virtual-campus-tour

Student career help goes virtual


Virtual career fairs aim to offer employers the opportunity to visit more campuses than before; help students find right career for them

virtual-career-fair Chegg is announcing a new area of expansion to its Career Service Center with the launch of virtual career fairs.

These virtual career fairs are real-time, online gatherings between prospective students and employers. Companies like United Healthcare have participated in preliminary fairs, and beginning later this month the career fairs will occur on an ongoing monthly basis with companies such as Adobe. Chegg is launching the virtual career fairs using Brazen Careerist’s platform.

With virtual career fairs, Chegg aims to add value for both students and employers by re-imagining how career centers should work in today’s digital age. These virtual career fairs address a “glaring need identified by both students and employers that current campus services don’t meet: the ability to interact with best-fit candidates and positions on a large scale and get direct feedback,” said the company.

For students, Chegg believes the virtual fairs are an opportunity to interact with employers from across the country that may not have the ability to visit every campus. For employers, it can be an opportunity to virtually visit many more campuses than would be possible through traditional career fairs.

Chegg also believes that companies can meet prospective candidates from more diverse backgrounds than would otherwise be possible–“by hosting a virtual career fair that targets candidates en masse with specific backgrounds, companies have the opportunity to expand their brand and change the way students perceive them; for example, a company known for design can effectively host a fair to hire positions in operations or engineering, when typical career fairs would not help them target these demographics of students in high volume,” explained the company.

(Next page: How the virtual fairs work; features)

How Chegg’s Virtual Career Fairs work

1. Companies and recruiters first identify the parameters that make up a likely candidate, such as college major, experience and location for the job. Chegg then identifies students who fit that profile and invites them to register to participate.

2. Company recruiters and candidates then create profiles. Candidate profiles include contact information, their resume, skills and interests. Recruiter information includes relevant company details.

3. For the event, candidates log in to see an overview page of the “booths” for all participating companies or recruiters. From here, they can then choose which companies they’d like to interact with.

4. The virtual career fair platform enables candidates to interact with recruiters and companies in multiple ways, said Chegg, which the company believes is a unique offering in the industry. Candidates can:

  • Visit each booth’s page to see overview information about the company and available positions.
  • Interact with recruiters one-on-one; to do so, they “wait in line” for available recruiters at each “booth.”
  • Join a booth-specific Discussion Feed, similar to a forum, to ask general questions and receive information about topics like company culture.
  • Send long-form messages to the company proactively as an introduction or to request more information.

5. If a candidate chooses to interact with a recruiter one-on-one, they begin a live text chat.

  • Similar to instant messaging, here candidates can ask specific questions about the role, share details of their own background and experience, and discuss what the company is looking for.
  • Recruiters can access the candidates resume in real time during the chat and use the conversation to evaluate qualifications.

6. After the chat, if they want to move forward, recruiters can set up a follow up or connect with candidates offline via email, as provided in profiles. Recruiters also rate each candidate they speak with, from one to five stars. Each recruiter can determine their own criteria for ratings and next steps based on that chosen rating. Candidates rate the recruiters as well, as a way to help rank companies or experiences they’re also interested in following up with.

Key Features:

  1. Tailored profiles: the host of each fair determines what questions candidates should answer in their initial profile, which helps recruiters more quickly vet for qualifications. Recruiters include the company information and personal details that are relevant to the topic of the fair and jobs for which they are recruiting.
  2. Participant dashboard page: details each booth present at the fair. Here candidates can see basic company information and the wait time to interact with a recruiter one-on-one at a glance.
  3. Customized company pages: participating companies and recruiters can customize their welcome pages to each event, detailing company culture, company background and positions as relevant.
  4. Multiple interaction points, including one-on-one and follow-up modules: Recruiters at the fair can pass candidate information on to others in their company who may be more relevant for follow up, as well. The platform allows them to forward the entire conversation transcript as well as the candidate profiles, said Chegg.
  5. Candidate report: Built for streamlined follow up, the report shows all fair attendees and registrants with their contact and profile details, as well as links to resumes. It also includes a summary of the candidate ratings, so that recruiters can see how each candidate performed and assess follow up needed.

Material from a press release was used in this report.

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