Solidarity Sunday: The Challenge with Job Fairs
Every few months, someone proposes a job fair. Maybe it's a collaboration with contractors or a local workforce agency. The goal is noble: to recruit workers in the fold and address our contractors' labor shortages. But let's be honest…these events rarely move the needle.
Yes, they might result in filling a few job calls. And yes, contractors often appreciate them because they feel "tangible." But the truth is, job fairs are inefficient, inconvenient, and outdated…especially when it comes to influencing those who are already working in the field.
Job Fairs Are a Tactic, Not a Strategy
The challenge with job fairs is confusing activity with effectiveness. Job fairs feel like you're doing something, but the proof is in the pudding. In today's economy, most people who want to work are already working. Those who have any skill are already leveraging it. Trying to lure them into a physical location for a one-time event that's off their routine is like fishing in a puddle. Most of the time, the return simply doesn't justify the effort.
This is not a knock on job fairs themselves. It's simply a call for realism. We need to stop treating job fairs as a culmination point of recruitment strategy when they're little more than a side tactic at best.
Fish where the fish are
I've spent 35 years in media, and I've watched digital streaming and social media transform how people engage with content, and by extension, how they make decisions. Today's young workers don't find their next opportunity at a table in a convention hall. They find it on their phone, in a scroll, in a podcast, or in a story that resonates with who they believe themselves to be, or who they want to become.
They're not actively looking for a job, until they are. They're consuming content that speaks to their identity, their values, and their curiosity and the algorithms are feeding that. That's where the conversation starts. Not at a booth with a clipboard.
If You Want to Reach Them, Meet Them Where They Are
Successful recruitment is about relevance and convenience. That means:
- Always-on digital presence, not one-time events
- Social-first storytelling, not brochures
- Personalized outreach through retargeting, not cold introductions
- Mobile-first applications, not clunky web forms
You have to use media the way your prospects use media—not the way you wish they behaved.
A Rational, Long-Term Strategy
They may feel like a worthwhile activity, but short-term hiring events are a gamble at best. The better play is to start investing in a long-term, scalable digital infrastructure:
- Build a compelling digital identity that reflects your values and impact
- Invest in video and storytelling that showcases real workers and their lives
- Use targeted social media and search ads to stay top of mind
- Nurture prospects with email, text, and chatbot follow-ups
- Track engagement like a campaign, not a flyer
Strategy is built on rules, not exceptions
If a job fair "works," it's the exception, not the rule. Anomalies like this are not proof of concept. When creating a strategy, we must make plans based on rules, not exceptions. In an economy where attention is fragmented and time is precious, recruitment must be intentional, digital-first, and ongoing.
We're built on the long game. That's the mindset we need to bring to organizing and recruiting in the 21st century. We can help you get there.