The director of human resources at a large college or university is kept very busy with hundreds of openings at any given time. Many human resource managers recommend holding a university job fair to bring in the highest volume of applicants and cut down on time spent recruiting.
Particularly if there are many openings in the university IT department, a job fair is the best way to find people. Many tech jobs these days require new computer languages, and many require that the applicant have experience with older languages that aren’t being taught anymore, yet they are still used at universities. Holding a virtual university job fair brings in a higher quantity of qualified tech support people.
But staging a job fair is a huge time commitment. Just arranging a venue, arranging people to set up the venue and then tear it down afterward—all that takes a lot of time and effort. That time and effort could be put to better use elsewhere. How? Arrange a virtual university job fair.
Virtual Job Fair
These days, everyone is very familiar with doing just about everything online. Potential applicants have probably already attended other virtual university job fairs. An online virtual job fair is the solution to university hiring problems.
Universities have unique problems when they need to hire good people. A human resources director may have to look for tech support people, janitors, administrative assistants, professors, and medical doctors. Trying to meet all those needs at one job fair can be a challenge. But a virtual university job fair can lighten the load.
Applicants merely log in to the virtual job fair website. Anyone who has ever been to a webinar knows how a virtual job fair works.
Especially when targeting technology applicants, a virtual job fair makes the most sense. These applicants are going to be totally familiar with how an online job fair works. Many of the applicants would be able to do the coding required to get a virtual university job fair up and running.
Overview
At a virtual job fair, the welcome screen can be set up as an overview of the entire university system. Presenters can give a live presentation that outlines the university culture, the benefits programs, and other information that applies to all employees.
Then attendees can be directed to the university website to find answers to any questions they have. Or the university job fair platform can be set up so that people can ask their questions in real-time, and employers can answer them in real-time. This is a unique advantage because many people probably have the same questions and answering the entire group makes it much more efficient.
Then the virtual job fair can be broken down into departments. Attendees can choose the presentation area they want to attend. There can be a separate place for doctors to click, and another place for administrative assistants to click on.
Department Presentations
When the applicant chooses a department, they can see a live presentation given by the department head of the area where they want to work. Teaching applicants will be able to see and hear the head of the English department, or the head of the social sciences department, while computer science teachers can choose to hear the head of that department.
At the presentation for teachers, the department head can explain tenue, sabbaticals, publishing requirements, research requirements, and information that does not apply to people looking for an administrative position or a position as a cook.
Everything can be customized to fit the applicants that the university wants to target.
The Application Process
Some university job fairs request applications ahead of the fair. This is often effective so that hiring managers can screen out the applicants that they aren’t interested in.
When the hiring manager receives an e-mailed resume ahead of the job fair, he can respond with a rejection letter, or he can respond with the information about how to log on to the virtual university job fair.
Other human resources directors prefer to develop an online application form rather than wade through resumes. At a virtual university job fair attendees can register ahead of time and then hiring managers screen applicants from that pool.
