In the Internet age, job fairs may seem like an old fashioned way of getting a job. It’s also still a buyers market as far as hiring goes. So why do employers still go to job fairs?
As someone who has been on the hiring end, I would say that you can’t tell someone’s personality from a resume. There are so many nuances that won’t show through from a piece of paper. And one of the best ways to analyze that first impression is by meeting a prospective employee face to face at a job fair. It’s a good way to prescreen applicants.
Another reason employers go to job fairs is to meet a large group of potential employees all at once. It saves a lot of time. You get to meet people who might not find you online or from your website.
Also, employers can convey more information than they could in an online ad. For employers who are actively hiring several positions, those can be talked about at the job fair. It’s much easier to customize your conversation when you are talking to someone face to face. Maybe there are certain qualifications that they are looking for in an employee that haven’t been listed online. Those can be explained in more detail when an employee is sitting there in person.
Meeting someone face to face is much more memorable than just looking through a stack of resumes. This is the time for a potential employee to impress the employer by doing their homework and coming in prepared and dressed as a professional. The employer wants to see that level of enthusiasm and professionalism that can only be done in a face to face meeting like a job fair.
If you’re looking for a job, make it an all of the above approach. And make sure you include job fairs in that approach because employers still value them.