Lessons Learned from Virtual Careers Fair

We’ve all heard it before. In fact, we’ve all lived it! These past couple years have completely changed the way we go about our lives personally and professionally. For those of us nearing the end of our college career or who are new to the workforce, our job search has evolved from mostly in-person to mostly digital and now, after the pandemic, a hybrid approach that we are all trying to navigate.

Though first born out of necessity, virtual career fairs opened many opportunities for both employers and job seekers. Here are five lessons we have learned from virtual career fairs and how we can use them as we transition back to in-person career fairs:

The Speed of Connection is Faster Than Ever

While sitting at a computer and logging onto a virtual career fair, email and LinkedIn are quite literally at your fingertips. Having this level of access increased our speed of connection. Instead of following up after the career fair, you could do that instantaneously. Now, we want to try to keep this same connection rate.

Throughout the day, build breaks into your day to pause and connect with professionals on LinkedIn, send a thank you message or email a digital version of your resume while still on site. Decide how often you would like to stop (every other booth, every hour, etc.) and find a spot outside of the fair where you can stop, sit down, and put all your focus toward making these connections. The closer you follow up to the initial meeting, the more you will impress the industry professionals you meet. Plus, by connecting and following up while still at the career fair, you are less likely to forget to do it later.

Digital Resources are Important

Most virtual career fair platforms integrated digital resources beyond just a chat or video: links to websites, virtual resumes, LinkedIn profiles, email URLs and more. Even when off the virtual platform, having these resources accessible is still valuable in the in person space, you might just have to be creative in how you keep these handy.

To put it simply, make it easy to share your digital resources with employers, even if you are meeting in person. One way you can do this is to create email drafts with a subject line and your PDF resume already attached. Then, while you are speaking with a professional, you can share your resume with them during your conversation. While we always advise to keep printed resumes handy at career fairs, it never hurts to leave both a printed and digital version. Depending on the type of work you do or your personal networking preferences, you may have other digital resources you want to share with potential employers, like an online portfolio or a LinkedIn profile. QR codes are a simple and effortless way to send employers to your digital resources. Use an online QR code generator to create a code. Then, keep the code handy on your phone or printed on a business card so it is easy to access and scan.

Career Fair Platforms Impact the Time Available

Compared to in-person career fairs where employers are trying to keep a line from forming at their booth, virtual career fairs typically allow more oneon-one time to speak with employers. If you have gotten accustomed to having ample time to sit down with a potential employer, you will need to reevaluate your approach before returning to an inperson experience.

To plan for a limited time with employers, take some time before the career fair to define why you are going to the career fair. Are you visiting to find a job? To network? To learn more about certain careers or companies? Once you have determined your purpose, find a strategy for that purpose. Keep in mind that depending on why you are attending the career fair, the time you require from employers may be longer than they have that day. For example, if you want to explore careers, you might ask more in-depth questions that will take longer to answer. A great strategy for this example is to make an initial connection at the career fair and request some time to meet afterwards when they return to the office.

Regardless of what you are trying to accomplish at the career fair, an elevator pitch is always a great way to open a conversation at a company’s booth. An elevator pitch should introduce yourself (including your major, university and year in school), summarize your experience, your career aspirations and why you are at the career fair. Great elevator pitches are 30-45 seconds and well-practiced.

The Health and Wellbeing of all is a Top Priority

Virtual career fairs became the norm to keep people safe and healthy. Even as we transition out of the pandemic, we should always care for our own and others’ wellbeing.

As a rule of thumb, do not attend a career fair if you are not feeling well – COVID or otherwise. Spreading illness, even the sniffles, is not the first impression that you want to leave on a potential employer!

Even if you are completely healthy when you attend the career fair, it is always best practice to respect others’ level of comfort at the career fair. We want to be considerate of different preferences for being around others, space between people, etc. Next time you attend an in-person career fair, consider asking before shaking hands or wearing a mask when speaking with an individual who is masked up.

Virtual Career Fairs are Not Going Away

Many organizations found that virtual career fairs allowed their teams to reach more potential employees while spending less time and money traveling. With the newly realized value of virtual career fairs, we can expect that they will remain a method of connecting to employers for the foreseeable future.

Virtual career fairs are not going away, so your participation in them should not end either. Keep an eye out for virtual career fairs hosted by your university, AgCareers.com or individual companies. These virtual experiences may be especially helpful if you are trying to find a job or expand your network past your geographical location. Keep in mind, it is much easier for employers to attend a virtual career fair than an in-person one, so attending virtual options will only expand your opportunities.

The virtual experiences in the last couple of years are great tools for us to use as we go forward in our professional careers. At your next in-person career fair, keep these lessons in mind to build your network and create opportunities. AG

Register for one of our VIRTUAL #FeedYourFuture Virtual Career Fairs: AgCareers.com Feed Your Future Virtual Career Fairs