One of the challenges facing most career services departments today is delivering relevant services to a wide range of students in the most efficient and inclusive way. As job market and recruiting practices rapidly shift to online forums, university career services can and should identify ways to better meet the needs of students anytime, anywhere. This is especially true in planning career fairs, which have been traditionally conducted at campus locations.
At National University, a private and nonprofit institution, our unique student base has inspired us to try some new approaches and ideas. Our adult student population, one-course-per-month format, 28 geographic campuses, and the combination of online, onsite, and hybrid course offerings, all post tremendous challenges—and opportunities—to hosting highly effective, productive, and inclusive career fairs. Our seven career services team members are working tirelessly to ensure as many students and alumni as possible can participate in the career fairs throughout the regions in the conventional way. However, we realized there was much more we could do. This year we decided, for the first time, to host a Hybrid Fall Career Fair. This fair includes a two-hour virtual fair, followed by four regional face-to-face onsite career fairs—all on the same day. To our knowledge, we are the first ones in the region to host such a combined event virtually and onsite. The advantages of the hybrid structure are:1) Expanding alumni and student involvement in career fairs. In our case, the online component allows us to broaden our access to our 30,000 current students and more than 150,000 alumni—located all over the country—to interact with employers anywhere with an internet connection.2) Allowing employers to have access to talent across the country. Sometimes we hear back from employers who would like to attend in person but aren’t able to. The virtual component allows them to connect with potential employees who they might not have access to otherwise.3) Choice. While face-to-face still carries strong advantages, in this day and age so many connections of value take place online. Advanced technologies also make it more possible to simulate in-person environments. Doing this saves time and travel expenses for participants, while creating greater efficiencies by bringing together all stakeholders to meet on one virtual platform.4) Better coordination. Rather than holding career fairs at different times, we opted to host this one simultaneously at four designated regional campuses. That allows for ease and consistency of coordination, unifying us across geography and through the collaborative online portion of the career fair.The feedback we have gotten from employers has been fantastic and productive in shaping this approach, and in expanding opportunities for them and for our participating graduates.Both the employers and the candidates are excited and are looking forward to this Hybrid Fall Career Fair. Our team is energized to embark on this new, and what we believe to be, winning format of hybrid fair which will ensure all of our students and graduates have equal access to interact with the employers within our network.#careerfair #marketingtostudents