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Virtual Job Fairs, also known as Virtual Career Fairs, are virtual events that enable job seekers to connect with potential employers & look for opportunities to begin their careers, or further their career graphs.
Just like in physical job fairs, attendees of a virtual job fair can visit the booths of the employers, discuss opportunities with them via live chat, 1:1 video conferencing, etc., download any documents & resources shared by the booth organizers, & build a community or network with other attendees, all in the virtual space from the comfort of their homes.
Virtual Job fairs, when planned, designed, & hosted in the right format, can be very successful & meaningful for all the brands/companies/organizations involved.
One requires the right inspiration, virtual technology, infrastructure, & sponsors to host a successful virtual job fair.
In this article, we tell you the tips you need to organize a successful virtual job fair.
1. Choose the right virtual job fair platform
There are plenty of virtual job fair platforms available out there. You need to compare them on the basis of services offered, the technologies supported, the engagement & attendee networking features offered, customizations & branded booth designs available, & the scalability of the platform.
You should also check to see if the platform provides interactive features like live chat between attendees & booth organizers, live video presentations, 3D booth options, live streaming abilities, networking tables, intelligent matchmaking options, Q&A options, etc.
Other features to look for can include instant messaging, early stage resume upload & download options, & mobile optimization feature to help attendees be a part of the virtual event from whichever device they wish to.
Efficient & in-depth data analytics features, along with interactive graphics options, & world-class security, are just some of the features that can help you understand your audience a little better & devise strategies to keep them engaged with your virtual job fairs in the future as well.
They also help you take care of your attendees’ security & protect their information at all costs.
Choosing the right virtual event platform is absolutely essential to hosting a successful virtual job fair, as it basically helps you design the crucial aspects of your virtual job fair to make it more relevant to your attendees.
2. Come up with a strategy & a timeline for your virtual job fair
Just like a physical job fair, virtual job fairs require thorough planning & analysis before planning & hosting them.
Making a list consisting of all the things you’ll need, including the manpower you’ll have to hire, the kind of virtual job fair platform you want, the kind of features you’ll want to have, to any additional software that you might need to download for the virtual job fair.
Once you have all the requirements down, you should decide on a particular timeline for all of these prerequisites to be completed before the actual virtual job fair goes live.
Some of the things you’ll need to consider when setting a timeline for the deliverables of your virtual job fair include:
- The number of attendees you’re expecting in the virtual job fair,
- The number of people you’ll need to hire to manage the virtual job fair smoothly,
- The costs of any additional software included, like resume parsing software, application tracking system(ATS), webinar scheduling software, & any other plugins that you might require
- The costs associated with designing the virtual job fair on the chosen virtual job fair platform
- All of the recruitment portals/companies/organizations that you’ll partner with,
- All of the resources that you’ll need to pool in for the virtual job fair
- The kind of virtual job fair you’ll be organizing & which audience it will be aimed at. For eg., are you hosting a virtual job fair for only those with certain years of experience in a particular industry, or are you hosting a general career fair where everyone gets a fair shot, or are you hosting a virtual job fair for only those recently graduated from university?
You’ll need to ask yourselves these questions & answer them in full detail to understand the exact resources you’ll need for your virtual job fair.
3. Define a budget
Once the above mentioned steps are complete, you’ll need to define a budget that takes into account all of the services you’ll be availing, along with all the necessary costs needed to manage the virtual job fair smoothly.
Your budget should accurately reflect all of the services & any additional costs involved in hosting the virtual job fair.
Although you’d already be cutting a lot of costs by switching to virtual job fairs instead of a physical one, it doesn’t hurt to look out for more opportunities to slash your virtual job fair budget even more.
For example, you can choose a virtual job fair platform that provides all of the features you’re looking for, or even a majority of those, & look for including free ATS & resume parsing software in the virtual job fair.
This will help you bring down your virtual job fair costs significantly.
4. Design good-looking, customizable virtual booths
Just like in a physical job fair, where much of the interaction, information exchange, & networking hinges on the career fair booths, the same is true for virtual job fairs as well.
Hence, it is crucial that you design your virtual job fair booths in such a way that they are appealing & attractive enough for all of your attendees & employers of the virtual job fair.
The exact design of booths will depend largely on the kind of virtual job fair you’re hosting, as well as the industry, & the kind of recruiters you’ve invited, but one thing remains certain.
The more visually appealing, aesthetically pleasing, & colourful, easily navigable booths you design, the more attractive & easier it will be for your attendees to come over there & interact with the employers & the booth organizers.
5. Include specially-designed meeting rooms, discussion tables, & video conferencing facilities
Just like in a physical, in-person job fair, specially designed meeting rooms where in-depth interviews could be conducted should be available in virtual job fairs for recruiters to interview a suitable candidate right then & there.
This helps the employers to pick out their choice of candidates from the job fair crowd effectively, & without any delay.
Additionally, you can also set up interactive features like live videos, information packets, 360 degree virtual tours of the entire venue, & live streams of any guest speakers or sponsors.
This helps your virtual job fair become an engaging, interactive virtual experience, instead of simply being just another virtual job fair.
6. Get successful, famed recruiters & organizations/companies on board
The more respectable, large, & successful companies/organizations/recruiters that you can manage to get for your virtual job fair, the more likely you are to attract a wide range of attendees & job seekers.
Try to get some big players on board from the industry you’re related to, or if you’re hosting a general virtual job fair, then one or two big companies from every sector will be enough to get a wide audience pool for your virtual job fair.
However, you should only reach out to these big players once you’ve already done your research, have devised adequate plans for your virtual job fairs, & have zeroed in on the kind of features you need to include in your virtual job fairs.
If you knock on their doors with a half-baked virtual job fair strategy, they will likely not want to be a part of your job fair.
So do your homework properly, & make sure you put your best foot forward with your virtual job fair planning when you wish to make a deal with the big firms & recruitment agencies.
7. Put a technical team & a virtual job fair team in place
Once you’re done with planning, strategies, & pitching to the big names in the industry, the only thing left to do is getting together a virtual job fair team.
This team should include technical issues resolution experts, virtual job fair management team, content creators & marketers, along with resume checkers & moderators that help keep the discussions in live chat threads & discussion rooms convivial & meaningful.
Since a virtual job fair takes place on a virtual platform, the chances for technical glitches, delay in streaming, &/or audio/video issues are not entirely eliminated.
Hence, get together a robust team of efficient problem solvers in place that can effectively solve any & all issues that bug your attendees or recruiters as soon as they appear.
Doing this will help your attendees & recruiters get a sense of security & credibility in your virtual job fair, & will eventually result in higher satisfaction rates for both of them.
8. Market your virtual job fair adequately
Even if you have just designed & planned the world’s most engaging & resourceful virtual job fair, you will not make any waves if you fail to market your virtual job fair properly.
As soon as you’re finished taking care of the technical details of the virtual job fair, it’s time to grind those marketing gears.
Invest in awareness campaigns on social media, LinkedIn, & any other forums that are relevant to the kind of audience you’re looking to attract, as well as the industry that your virtual job fair is a part of.
You can also ask the recruiter & employers that are a part of your virtual job fair to spread the word about your job fair to their followers & people in their community.
This will ensure that you get the maximum traction on your virtual job fair & attract the right kind of audience & job seekers to your virtual job fair.
9. Perform an after-event follow up with the attendees & recruiters
Your job isn’t over once you’ve already hosted a successful virtual job fair. You should continue to be in touch with your attendees & recruiters & push post event follow-up questions in their direction.
This questionnaire can include questions like if they were able to get a potential candidate to fill up their vacancies, or for attendees, if they were able to find the perfect job opportunity for themselves.
You can also ask a few more in-depth questions like which company are they finally joining, on which date, & on which job profile.
You can also ask if both of the job seekers & the recruiters will be willing to attend another virtual job fair from your side again, or if they will be recommending any future virtual job fairs to their friends, family, & colleagues.
This helps you understand the impact of your virtual job fair on your attendees & recruiters in a more personalized, wide way.
