For sixteen years, SCICU Career Directors planned and conducted an interview day where seniors at SCICU colleges and universities met face-to-face with recruiters from some of the nation’s top businesses. Two years ago, more than 40 employers and 243 students took part in the annual event. Last year, as unemployment moved steadily upward, only 27 employers participated in the interviews.
In spite of an intensive recruiting effort by the Career Directors and SCICU staff, there was not sufficient interest from the business community to justify the expense associated with sponsoring the event in 2010. Employers cited a lack of employment opportunities, a surplus of qualified applicants, and a need to reduce travel expenses as reasons for not coming to Columbia for in-person interviews.
Adapting to the changing economy, the Career Directors transformed the 17th Annual SCICU Interview Day into a “virtual job fair.” The Career Directors recruited employers to submit employment or internship positions to a special SCICU website using the resources of the internet-based College Central Network. Students were encouraged to respond to the employers by posting their resumes to the website. Neither the employers nor the students were charged for sharing employment information.
In February, 57 employers submitted 93 jobs to the site. In response, over 600 students from 18 SCICU schools uploaded 445 resumes. Many of the students who did not post their resumes either e-mailed their resumes directly to an employer or used an employer’s on-line application system.
Career Directors are still evaluating the results of this employer-student matchmaking service, but it is clear that the virtual job fair gave more students exposure to a greater number of job vacancies from a large variety of employers at little or no cost to either party. The downside is that the students did not get the immediate opportunity for personal interviews and the Career Directors did not get the kind of personal feedback from both students and recruiters that they normally receive during an interview day.
Developing a new program like the virtual job fair requires a tremendous amount of innovation and coordination among the SCICU members. In particular, Linda Jameison and Lynn Downie of Presbyterian College were extremely instrumental in creating the process, enabling the website, and managing the flow of information.
As the economy improves, the Career Directors hope to bring back the traditional Interview Day in 2011 and possibly supplement it with another virtual job fair in order to expand the employment opportunities for graduates of South Carolina’s independent colleges and universities.