The days where everyone would show up looking their best, eager to impress whoever was there. They would walk from booth to booth depending on who had the best swag or coolest posters, hand out a resume and walkaway, never to be heard or seen from again.
I never hired anyone from a Career Day because it is treated as a “thing” to do, a job where the goal is to hand out as many resumes in possible to ensure that numbers are up and work has been done. I’d hand out tons of business cards, but never receive a reply or a follow-up.
It’s a set of shows – “here we are come and see us” followed by “we’re new and not sure what we’re doing come and hire us” – even the people that told me they needed a job never followed up, leaving the onus on us to follow-up with them.
Perhaps I’ve simply been to the wrong fairs but there are so many ways to make a bigger impact;
- call the school that is hosting the fair and instead ask to talk to a class and give them a more in-depth view of the presentation
- don’t show up for the fair, provide problems at your table, once solved (on or off site), the individual is invited to come and find you
- instead of going to a career fair, invite people to your place of work (this would probably only work if you were hiring for a number of positions in an Open house style format)
There are other options, ones that are probably much more suited to what you are trying to achieve that can yield what you truly want to achieve, quality candidates that don’t require you fighting through a herd to get them.
