March 23, 2011

Are today's job fairs worth my time?

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By Kristen Fife
NWjobs

Q: Has the "job fair" run its course? No hiring managers are there, and they say "go to our website to apply"! Whose purpose do they serve now, job seeker, or corporate advertising?
-JW, Seattle

Kristen says: In the past, job fairs were traditionally held by employers to reach large numbers of candidates. An ad was published, usually in the local newspaper classified section, and then recruiters and some hiring managers would pay a fee to attend, gather resumes and speak with some of the candidates.

In our digital society, it is much more cost-effective to use electronic means to build candidate pipes. The majority of candidates job-search online, and employers use job boards (NWjobs, Monster, CareerBuilder, Seattle Jobs) and sites like Craigslist to publish their openings. There are exceptions. Some industries can be effective for holding “job fairs,” when there is a need for a high number of people with similar backgrounds to fill many positions. Health care, manufacturing/production, construction, retail and customer service are examples of such industries and positions.

In the past 15 years, job fairs have increasingly been attended by recruiting staff, not the actual hiring managers, because recruiters can talk about process and overall needs, rather than single openings. More recently, “networking events” have started replacing “job fairs” for the broader spectrum of professionals. The big change in focus has been from pairing professionals with recruiters to helping professionals network with industry peers and new contacts.

There is always a degree of employment branding going on at job fairs and networking events; most of these events charge companies significant fees to set up a booth, and employees attending them are being pulled away from their regular duties to attend.

In the last five to six years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Affirmative Action agencies have started imposing new types of federal guidelines on businesses, which has resulted in most companies adopting best practices that drive traffic to corporate websites. This way, applicants are considered due to objective criteria, such as skills and experience, instead of face-to-face meetings, which promote favoritism and (discrimination) based on the inevitable first impression that arises.

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Recruiter's Inbox, job fair, networking

1 Comments

Rick Olson on March 24, 2011 6:30 AM | Reply

Seems to me that the last two "fairs" that I attended were predominently a hosting affair for our armed services. This is what the focus seemed to be when I looked everything over. Not many businesses that I would wish to involve myself. It also seems that if you are really looking for work at a "fair," then the fair will be specified tech, business, or trades, etc.,etc.

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