Are job fairs an effective way to find a job?

Have you ever landed a job at a job fair?

Do most companies go to a “job fair” to find people to fill their jobs or do they go to meet people face to face and tell them to go to the web site to apply?

If you are a job seeker in today’s job market you might want to ask yourself these three questions before you attend your next job fair.  I have attended job fairs and I have run job fairs over the years and I must tell you that I am not sold on the effectiveness them.

What I know for sure is that no one hires anyone at a job fair.  A company may take resumes from candidates to talk to them further about job opportunities but no one is going to land a job at these events.  A better name for these events may be “networking fair,” or “Career Fair.”

The hiring process is too long and drawn out for a company to make a hiring decision on the spot.  This may have been the case 50 years ago but in today’s job market the traditional job fair may need to be rethought.  This is very evident to me as an employer who attends job fairs.  Every year the attendance at most fairs is declining, even the good ones.  Job seekers are realizing that most job fairs are a waste of their time.  They can be more efficient with their time by going on line and apply to companies on their web site rather than meeting them at a job fair where these companies are going to tell them to go their web site anyway.

However, one positive aspect of any job fair is the personal interaction that one can find with a company you may want to work at.  Even if the company tells you to go to their web site you have a personal contact that you can reference when following up with that company after you applied online.  The personal aspect of job searching cannot be discounted no matter how virtual the process becomes.

If you are planning a job fair in the near future I would recommend your fair is for a niche group of companies and job seekers.  The days of fairs that cater to all types of companies and job seekers is over.  What still works is specialized events.  For example, a job fairs for technology students, engineering students, business majors, sales people, healthcare, etc…  These still work.  They are smaller and more defined.  Everyone attending will know why they are there and expect to speak to a specialized group of people.

Are job fairs dead?  I don’t think totally but as a job seeker I would really consider the companies who will be attending before you commit any substantial amount of time to the next job fair you attend.