Are career fairs worth your time?

August 18, 7:56 AMEntry Level Careers ExaminerHeather Huhman

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As you begin returning to school, the recruitment season also begins. This means, your campus career center (or perhaps a career center run by your department) soon will be hosting a fall career fair. But are they worth your time to attend?

Not particularly, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

“Job fairs are particularly ineffective in recessions. They are heavily attended by job seekers and lightly attended by employers,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “And, while job seekers do get to interact with a representative of the company at the job fair, it hardly qualifies as networking. The employer representative is rarely a decision maker and simply there to administer and collect applications.”

Speaking of networking, in the Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey, which asked human resources executives to rate the effectiveness of various job-search methods on a scale of 1 (least effective) to 5 (most effective), networking averaged a 3.98—making it the top tool in your arsenal.

The second most effective job-search tool was social/professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, garnering an average rating of 3.3. Meanwhile, job fairs ranked as the least effective method, scoring an average rating of 1.6. It was followed closely by responding to newspaper classified ads and sending résumés to employers, which each averaged 1.7 on the rating scale.

Survey respondents gave Internet job boards relatively high marks. It averaged a middle-of-the-road rating of 3.0.

While the Internet has the potential to be very useful for job seekers, Challenger said that it has become the primary tool for many, when it should be considered secondary to the traditional technique of networking and meeting prospective employers in person.

“It is important to remember that the job search is a multifaceted process. Those who rely on just one tool, even if it is networking, will take longer to find a position. The problem with the ease and accessibility of the Internet is that many job seekers make it their primary job search tool,” said Challenger. “Some human resource executives complain that for every qualified candidate that comes in from the Internet, there are 10 to 20 who do not even come close to being a good fit. The more irrelevant résumés that hiring managers have to wade through in order to select the handful to bring in for interviews, the longer it takes to fill the position.”

The moral of the story?

“Job seekers must learn how to use all of the tools at their disposal, including networking, the Internet, newspapers, job fairs and even cold calling employers,” Challenger concluded.

For more information and advice about career fairs, click here.