Are Campus Career Fairs a Waste of Time for Employers?

10 steps to maximize your ROI

Career fairs can be a highly effective part of campus recruiting and brand building for many employers. While they aren’t useful for all employers in all situations (that topic will be covered another time), they can be a great way to engage students that may not otherwise consider your organization; or, an excellent opportunity to change students’ perspectives if you need them to view you differently (for instance, if you’re a financial services company trying to attract IT students).

But when you add up all the time and costs, exhibiting at a career fair can require a significant investment. Every time I tour through one, I’m amazed at how many employers waste or diminish that investment through poor execution. Or even worse, there are those who actually damage their reputation. I see reps at the booth buried in their mobile devices; weeding through long line-ups of students who aren’t studying the majors they are targeting; and, distributing wasteful giveaways that end up in the garbage before the fair even ends. I also meet students who have been discouraged by employers who simply direct them to their website or worse… leaving a bad impression for students to go share on social media.

Below are 10 simple tips to ensure your organization makes the most of campus career fairs. This list is condensed from our free 8-page guide, The Ultimate Career Fair Checklist for Employers, available here: https://brainstorm.ca/cf-planning-guide.

1) Step One: Set Your Goals

What’s the #1 reason you are participating in career fairs? Is it to create awareness of opportunities? Change current perceptions of what you do? Collect resumes? Convey culture? Build your brand?

Gaining clarity on your goals will help guide all your other decisions.

2) Clearly Define Your Target Students

What attributes are you seeking? What majors are you focused on? What job types (internships, grads, co-op, part-time, etc.) are you seeking? What specific roles are you trying to fill?

Be sure your whole team is clear on this. Ideally, create signage that reflects this and will help students self-select rather than waiting in line to find out they’re not eligible. 

3) Pick the Right Reps

Your reps should be knowledgeable about your organization as well as the school and programs of the campus you are visiting; ideally some are alumni of the campus. They should also be knowledgeable about the specific areas you hire for and ideally work in that area themselves (don’t rely 100% on HR reps!).

Reps should be outgoing people that bring lots of energy to your booth and their interactions with students.

The composition of your team should reflect the people you are trying to attract in terms of gender, education, diversity, age, etc. 

4) Make Sure Your Jobs Are Posted

Post them both on your site (unless you don’t want them so widely available) and on that of the school hosting the fair.

5) Decide How You'll Handle Resumes

Decide if you are going to accept paper resumes at the fair and how you’ll manage them.

If you are not going to accept resumes at the fair, be ready to explain the appropriate application procedure and be sure students don’t feel brushed away. Students hear “just go to our website” a lot which isn’t helpful in building relationships. You need to ensure they understand the value of having met you in person.

6) Be Attentive at Your Booth

Don’t eat at your booth (take breaks for that) and try to minimize time on your mobile device (again, wait until you’re on a break away from the booth). Of course, taking breaks means bringing enough people to allow for that – don’t be short-staffed. 

7) Have a Plan for High Potentials

Introduce them to a senior colleague at the booth to give them a sense of progression and promotion. If possible, schedule an interview or follow-up discussion with them on the spot.

You won’t be able to remember everyone you meet, so have a means to ensure you don’t let high potentials get away or forgotten. Some recruiters use one pocket (or pile) for the business cards of high potentials and another for the rest.

8) Focus on Their Interests 

Focus on the WIIFM—“what’s in it for me”—factor. When talking to students, culture and values are important, but everyone needs to know what’s in it for them first. Be ready to respond to concrete questions about salary and benefits, learning and development, work-life balance, opportunities for advancement, etc.

9) Remember How Little You Knew at Their Age

Don’t assume they know a lot (or anything) about your organization—many companies have similar sounding names and lots of divisions that do different things; yours may not be one of the companies they researched in advance.

Also, stay open-minded; remember that most roles you hire for don’t have “performing well at career fairs” as a requirement!

10) Don’t Leave Early!

Although things may slow down near the end, don’t leave early. That makes everyone look bad. (Again, keep in mind how it reflects on you when posted on social media).

To maximize your ROI, use our simple step-by-step career fair planning guide, The Ultimate Career Fair Checklist for Employers. You can download it FREE, here: https://brainstorm.ca/cf-planning-guide.