Presented by Andrew Harper, Manager of Employer Relations

Araceli “Sally” Pérez-Ramos, Manager of Communications and Online Programs

Navigating the Unchartered Waters of

Virtual Recruitment Events

About St. Edward’s University

• Private liberal arts university• Catholic, Holy Cross • Undergraduate and graduate

degrees • Approximately 5,200 students in

90 academic programs• Traditional-aged & Non-traditional

student body• Centralized Career Services Office

– 9 full time staff– 10 student staff

What is a Virtual Career Fair?

What We Do

Employer Relations • Manages employer contacts• Oversees full time and part time job

postings• Coordinates recruiting events on

campus • Collects lots and lots of data

Technology• Oversees all digital and social

media • Manages online courses and

programs• Develops marketing campaigns• Accountable for all technology

magic in the office

PARAMETERS

• Budget • Needed to be free for employers • Interactive experience that could be monitored• Video presence for employers• Multi-day experience • Short lead time for planning • Wanted to be organic

PLATFORMS

Google Hangout

Zoom GoToMeeting WebEx

Cost Free Free for 50 minutes Costly & Complicated

University Subscription

Features • Chat visible • Required

students & employers have Google account

• Audience would be public

• Only allowed shared screen

• Weak varied access levels

• No chat feature • Had time

constrictions• All participants

required to be visible

• Weak varied access levels

• Various chat options

• Could send out reminders and post event surveys

• Allowed for PowerPoint deck, shared screen, and video options

• Various access levels

• Various chat options

• Could send out reminders and post event surveys

• Allowed for PowerPoint deck, shared screen, and video options

• Various access levels

Ease of Use Easy Easy Moderate Complicated

Final Decision – Webex

• Free with university subscription

• Pre Set-Up event link that could be advertised

• Could pre-load employer slide deck and screen share was available

• Training was available through OIT

• Career staff, employers, and students/alumni all had different access levels

Technology Set-up

• Hosted Virtual Fair on our university Wordpress Blog – Could list the following on the blog page:

• Event links• Description of employers and positions available• Schedule of events • Could later post video onto page for future views

• Used WebEx Event center option vs. Meeting Center option– Could pre-schedule the event with uploaded Employer PowerPoint– Ability to provide varied access – Developed email templates to invite employers, students and alumni with

registration questions– Ability to create post-event survey questions which are housed for 3 months– Record sessions for later download

Virtual Career Fair Set-Up

• Six employers• Each conducted a live,

30-60 minute session• Encouraged to use a

slide deck and submit it a head of time

• CAPD introduced speaker and moderated questions

Challenges• Employers had to download WebEx in advance• Schedule training time with employers• Students had to download WebEx to either computer or mobile device• Informing students they could either access from their own device or come into

the office

Marketing

Lessons Learned

• Attendance and survey information disappears after 3 months

• 2 employers did not have webcams• Need to partner with a class or

group to build attendance• Employers wanted to “feel” more

connected with students• Background for employer is

important

Would we do it again?

Questions?

Andrew HarperManager of Employer Relationsandrewh@stedwards.edu

Araceli “Sally” Perez-RamosManager of Communications and Online Programsaracelip@stedwards.edu

Find the Hilltopper Virtual Career Fair here!