by Jennifer Hicks
A job fair implies interaction--not solo-action. Yet, one of the better-known virtual job fairs is all solo-action and very static.
Westech Virtual Job Fair
Westech Virtual Job Fair is, like CollegeRecruiter.com, a recruiting site. If you remember that a job fair has advertisers, jobs and candidates, then most recruiting sites could probably consider themselves a type of job fair.
Westech claims it has more than 25,000 job postings from 800 companies, receives more than 3,500 resumes a day and gets 3 million hits per week.
There's also more, and that's what helps make it work. Westech also holds real-time, interactive job fairs across the US. These fairs serve to gather more resumes, broaden name recognition and bring people to the site, thus beginning the cycle again.
Computemp Virtual Job Fair
But take a look at
Computemp Virtual Job Fair. Separate from the corporate site, the job fair site includes chat rooms, daylong sessions about web design, PC support and more. They understand the need for relationship building. Then, periodically they hold a truly virtual job fair where candidates can talk live to a technical recruiter, see job opportunities from across the country, and get resume and job interview tips. Of course, it's advertised in advance--perhaps not as boldly as was
SCT Corporation's, but enough to draw interested candidates.
What If You Held a Fair and No One Came?
It's possible if no one knows about it. Cyberspace is a gigantic maze, full of diversionary paths with few road signs. Yet, the communities that do exist on it are close and communicative. Find your way into those, gush about your upcoming fair and they will come.
Think about the love affair we have with chat. Internet chat is not just about starting online flirtations. It's also about networking, job hunting, career and business information. To be sure, discussions about sexual habits predominate, but there are a few sources that enable you to find particular chat "events"--relative to your recruiting needs--that occur at scheduled times in mediated forums.
Locating Attendees
To find channels about a specific topic, search the Web sites that list chats.
- Yahoo Net Events lists daily and ongoing events, catalogued by topic;
- The Snap Online Events also offers a calendar of chat in addition to daily Web events, including Webcasts;
- Yack.com indexes chats that are searchable by host or subject, and has a form you can fill out to be reminded of events of interest.
The above pages work in a couple of ways. They highlight current chat events, but also allow you to search by interest area. The interest areas are the standard ones and include business, science and computers. Although first glance might suggest that science would be the appropriate category if you were looking for a chemist-type, the business sections most often provide the general career and employment-related events.
Check out the career and employment events. Participate. Offer some advice. Mention your job fair. Then look for some events that may interest the candidate types you're looking for. Participate in the discussion. Mention - don't advertise - your upcoming fair. Word will spread. Do the same with a few Usenet groups. Again, don't barge in and blurt out; participate a bit and mention the fair in your signature file.
-- 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.
