As a student hopeful of one day having a job, I registered for the SEC & ACC Virtual Career Fair with the intent of learning more about what exactly a “virtual career fair” is and how it would compare to a traditional, in-person career fair.To register, all I had to do was make a free account on the career fair's website and fill out some of my basic information. Upon registering, I was immediately given access to the schedule of the 2-day event and could easily plan out which employers I wanted to connect with. After going through the process of talking to employers and learning how to use the interface, I found that I had learned a lot about virtual career fairs.
You can share documents
While it's a standard practice to bring copies of your resume with you to any career fair, the virtual nature of an online career fair provides you with space to upload a variety of documents for employers to peruse. There are spaces available to upload your contact information, Linkedin account, portfolio, resume, reference letter, cover letter, and transcript. You can even share your Instagram account. This helps employers get to know you better and allows you to advertise your strengths in a different way than you would at an in-person networking event.
You can learn from other students
Most virtual career fairs operate through a system of chat rooms. Once inside the chat room of the company that you want, you can scroll through the earlier parts of the conversation and see what other students in the room have been asking — I noticed lots of other students asking questions that I was interested in but I had never thought of to ask!
Finding the company you're looking for is easy
Virtual career fairs enable you to easily search for a particular company or position that you're interested in and also offer filters to help you find what you're looking for. You can filter by organization name, degree required, location, positions types, degrees, or whether or not an employer would be able to sponsor your visa. This makes the experience of attending a career fair faster and more efficient, as you eliminate the time you spend wandering from table to table.
Overall, I enjoyed my first virtual career fair, would participate in another, and appreciate the unique benefits of both virtual and in-person career fairs.