i.e. students. 

Virtual Job Fairs can create a unique experience for the student, via webinars, interactive video challenges, informative announcements, and even exciting Q&As with executives that students would not ordinarily get the opportunity to engage with for any number of reasons.

Enhance Event’s Value 

It’s clear that the Virtual Job Fair is a value-enhancing prospect for any successful university. Not only does it offer the opportunity to renowned universities to add an additional feather in their cap, but it also levels the playing field providing more technical or career-focused universities the opportunity to give their students the best possible foundation to step out into the corporate world as a graduate.

The Virtual Job Fair has revolutionized the way recruiters and students interact, and universities have a sincere responsibility to participate.

About the Author:

Ashley Halsey is a renowned writer at Luckyassignments.com responsible for a variety of successful projects throughout the country. Mother of two children, she enjoys traveling, reading and attending business training courses.