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The rise of dynamic and user-friendly virtual career fairs has given traditional hiring events a run for their money. It’s easy to see why hosts would want them. From employment agencies to universities, everyone wants in on the action.
But what’s the point of a virtual career fair?
Virtual events pave the way for improved hiring outcomes. They simplify setup, execution, and even post-event analysis. Virtual career fairs are a game-changer with multiple benefits over physical events.
Let’s explore what they are and why they are so popular.
A virtual career fair is a company-hosted hiring event that offers a fresh approach to recruitment. The event takes place online, either through a 2D or 3D platform, designed to replicate the experience of a physical job fair. Employers can create a customizable and engaging virtual space to connect with job seekers by utilizing specialized software.
A virtual career fair eliminates the need for hiring managers or job seekers to invest in expensive travel. In addition, it empowers businesses with the freedom to select talent from a global candidate pool.
While they sound similar, the aim and audience differ:
Virtual career fairs aren’t just a digital version of in-person events. They bring a smart and scalable way to connect the right people at the right time.
Here’s what makes them worth it:
Virtual career fairs can play a key role in helping companies ace their staffing. This is why companies are now moving towards virtual career fairs. Here’s a quick career fair guide on benefits for organizations.
Virtual career fairs make it easier for employers to find the right candidates fast. A job board with available positions and a smart resume search feature helps employers sift through candidates more easily. The virtual platform improves efficiency with a matchmaking tool for both employers and prospective employees.
Regardless of their location across the globe, the removal of physical travel constraints encourages higher participation. Therefore, it leads to more registration and more regional (or even global) reach.
Through the extended reach, employers gain access to talent with diverse backgrounds and skill sets. They then benefit from well-rounded candidate pipelines to aid collaborative and swift recruitment.
One of the most underrated benefits of a virtual career fair? You can make it ridiculously easy for job seekers to get the information they need. No awkward booth conversations, no wandering around looking lost. Everything’s just… there.
Think: company videos that show what it’s like to work with you, downloadable brochures that explain open roles and benefits, FAQ documents, even photo galleries. It’s all available in one click. And if a candidate has questions, they can instantly reach out via chat or video call, no need to wait in line.
On the flip side, you can collect valuable data through custom registration fields. This helps recruiters understand who’s attending and what they’re looking for, making follow-ups way more targeted and meaningful.
The result? Candidates feel more confident and better informed, and you get stronger, more qualified applications. Everybody wins.
Virtual events provide employers with personalized booths. Exhibitors can include personalized 3D avatars, banners and logos to reflect their company culture. Plus,they can craft a compelling story as an employer by sharing curatedinformation, uploading welcome videosappointment schedules and more! A digital swag bag can include all company infographics, brochures, career fair guides or other materials that applicants can email to themselves.
Imagine the improved visitor traction if employers included games like a scavenger hunt to boost audience interactions. That’s what a virtual environment can do for you. You can go all creative and reward engagement with a leaderboard and distribute giveaways for winners.
A 3D virtual environment that replicates your building or a specific site gives an added touch. Applicants not only feel like they are at the live venue, but this also increases their usability. People familiar with the virtual environment will be able to navigate easily.
Online career events provide booths with chat features, enabling job seekers to quickly reach out to booth representatives and get answers in real-time. Meanwhile, recruiters can also make use of this technology for quick interviewing to screen candidates on the spot.
Hosting virtual career fairs is easy. You can use a virtual event platform like vFairs to set up your event exactly how you want. This means you decide how the virtual space is going to look, how the sessions are going to progress, whether you want to engage your audience through quizzes or a scavenger hunt, or maybe both. You’re on the steering wheel, with full control.
You can even templatize your career fairs, so it’s easy to replicate them in the future. This means the setup gets easier and easier after every event.
The best part is that virtual event software providers like vFairs also offer dedicated project manager support. This means that while you’re in control, you’re not alone. When stuck, help would be right at your door. The execution is quick, easy, and free from any hurdles.
One of the most common questions organizers get is, “How does a virtual career fair work in your favor?”
Well, one of the biggest advantages is the data. You get real-time insights on everything, like who logged in, which booths got the most traffic, what content people engaged with, and how attendees interacted throughout the event.
This means you can easily measure success, show results to stakeholders, and make smarter decisions for future events.
Virtual career fairs come in different formats, each designed to fit specific goals, audiences, and timelines. The format you choose depends on your goals, i.e., whether you’re looking for quick turnaround, broader reach, or long-term visibility.
Here’s a quick breakdown to help you choose the right one.
This is your go-to format when you want to host a fully online career fair on a specific date. It offers a live, immersive experience where job seekers can explore department booths, watch videos, download resources, chat one-on-one with recruiters, and appear in interviews all in real time.
It’s best suited for organizations looking to run a short-term, high-impact hiring event with broad reach and strong engagement.
Hybrid events combine the attributes of both online and traditional career fairs. This means they take place in both a physical and digital setting. You can bring together employers and local job seekers in a physical setting. At the same time, you can provide companies with online booths for remote candidates to view vacancies and apply for roles online.
They are excellent at targeting active and passive candidates, improving hiring quality, and enabling data-driven lead tracking. Therefore, this route is great for hosts to monitor engagement levels and even conduct post-event follow-ups.
Hosting evergreen events is the perfect solution for organizations interested in virtual career fair longevity. So, what is an “evergreen” online career fair?
Simply put, an online event remains available for an extended period of time to always keep recruitment momentum in action. The “live” aspects are confined to a small amount of time. For example, live chat and webinars are only scheduled for specific dates. Meanwhile, the rest of the content such as media and job boards are available for a longer period of time.
The cost-effectiveness of a digital career fair, when compared to a physical recruitment event, has often been a topic of debate. However, a simple contrast of expenses is enough proof of its impact, incredible ROI, and the ability to offer more value for less.
So, you should compare its costs with those of a physical career fair for the best picture. Let’s look at costs based on a 100-person event.
Virtual events require thoughtful planning and budgeting. A well-executed budget maximizes success, ensuring every dollar spent counts. However, it’s important to note here that the virtual career fair platform price varies based on the length of the virtual event, the number of users, features in use, customizations, and optional marketing services.
To determine the pricing and budget for a physical event, you’ll have to consider some of the key costs involved. They can be:
Read our event budgeting guide to delve deeper into event planning costs and how you can create an event budget plan for your physical or virtual career fair.
The success of a memorable virtual career event relies on a diverse feature set. From fast recruitment tools to secure interaction platforms, every feature contributes to an effective experience for job seekers. Attending a virtual career fair should be fun!
Here are a few key features you must include in your virtual career fair.
First things first, your virtual career fair platform solution should enable you to build a custom landing page for your event. This page should provide a career fair overview, agenda, exhibitor details, job search advice, and any other additional information.
The platform should also enable you to create custom registration forms. Job seekers will be able to register, build profiles, and upload their resumes.
Once done, these profiles should automatically populate into the virtual hiring event platform.
Everyone attends a career fair with a different goal in mind. Recruiters want to connect with top talent. Job seekers are there to explore opportunities and get hired. Event organizers are focused on making sure everything runs smoothly and everyone gets what they came for.
That’s why it’s so important for your virtual career fair platform to offer flexible user roles and access permissions. Not everyone needs access to everything, and that’s a good thing.
With the right tools for virtual career fairs, you can set up user roles that make sense for each group:
This kind of role-based control helps maintain privacy, reduces confusion, and ensures that everyone has the tools they need.
A job board is a consolidated dashboard that shows all the available job options listed by various exhibitors. The job board should allow attendees to look for their preferred jobs through various filters, like employer, location, etc. Plus, it should also let them apply for different positions or save them to view later.
If certain job positions are not available, the job board should provide the option to set up email alerts for such positions if they come up.
With so many job vacancies available on the job board, it is easy for candidates to feel overwhelmed. Your virtual career fair platform should facilitate their job search process by recommending them relevant vacancies based on their profiles. This way, the process becomes quicker, and more convenient for the attendees.
On the flip side, recruiters also want to connect with relevant job seekers quickly. The software should also recommend to them relevant people whom they should reach out to as well for added convenience.
Companies want to attract top talent, and one way to do this is to tell a compelling story through a killer job description. The virtual career platform should enable the job exhibitors to go into detail and be creative with the job description.
How do virtual career fairs work for hiring managers? Well, a good platform should not only be a medium to collect resumes, but also provide a platform to screen candidates and shortlist them based on their set criteria.
The platform should allow hiring managers to set up screening questions when they are posting job vacancies. This will allow them to gauge candidates from an additional lens. For example, they can ask about their work experience or add a mind-bender. The platform should also allow hiring managers to collect cover letters to evaluate candidates’ passion for the job.
Once applications are in, the real value comes from turning them into a clear, organized pipeline. Your platform should make it easy for hiring managers to track where each candidate stands, i.e., shortlisted, hired, or rejected, and move them through the process smoothly. This way, they’re not just collecting resumes, they’re building a live, actionable hiring pipeline they can actually use.
Hiring managers are always on the lookout for candidates who can do the job in the best possible way. Your virtual career fair platform should facilitate this by providing them the ability to filter and search candidates who are a part of the career fair. It should allow them to filter people via their job experience, preferred industry, etc.
The virtual career fair should offer a fantastic user experience. It should enable visitors to browse in a user-friendly manner. Clearly titled spaces such as a lobby, exhibitor hall, auditorium, information desk, and networking lounges all serve dedicated functions. They allow job seekers to navigate with ease.
Your virtual platform of choice should enable each exhibitor to customize their booths and staff avatars to represent company representatives.
Besides, booths should facilitate information exchange. They should have tabs leading to content such as downloadable brochures, company job boards, videos, and chat options.
Paperless marketing and electronic job applications are ideal for eco-friendly employers. The online event should enable all downloadable resources to be added to what some vendors call a “swag bag” or a ” virtual briefcase”. Attendees can then mail it to themselves.
There should be a help or information desk staffed by your technology provider. This will help ensure that all guests’ questions are promptly answered.
How do you make sure everyone gets to connect with whoever they want to, whether it is the recruiter that is in high demand, an attendee with similar experience, or event organizers?
Simple, allow people to schedule meetings beforehand based on the other person’s availability, instead of calling them out of the blue. When people know who they are meeting at what time, they can schedule their day accordingly and stay prepared for each meeting.
Your event platform should make it easy for recruiters and exhibitors to chat with attendees. But it shouldn’t just be plain text, people should be able to share images, videos, documents, and chat in groups too.
Since recruiters talk to a lot of candidates during a career fair, the chat should also show each candidate’s profile right away. That way, they can have more meaningful conversations. And to help recruiters remember who’s who later, the platform should let them take notes during or after each chat.
Your virtual event management platform should allow panel interviews with multiple hiring managers on the same platform. This way, it is more convenient for the recruiters and applicants to connect within the actual event site without the need to hop into a different platform.
Virtual job hunts can be as exhausting as physical ones. Leaderboards and scavenger hunts make your events more fun and engaging. You can incorporate them to make your event more appealing for visitors. It’s also a fun way to lead attendees to important areas within your event.
You want to accommodate job seekers around the world. Therefore, you need to select a virtual career fair vendor that provides event hosting compatible with Android and iOS platforms. The event can also be accessible through a mobile app. Versatile integrations will also benefit your fair, including the following:
A virtual career fair lets you gather more insights. Through reporting, you can measure all performance metrics that matter. These include registrations, attendees, booth visits, and webinar views. They also include job applications received and chats initiated.
The digital career fair should ideally be in compliance with web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG). It should offer special color contrasts, text character flexibility, page narrations, and captioned webinars. This makes the event more accessible and meaningful.
It is a common misconception that virtual career fairs are boring and least interactive. While you do end up sitting in front of a screen, there is so much that you can do to make your event as fun as possible. Here are a few you can try:
The core of a winning virtual career fair is networking. When people meet, engage, and connect at your event, the chances of them finding relevant career opportunities increase, leading to higher attendee and exhibitor satisfaction levels.
But the question remains: how to network at a career fair?
We’ve broken it down from an organizer’s lens and an attendee’s point of view.
As an organizer, you play a big role in helping job seekers show up informed, confident, and ready to connect. Here’s how you can support them before, during, and after the fair:
Let’s break down how to prepare for a virtual career fair to make a great impression and turn conversations into offers:
Planning a career fair brings with it a lot of stress. You need to find the right virtual platform provider for the job. Conduct the right amount of research to get the best results. You should use this opportunity to figure out what you want.
Here is a list of points that you must discuss in your consultation with various platforms.
This is important for several reasons. No matter how great their platform looks in the brochure, you need a live virtual career fair demo to really get a sense of what your candidate journey will be like. The demo will allow you to analyze crucial features like on-the-spot interviews, platform navigation, and virtual booth displays.
Most virtual event software is designed for general events, not specifically for career fairs. It’s crucial to assess whether the software can meet your career fair’s unique needs. Make a list of essential features, like candidate screening tools, support for multiple interview formats, and the ability to manage a candidate pipeline, and check if the platform delivers. This focused approach ensures you choose software that’s tailored for a successful career fair.
This is where you make the all important decisions. You can decide whether you want an off-the-shelf solution or a bespoke one. Although the former is generally cheaper and quicker to set up, a tailor-made solution can deliver a far better ROI. This is because it is designed to bring you the results that you are looking for.
Check with your provider about their ability to deliver on all the design and functionality changes you will need for your virtual career fair so there’s no confusion later on.
Planning is essential. You should know how long the provider will take to construct the event from start to finish. This will help you schedule and pace your pre-event marketing strategy. It will also help you prepare and train your team for the virtual event before it goes live. In addition, you can optimize your post-event follow-up strategy.
A competent virtual events provider takes anywhere from four to six weeks to set up a custom virtual event. However, this timeframe depends on your feature and design requirements.
Customer stories, testimonials, and past events act as a great window into the work that your provider has done in the past. Look at case studies or past event walkthroughs from their clients in your industry. This will quickly help you uncover whether the provider is competent in solving problems that you might face. Then, it will also help you test the reliability and credibility of the provider.
Be sure to ask your virtual event provider about their hosting company and the security features that they employ. Why is this important? This is because it is your right to have a finished platform that is free from fraud, viruses, and crashing servers when you have peak traffic at the virtual career fair.
Your online career event will likely have a lot of confidential data. This ranges from candidate resumes and profiles to feedback forms and copyrighted videos. Also, it includes other marketing collateral. Because of this, it becomes important to detail who owns everything on the cloud storage platform. So, there should be no ambiguity in this regard.
Even if your virtual career fair platform is designed to be foolproof, there are numerous situations that can pop up where you will need your provider’s support. In this case, you need to know the details of the person you can reach out to for any concerns or in-event troubleshooting.
Similarly, if your event and your provider operate in different time zones, it pays to know if you will have 24-hour live-event support. You should know how much to expect from your provider. This will keep you prepared for all the ad-hoc contingencies that events are likely to present.
Candidates simply need to register on the host’s landing page to create their profile, which includes personal information, resume, etc.. Afterwards, they can access the event through any of their devices, including laptops and mobiles.
If the event has on-demand capabilities, it allows prospective employees to browse at their own convenience. They can explore exhibitor booths, view job boards, and apply for positions digitally. Therefore, candidates can get the best out of these events with proper planning.
A well-designed event hosting platform will provide real-time or pre-recorded videos, and both audio and video chat options. This will enable candidates to interact with employer representatives.
Hosts will have to devise ways to increase engagement as well. Virtual career fairs work overtime to attract and retain audiences through on-demand webinars, real-time Q&A sessions, and live keynote speeches. This way, they deliver exceptional value for hosts, employers, and guests around the globe.
Hosting a virtual career fair can be easy and stress-free if you do your research thoroughly and see which even hosting platforms make the mark. You’ll see that most platforms simply offer the technology, but do not have any support. In addition, most of them miss out on some features.
However, vFairs has everything you need, and much more. It offers customized solutions to all your career fair requirements. You just have to plan your event thoroughly and reap the benefits of an incisive, user-friendly platform.
Here, we will explore some of the vFairs career fairs case studies:
Greenheart International transitioned from using Zoom to vFairs for their weekly virtual hiring fair, which allowed them to handle more interviews and accommodate a larger number of candidates. With vFairs’ scalable solutions, they increased their interview capacity by 250%, surpassed their placement goals, and dramatically improved the experience for both employers and candidates.
The platform’s self-serve check-in, lead capture, and employer-controlled interview scheduling features streamlined the process, reduced wait times, and boosted satisfaction. Greenheart’s transition to vFairs not only helped them scale but also enhanced the efficiency and impact of their mission to connect international students with U.S. employers.
Read the full case study here.
Cornell wanted to make sure all admitted students, especially those who couldn’t visit campus, had access to the resources they’d need to make an informed decision. In-person fairs made that hard to manage, especially across 80+ academic programs.
By moving the fair online with vFairs, they brought together 28 departments and gave students an easy way to ask questions, explore booths, and revisit the content when it worked for them. The event was accessible, well-attended, and included thoughtful touches like a scavenger hunt to keep students engaged.
They saw over 12,000 booth visits and could share detailed engagement reports with stakeholders afterward.
ICTC was looking for a way to connect internationally educated professionals (IEPs) with employers in Canada’s tech sector, even before they arrived in the country. They also wanted to help newcomers build a network from overseas and highlight opportunities at small and mid-sized tech companies.
By hosting a virtual career fair with vFairs, ICTC gave attendees direct access to employers through live booths and webinars. The platform’s ease of use made it simple for both job seekers and employers to engage in real-time, share resources, and have meaningful conversations.
The event saw 1,100+ booth engagements and brought together over 180 attendees. With vFairs, ICTC was able to extend its reach, support its mission, and help newcomers explore real job opportunities in Canada’s ICT industry.
Thanks to technology, virtual career fairs have become very popular and so much easier to host. They offer a lot of benefits to recruiters and job seekers. The best virtual career fair platforms provide an accessible and convenient space for employers to connect with a diverse talent pool and market their brand. A virtual career fair is not as intimidating as it may seem. You need to organize it properly and know what to look for in your hosting platform. Here are some key pointers for reference:
Virtual career fairs can be extremely beneficial for job seekers and employers alike. As a job seeker, you can expect to meet the recruiting firm, get a good understanding of the company, give live interviews, and perhaps get your dream job.
These platforms offer engaging digital experiences with built-in webcasting and webinar software integration. Features like emoji reactions, gamification, Q&A sessions, polls, chat rooms, and exhibit booths enhance interaction and participation.
To host a virtual career fair, choose an interactive platform with customizable features. Market the event widely and provide registration options. You can offer engagement tools and ensure technical support. Gather feedback after the event and analyze data.
Employers should prepare engaging digital booths, train their recruiters for live chats, actively connect with candidates during the event, and follow up promptly to maximize hiring success.
Job seekers can enhance their career prospects and navigate through virtual career fairs successfully by following these guidelines: 1. Setting clear, achievable goals. 2. Developing in-demand skills through training. 3. Building a strong network. 4. Creating a good CV to create stronger first impressions with recruiters. 5. Dressing professionally and keeping their cameras on. 6. Doing their homework about all organizations hiring at the virtual career fair 7. Nailing their elevator pitch 8. Follow-up after the event to collect feedback.
When choosing a virtual career fair vendor, here are some key questions to consider: 1. Is the platform user-friendly for all participants, with a simple interface? 2. What career fair-specific features does the software offer? 3. How customizable is the platform to your specific needs and brand? 4. Can the platform accommodate your expected number of participants? 5. Does the vendor offer post-event support and data analysis?
Fiza Fatima
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