The Tower Spring 2021 - 9

Virtual
Job Fair
Connects
Students
and Industry
L

ike so many other things in 2020,
once the global pandemic hit,
Laurie Grove (Director of Career
Services at Thaddeus Stevens College
of Technology) knew that the annual
job fair would have to move online.
She began researching companies,
even going so far as to enroll in a few
fairs as a student and vendor herself
before settling on virtual career fair
platform Brazen. " What I love about
Brazen is that they offer video-not
just texting, not just chatting... The
video piece was really important to
our employers, " said Grove.
Thaddeus Stevens College was ready
to go, hosting two Virtual Job Fairs in
the spring of 2021. In Grove's words:
" It was kind of unbelievable, actually.
It was so much better attended and
well-received than we could have ever
anticipated. "
The February 24th event (which
half of Thaddeus Stevens College
students registered for; the other half
registered for the March 31 event)
attracted 351 students seeking to
connect with potential employers for
internships and full-time positions.
Eighty companies participated with
over 150 employer representatives.
In all, more than 1,458 video and
text chats were completed over the
course of the event. And everyone
wanted even more time together.
Using Brazen, employers set up their

virtual booth space ahead of time,
filling out their profiles with company
information, links to current job
openings, social media channels, and
even photos of which representatives
will be available to chat at the event.
Students register to attend the
virtual fair, and can then log in to
explore employer booths well ahead
of the big event, giving them time to
research which companies they want
to network with.
The biggest change that Career
Services made between the first
virtual job fair and the second was
increasing the amount of time
that a student and employer could
connect. " For the first one, we set
the chat time for five minutes, based
on employers' feedback from our
face-to-face events, " said Grove.
" Employers said, we probably
aren't going to talk for more than
five minutes with any one student,
because that's typically what we do.
We get their information and then we
schedule interviews later. " However,
both students and employer feedback
after the first virtual job fair showed
a desire to increase that number.
For the March event, Grove's team
changed the 5 minute allocation to
30 minutes. " I think it's going to make
them feel like they can actually have
more of a conversation, " said Grove.
" The outcome is that you're going
to have more, maybe intentional,
and detailed conversations this

time. In fact, it might even be a
scenario where you see employers
interviewing students on the spot. "
What might Thaddeus Stevens
College job fairs look like once the
pandemic comes to a close? While
everyone is looking forward to
being face-to-face when possible,
Grove foresees a hybrid approach
moving forward due to the unique
benefits online events provide. " It
gives us more flexibility and it gives
the employers more flexibility to
attend more events. They can attend
this virtual event from anywhere.
It doesn't matter where they are,
physically, " she said. Ultimately, more
flexibility for employers leads to more
opportunities for Thaddeus Stevens
College graduates.
In the more immediate future, the
College will experiment with offering
smaller, more industry-focused virtual
events through Brazen, including an
April " mini-job fair " for the Masonry
program that will feature 10-15
companies. " Overall, we're just kind of
blown away by it. We're super, super
happy with the results, " said Grove.
All members of the Thaddeus Stevens
College community are welcome to
attend Virtual Job Fairs, including
alumni and faculty. Register for
upcoming events at stevenscollege.
edu/careerfair.
The Tower Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Tower Spring 2021
