The traditional job fair entails making a million copies of your resume, wearing your best suit, putting on your best face, going to an overly crowded hotel, and making your way to as many booths as possible. The whole thing feels so inauthentic. I think job fairs are still effective, but not in their current form. Online job fairs represent the more evolved form of mass recruiting and job searching.

Have you ever attended a traditional job fair? I used to help organize job fairs for a major telecommunications corporation. We would advertise for weeks hoping to get as many people out to the event as possible. Invariably, too many people showed up and the hiring managers rarely had time or the space to have substantive conversations with solid candidates.

Benefits of Online Job Fairs

Online job fairs allow employers to get up close and personal with candidates. The Internet allows recruiters and hiring managers to review individual resumes and communicate individually with prospective hires. This is far more effective and considerate than traditional job fairs that often attract completely unqualified job seekers.

Before you take your favorite suit to the cleaners and buy a nice silk tie, look around for some online job fairs. At least take the time to put your resume on as many job boards as possible. Communication has changed drastically over the past twenty years because of the Internet. Soon the interview process may take place completely via webcast. The web has changed the face of business so I suggest using this tool as much as possible. It just might help you land the job of your dreams, but you will need to post to more than just a handful of job boards. The more you can post to, the better your odds of finding a job are.