by Jennifer Hicks
Traditional Job Fairs
Remember the last job fair you attended? The boxes of stuff you lugged along touting your organization, the jobs it offered, the application materials? Remember how many people stopped to talk to you - only to ask where so-and-so was?
Sure, if you had a well-positioned booth, you probably had some prospects stop by. But for all those hours you put in, was it worth it?
True recruiters would answer yes - even one candidate from a job fair is one more to add to your database. But still...
Don't Leave Home
Imagine meeting with hundreds of interested prospects, all with the skills you need. With no brochures to carry, no hands to shake or cheeks to kiss. Imagine doing it without leaving your office.
Sound too good to be true? It needn't be.
Virtual job fairs are gaining ground. While some are total busts, others pull in droves of job seekers.
Their secrets?
Finding Success in a Virtual Job Fair
A bit of technology, some intensive targeted marketing, a few savvy people, and hiring managers at the ready.
Take for instance Rose McGinnis, a very smart woman. She's the recruiting manager of
SCT Corporation who persuaded 300 people to apply for jobs in just four hours.
The Phone-a-Thon
The people didn't even need resumes. In fact, they didn't even need to put on their best interview clothes.
How'd she do it? She ran an ad in the paper and on the Howard Stern show. The idea? Listeners of the ad would call in to SCT during a proscribed period, be screened by a recruiter and passed along to the hiring manager as appropriate.
Better yet, it all happened over the course of a weekend. Job seekers didn't need to take time off from work or miss finals at school. They didn't have to drag out the map and learn an easy route to the company. They could lay abed and be interviewed.
SCT's dial-a-thon is over now, but they're still at work. Their
employment opportunities page offers a good insight into the type of company that they are. It's dense with text, but you can tell they know what they're doing. Sure, there's a jobs page. But there's also a description of the training programs, career development opportunities, and the SCT Academy they offer.
Fairs in Cyberspace
An increasing number of people have access to the Internet. An increasing number are aware of worker shortages and are paying attention to positions that crop up. Are you finding these people?
Job postings now abound at most corporate sites and at hundreds of recruiting sites. They roll in by the hundreds each day on Usenet groups. And, they're all losing their appeal. There's just too many and most say too little about the real position, the real company and the real people at the company.
Job fairs are different. Real time questions and answers, real time interviews and real people available make a difference to candidates. An attention to detail, to anticipating candidates' questions, to being able to direct them to portions of your site that explain your corporate culture, training programs and opportunities all make valuable impressions.
The Moral
Job fairs needn't be face to face. Using a bit of phone line, man-hours, and even the Internet, candidates will come to you - if you show them you're there.
-- Jennifer Hicks, a seasoned Internet researcher who writes extensively on
the use of the Internet for job hunters and recruiters, writes RealTools for
AIRS.
About AIRS
AIRS teaches recruiters and high-growth companies to find passive candidates
hidden inside directories, databases, archives and the public Web servers of
over 400,000 companies and organizations on the Net. For more information
about our cutting edge training seminars, publications, or web applications
please call 1-800-466-4010 or check out our web site at
http://www.airsdirectory.com.
