Career Warrior Podcast #282) Are Job Fairs Dead? The Future of Hiring with Steve Edwards
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Shownotes
While the landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, you may ask: which best practices for job seekers have not changed? For example, if I’m being told that networking is the best way to land jobs, what does that actually mean in an increasingly virtual world? Well, in this episode for the first time, we’ll cover the wonderful world of virtual hiring, and we’ll uncover some tips to help you land more interviews.
Today I brought on Steve Edwards, founder of Premier Virtual, an innovative company helping businesses host successful virtual hiring events. According to Steve, virtual hiring events are an essential component of any recruitment effort, and his team is committed to help usher in this new era.
After 4 years of jumping out of planes in the Army he moved to attend FAU and eventually start his own platform.
As a leader in the industry, the Premier Virtual platform has helped more than 50,000 companies connect with nearly 1 million job seekers and hosted over 7,000 virtual hiring events, and this number is growing daily. They have earned prestigious awards and Premier Virtual also has licensing agreements with almost 200 Workforce Development Boards across the Country. The US Army, many National Guard units, and several Veteran organizations use the Premier Virtual platform.
So as you can see… this is going to be a very impactful episode for those looking to try something new and diversify their job search portfolio.
Episode Transcript
Chris Villanueva 0:04
Welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast!
And welcome to the lLet’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast where our goal is not only to help you land your dream job, but to help you live your best life. I’m Chris Villanueva CEO of Let’s Eat, Grandma, the world’s best resume writing service. And today we have a special episode for you. Our job fairs dead. You may be wondering this as we venture into 2023. And while the landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, you may ask yourself, which best practices for job seekers have not changed? For example, if I’m being told that networking is the best way to land jobs, what does this actually mean in an increasingly virtual world? Well, in this episode, and for the first time, we’ll cover the wonderful world of virtual hiring, and we’ll uncover some tips to help you land more interviews. Today, I brought on Steve Edwards, founder of Premier Virtual, an innovative company helping businesses host successful virtual hiring events. According to Steve, virtual hiring events are an essential component of any recruitment effort, and his team is committed to help usher in this new era. After four years of jumping out of planes in the army, he moved to attend FAU and eventually start his own platform. As a leader in the industry, the premier virtual platform has helped more than 50,000 companies connect with almost a million job seekers and host over 7000 virtual hiring events. This number is growing daily. And I think you’d be surprised to know that the largest Career Fair ever was held through premiere virtual, we’ll get into that during the show. So as you can see, this is going to be a very impactful episode here. I don’t want to lead you to the answer by asking the question our job bears dead. But I think you’re going to be surprised by what we have to say during the show. So without further ado, this is Episode 282 of the Career Warrior Podcast.
Right, Steve, welcome to the show. How you doing today?
Steve Edwards 2:10
Oh, I’m doing well, thanks for having me. Every day above ground is a great day. I love that attitude. And I love for listeners, there’s a wonderful American flag in the background. And it’s just awesome. And I love actually to draw in some of your US Army transition and experience too. I know we have a lot of career transitioners on the podcast. But first I’ll ask the most thought provoking question I can to kick off the show our job fairs dead in person job fairs are dying, and they’re not going to be on longer. Now there’s going to be people that are going to fight me on that and say they’re here. We want that face to face interaction, who wants a face to face interaction? In a second, I’ll go into the advantages and disadvantages because I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides.
Chris Villanueva 2:58
But you know, before going into that, I just I would ask I haven’t attended a job fair personally in such a long time. What do you think the average person who attends a job fair would expect to see if they were to attend one of these in person things? In person job fairs? Yes,
Steve Edwards 3:12
They’re gonna see entry level type of positions. They’re companies that are always hiring, because there’s always turnover, right? And that’s the people that are coming to these unfortunately, right? If you’re coming to a job fair during the day, you’re probably unemployed, looking for a job. And those are the type of people now I’m not saying that there’s bad companies and in person job fairs, I still attend some if my clients are hosting an in person job fair, right? I go there, because I’m going to support them. But I also have my virtual booth up so people want to submit their resume to me, they can do it virtually. Yeah. So make sense, not 100% dead. But if you look at how many companies especially during COVID, Job Fair companies went out of business, because they couldn’t make that switch. Or they didn’t want to make that switch. Because a lot of times it’s the mindset of the host of what do they want to see. But now when people are excited about an in person job fair of 30 people at their job fair, it used to be 300 to 1000. It’s just a different mindset and and as we grow into more of a technology based world, in a digital world, right? And it’s going to continue to go more digital than less, right? The Metaverse is coming out. Let’s talk about the flexibility here. But first, just the number how many people attended that largest job fair ever that you hosted in Massachusetts? There was over 17,000 job seekers at that job fair, 17 100 companies. Wow. Now, from a job seeker centered point of view, you’re probably like, Oh my gosh. 1700. One, how do I stand out but how do I see 1700 under companies? Here’s the easy answer. You don’t. Right. Virtual is so efficient.
that you can log into that lobby, and you can search right? Why is Indeed the number one job board out there. Because it’s easy. If I log into indeed, I say, I’m looking for a sales job in Fort Lauderdale, and the companies pull up, it’s the same thing within the virtual world is you search for those companies, right? Your title, your location. And it just brings up the companies that are hiring within your location in industry, maybe it’s 40 companies, but you don’t have to weed through all these companies to say, what jobs you have, you don’t have to wait in line at a job fair with your resume and say, Hi, I’m so excited. My name is Steve, and I’m looking for an engineering job. And they’re like, I’m sorry, we only have sales jobs. You don’t have to do that in the virtual world. You see the jobs that the companies have. And it’s not what you like, you go to the next booth, there’s no waiting in line. It’s easy, it’s efficient.
Chris Villanueva 5:52
Earlier, you told me that you can move faster if I attend these virtual hiring events. Why is that? And like, what’s an example of me being able to move faster if I attend one of these events?
Steve Edwards 6:03
You know what I think we should do is I kind of should explain a Virtual Job Fair, right? Because a lot of people may not know what a virtual job offer is and how it works. So this will kind of answer that question. Sure, is when you go to a Virtual Job Fair, right, think about this, right? I like to tell people close your eyes, and think about right walking into a room. And in that room, you see a button that says industry location, skill, set, job category, job title, and you can click on it, and you say, Okay, I’m looking for a job in engineering, and you click on that engineering job, and boom, a bunch of logos pop up. And when you see that logo, you click on the first logo, you click on the about that company and you see what the company does, then you can click on the jobs and say, Wow, this is a great job, this is what I want, I could submit my resume. Or if it’s not a good company, I click back out and I go to the next company. And I look at their what they do, and I look at their jobs. That’s not a good fit, I go to the third company, and I see it. And now I’m like, this is a great company, this is a perfect job, I’m going to submit my resume that company, but I also want to send either a live chat to that company, or I want to schedule a one on one meeting with them. So I know I have a time at 1pm that I am talking directly with that recruiter.
Chris Villanueva 7:24
These are open postings. That’s the benefit here. We’re not looking at just the job, you know, and I’m not knocking job boards. I think they have their time in place and are recommended, but you’re making it seem like with a job fair, it’s updated. Like these are definitely jobs that are open. Now. These are definitely recruiters and companies that are interested in this is something that’s going to yield some more engagement.
Steve Edwards 7:46
Yeah, that recruiter sets up that booth and that job that’s live that day. So now you could click on that submit your resume to that engineering job or that accounting job and then start a chat with the recruiter and say I just submitted my resume to the accounting position. I’d love to learn more. And the recruiter says, Great, are you available for a video interview and they send you a hit a button that sends you a link and you pop up to a video interview in a matter of seconds. There’s no wasted time, you could just see all these companies and you only have to talk to the companies that you want to write. It’s efficient, right you’re going right from so that person says well and an in person event, we can shake hands and meet, I can meet you here as well. Right? You can meet that because a job fair is not meant to have the full video interview. It’s meant here, let’s have a quick little video. And then we can go next. Right? Companies are going video interview first and now more than they ever have.
Chris Villanueva 8:46
Makes sense. It’s so much faster. And so many questions are coming to mind right now is if I were a job seeker, and I’ve never attended a job fair before, thank you for that outline that was actually really helpful. But a How much does it cost? Does it cost anything to attend a job fair? And be how can I make sure I maximize my success? If I were to attend a job fair, I want to get some interviews.
Steve Edwards 9:06
I’m going to answer the first question. If somebody’s telling you, you got to pay money to be at a job fair, I would not run I would fly away from them as fast as possible. Right? It’s the same thing, right? That if people are trying to charge you to come to a job fair, or even when I did in person events, I wouldn’t even go to a hotel that charged parking. If we had to like in Miami because everywhere charges for in Miami. I paid for the parking for the candidates.
Chris Villanueva 9:34
Yeah. And the gas too. I mean, technically, it’s all that stuff adds up and
Steve Edwards 9:38
Yeah, so you shouldn’t have to pay for that. But when you go to a Virtual Job Fair, you know, some of the hosts will maybe open the event the day before. So you can go in, look at the companies that you want, see what they have, what kind of jobs they have, kind of mark it off. And not everybody is as we’ll say, as robust as Premier Virtual, but look at the companies that are there. And one thing I can always say is, don’t just go to a chat go into a company room, right? So I’m going into ABC mortgages room, don’t go in there and say, Hey, what jobs you’re hiring for? They’re gonna tell you look at that button on the left that says job postings, right, they’re gonna say that you’re not working, right? Do your homework. And the good thing is, is when you go into these virtual booths, you can see what the company does, you can research them look at their social media. So when you ask a question is, Hey, I saw that you were in the news about this, or I’d like to learn a little bit more about this exact position, hey, I submitted my resume to this, right, but I’m gonna back up just a second to is, when you’re a candidate, and you’re creating your profile for this virtual event, fill out your profile. So think about like if you go in, and if you’re a candidate, and you see two companies back to back and one has their logo and completely filled out in one doesn’t just has their logo and nothing else out there. You’re gonna be like, Well, this one, it looks more interesting because they did everything to same thing with you is you can go in and you can have your resume, have your profile filled out, when you’re going in, you’re putting your best foot forward. How are you better than everybody? Like I used to tell people at the job fair, the in person is, did you see those two people that you just looked at it left and right, they’re your competition? Why are you better than them? What are you doing out there that they’re not doing? You have to show yourself off and do what others are not willing to do? Because as you know, right, if you’re out there looking for a job, it’s not fun. Looking for a job is not fun? How can you make it more efficient, more effective? You know, if you’re using job boards, job fairs, whatever you’re using, I like to tell people to track right, have a spreadsheet of who you submitted your resume to when you submitted it what Job Fair what job board? Where did you submit it to? You know, when you submit your job, your resume online, Hey, I just submitted my resume to this company. What happens on a lot of these sites is here are some other companies that you may be interested in. And what do people do they go,
ah, put their feet up, turn Jerry Springer on and say I just applied to 50 jobs. I don’t have to do anything else today. But then you’re like, I’m getting calls from these companies that aren’t a good fit for me. I didn’t respond to this company. It’s because you just clicked you didn’t research the companies, right? They’re taking the shotgun approach, and not the sniper approach, right? Would you rather submit your resume to 100 companies out there that you don’t even know or submitted to 10? That you know, you want to go after research the companies that you want to submit your resume to connect with them on LinkedIn? Right?
Chris Villanueva 12:51
Yeah, that’s a much faster way to get your job. People think it sounds counterintuitive, like Would I rather get 100 opportunities that are not targeted, or 10, really good ones. And I always tell people quality, not quantity in every single instance. And so you mentioned something that I do want to unpack, and that’s the interview. And you almost have me thinking, gosh, if I really bring my A game to one of these virtual hiring events, then this could progress to an interview in the same day. Well, if I’m going to attend one of these virtual job fairs, what should I do to prepare for that interview that could come?
Steve Edwards 13:25
Great question. So one, you need to prepare your surroundings? what’s around you what’s behind you? You know, don’t go to one of these when you’re sitting at Starbucks, right? I know, you can blur your screen now. And you can have it where it’s not but what happens if somebody walks up and bumps you or spill something on background noise and all that you don’t want to do that. So we do some training with one of my clients is we really get people prepared. We live in a world everything is video, right? You can do everything video, right? Most people have smartphones out there, make a video of yourself right of where you’re going to be put your phone on there, make a video, right? Know what’s in your backyard, right? I have this, you know, here, if you look at my house, when I’m at my home office, I have pictures of my wife, my kids awards that I’ve won, I have all of that within there. That’s a beautiful background, right? Knowing your background.
Chris Villanueva 14:13
I’m a fan of neutral background neutral, but professional and that goes for your LinkedIn photos and all that kind of stuff too. But you don’t want it to detract away from you showing that you’re a qualified person for the job. Like that should be the main focus, not whatever’s in your background. I wholeheartedly agree.
Steve Edwards 14:30
So what was one of the first things that you said to me when we got on here today, you’re like, Oh, he’s got an American flag in the back. Right? If you can have something that can be, hey, here’s a positive thing to talk about. Right? Normally, it’s not the American flag. I haven’t have it here. Usually, it’s a picture of my family. Right? Because what’s in the background is can I build a conversation around that right? Again, preparing is knowing your surroundings, knowing how what are you going to sound like?
Chris Villanueva 14:55
Yeah, and that’s what I wanted to ask is so like, I have my background and the positioning of it but if I don’t know what types of jobs that I’m going to get called in for an interview for, then how do I prepare my answers and prepare in a way that’s going to make me sound like I’m a good fit for the role.
Steve Edwards 15:12
So the good thing about that is most people, if you’re going to a Virtual Job Fair, you’re looking for some aspect of a job that you know a little bit about. Right? So what I like to tell people, and this goes back to when I first got out of college, and what I did is I was able to talk to myself, now people think I’m crazy. But I tell people this all the time and training is take your phone, turn on your video, and talk to yourself, right? If you can’t talk to yourself, how can you talk to anybody else? It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it as well. So when you’re in there and practice, right, if you’re looking for a job, you should be able to have somebody else right, that you can talk to that you should be able to say, hey, how do I sound on this? Right? Most of the times, when you’re looking at a virtual topic, you don’t have to prepare as much for that interview, that first initial interview at a Virtual Job Fair, it’s going to all be about you. Tell me about yourself? Why should we hire you? You know, what experience? Are there going to be generic questions, you should be able to say, if they say, Steve, tell me about yourself. I can rattle off a 32nd pitch, I can rattle off a two minute pitch about here’s who I am. Hey, my name is Steve Edwards, CEO premier virtual. I come from small town, Wisconsin, you probably never heard of Chippewa Falls. But I went to the army after high school because I wanted to jump out of airplanes, right? Yeah, that’s a quick pitch that I have.
Chris Villanueva 16:31
And then people who can’t see the video right now, but I could sense your energy and like that almost smile you have going on right now which exudes confidence. I think that stuff matters so much when you’re showing up to an interview.
Steve Edwards 16:43
And I’ve had people who say like, Well, Steve, and this is no knock, right? I have family members, that accountants, this is no knock on accountants. They’re like, Well, I’m an accountant. And I don’t have that passion. I’m like, Do you love what you do? Yes. Okay. Do you love? Yes, yeah, you can still say, here’s who I am. And here’s what I do. If you just sound like the city can’t really talk like this, and nobody can really hear you. Right? You could talk but that’s where you practice, practice in the mirror, talk to yourself, right? I don’t care if you’re driving to work, talk to yourself, look in the mirror, who cares? If people think you’re crazy, you’re trying to get a job and you’re trying to be the best person you can be after that interview. Right? That virtual interview. Again, it’s going to be very basic questions.
Chris Villanueva 17:28
And it’s not going to be the same day. This is sometime in the future, most likely?
Steve Edwards 17:32
Yep. Sometime in the future. Okay, so I’m going to ask you this, Chris, I get ready for an interview right at the end of the interview, what is every manager or person whose interviewer ask the ask the candidate? Do you have any questions for me or about the company? Okay. Now, here’s the question, right? Maybe this is a trick question. How many questions should you have? When they ask you that question?
Chris Villanueva 17:58
What’s the number Steve? I’m guessing, like between three and five? The way this is going, but you tell me?
Steve Edwards 18:03
That’s a good college? Try. Right? Three? Right? Gonna have three questions, right? I used to believe a long time ago, the question was this. What are you going to hire me? You know, and I remember I was at a job interview one time, and I haven’t been in a job interview now in a long time. But I remember and they said, Do you have any questions? And I go, just one question. He’s like, what’s that? I go, why are you wasting your time? He looks at me, what do you mean, I go, why are you wasting your time with anybody else? You know, I’m the best there is, you know, I’m the only person who’s gonna be the best at this job. So when do I start? Yeah, but that right, that was me. Wrong way to do it completely wrong way.
Chris Villanueva 18:41
I love the confidence, though, that’s a tactic. That’s a tactic.
Steve Edwards 18:45
It was a very, very interesting tactic. Right? It worked for me. Now, the next interview I went on, which was a lot longer after that, and this is where you’re gonna think I’m crazy. But you got to listen to the whole thing here. When you go to a job interview, you want to have 15 to 20 questions ready? When they asked, Do you have any questions? Okay, Chris, I loved your eyes right there. You gave me that look, and here’s why I’m gonna tell you, what is a good interview. It is asking questions, right? It should be a conversation, they’re going to talk you’re going to talk. So you’re going to come in and you’re going to have your notepad when you go into the interview. Okay? So you’re going to have that they’re going to ask some you and be like, That was a great thing. You just said that was actually one of my questions. You’re going to look down, and you’re gonna write the answer. Okay, next time they do it, you’re going to do it again. You’re going to look down at the end, they’re going to say, Do you have any questions? Yeah, I actually had, you know, 15 questions in here. Okay. So one, they’re going to show that you prepared right? If you prepare that you care. Yeah, I completely agree. You are doing something that nobody else is doing. Okay. Is you’re preparing for that interview. You’re not going to get through 15 to 20. Nobody ever gets through that many but it shows one you prepared, two you’re taking notes there during that interview, and you can repeat back to them what they said it shows man, this this person is detailed. Yeah, that’s in there. Right. So again, how are you doing something different than what everybody else is doing? Because it’s not just you, right? You know, there’s a lot of people that are out there. Right. The next thing I used to tell people this, nobody’s ever called me to tell me that, that they’ve done this, because I don’t think anybody has tried it, is when you walk into the interview, Chris is already like, God, this guy is not. So the –
Chris Villanueva 20:29
The 15 questions thing? That’s awesome. I would do that. I think that’s something I would do when I come for podcasting, though, because I know what the value of asking questions is it it unlocks everything.
Steve Edwards 20:38
You can get them in, right, you building the conversations there. But here’s where I like to tell people to switch it up. You walk into that interview you got and you shake their hand, you said, you know, so excited to be here. Thank you for taking your time out of your day to meet with me. What was it on my resume that you saw that wanted to bring me in for this interview? Question, you flip the script on them, and you say back to them, because most of them are thinking, hey, we’re going to ask questions, I’m gonna ask you a question, you’re gonna give me an answer. I’m gonna ask you a question off that you’re gonna give me an answer of that. You’re going to say, Hey, what did you like about me? Why did you bring me in here?
Chris Villanueva 21:15
That’s also one of the best sales questions you can ask if you’re selling anything. I mean, you’re selling yourself in a way you’re selling your professional self, I should say when you’re applying for these jobs, but what a good question, say it just one more time for people.
Steve Edwards 21:29
When you walk into that interview, reach out your hand, you shake their hand, say I’m so excited to be here today. What did you see on my resume that made you want to bring me in here for an interview today? Well done. Perfectly phrase to phenomenal, right? And I love that I always used to tell people, hey, send me an email, right? If you did this, but there’s a lot of people that just one, it takes some confidence to do it. And a lot of people don’t think about that, right? Because you get in, people get nervous, right. And they say they may not get nervous in an interview. But people still get nervous. And that’s where I say, if you practice right in the mirror, on the phone, watching videos, that’s there, that’s going to build your confidence. I don’t care if you’re an accountant, an engineer, a software developer, a salesperson, you’re still going to have confidence in you, and your ability, it doesn’t matter what your title is, are you confident in your ability. And if you’re confident in your ability, you can show, hey, here’s why I am here. And here’s why you should hire me.
Chris Villanueva 22:39
I love that. And I think you’ve probably convinced everybody listening at this point that they need to give these virtual career fairs a shot, because gosh, I want to start adding it to my list of things to recommend to job seekers. Now, I think it’s a really good thing to add to our repertoire there. So in a sec, I’ll ask a little bit more about premiere virtual, but first, I just had to get personal with you. You said that you jumped out of airplanes for years, and then transitioned yourself to building this big company. There has to be a backstory behind that. And I get a lot of job seekers who are transitioning from one area to another. I’ve had military to civilian transitions. And sometimes these people have tough times moving into something new. So what’s your perspective? And how do I prepare emotionally perhaps, or just make sure I take charge to go where I need to go?
Steve Edwards 23:29
Because I could go real deep on that we won’t go all the way down the rabbit hole. But you know, again, I think a lot of it is I had to believe in myself. And I think if you believe in yourself and your abilities that are out there, you could do anything you want. Right? Soon as I got in the military, I was like, I’m not making any money. And I was making $8,000 a year and I’m like, I don’t care how much food they give you, which was not great food. The barracks weren’t good. I’m like, I need to go to school. So I was going to I was going to college at night, while as soon as I got to the army because I realized out there Hey, what my dream was of staying in the military for 20 years was not going to be there because financially it couldn’t give me what I wanted. My mom always said right, I lived on a you know, on a on a champagne taste on a water budget. And it’s interesting to see what what I did right is I realized quickly that the military wasn’t for me. It taught me very quickly what I needed to know if you’re looking at a you know, NSA slot, right? When you’re looking to transition from the either the military to civilian, or you’re going from, you know, one industry to another industry. The first thing is I want to ask or tell you to ask yourself is why? Why do you want to do this right? Why do you want to go? Is it your passion? What do you want to do? What do you want to go right? When somebody is transitioning is to really sit down with yourself and you know, write the whys, right? And I used to do this with everything in my life, right? I would take get a little piece of paper, and I would write a big T down the middle. And I know not everybody can see this, but I would write a big T down the middle. And I would write the positives and the negatives of the situation that I was going to go through. And I could then say, is there more positives? Or is there more negatives in everybody can do that, right. And I’ve seen graphs out there very similar to that where it was, you know, when they’re looking at a job transition, you have your top left was your must haves, your bottom right where the can’t hats, and then your top right was nice to have and your bottom left was, don’t really want, right, but you gotta have here’s my must haves, I have to have this in my job transition. Is it a salary? Is it remote work? Is it you know, work life balance? What is it that you have to have? And what is it that you don’t want to have? Do you have a plan to make that career transition? Right? Is it do you need schooling? Do you need a mentor group? Do you need people around you that are pushing you, right? Yep. Or are the people around you, right? I’ve told the kid one time, we were talking and he came to a job fair. We were at a job fair in Tampa, and this kid comes up to me, and I go, do you have a resume on you? And he goes, I don’t have a resume. I’m like, why wouldn’t you have a resume coming? He goes, Well, my friends told me, I don’t need a resume. And I go, You know what, I’m gonna give you the best advice you’ve ever had right now. And he goes, What’s that I go get rid of your friends. He looked at me like crazy ago. If you have people that are negative around you and telling you the wrong things to do. You don’t want to hang out with those people. It was the thing is trying to coach that person is who are the people that are around you, too, right? Are they lifting you up? Or are they pushing you down? Right. And sometimes in life, you got to get rid of people. And when you’re looking for a job, I don’t want to come home and have people be negative. limit the exposure to negativity, when you’re looking for a job, write down the whys, write down the pluses, write down the minuses. And really focus on like we’ve talked about earlier, is the right type of companies take that approach of research the companies, like Chris said, quality over quantity.
Chris Villanueva 27:14
I love that. Thank you so much, Steven, I appreciate you coming on the career warrior podcast here. How can people attend a virtual hiring event? Tell me a little bit more about premiere virtual in a nutshell.
Steve Edwards 27:26
So premiere, virtual, you know, we’re the software that powers the event. So we don’t host the events, you can connect with us on social media, and we post our clients events that are on there as well. But really the easiest thing and I tell everybody that’s out there is when you’re looking for a job, I’m not the only game in town, right? We may be the best game in town. But we’re not the only game in town, there’s there are other platforms that are out there. And if you want to stay in an area search virtual job fairs and your location, maybe you go by the city by the state, you could search virtual job fairs, right? tech focused or accounting focus, there are so many types of events that can go in right and just search Virtual Job Fair in your city, in your state in your industry. And it’ll show because, but let’s just say you live in, we’ll say New York, right? And you want to get out of New York for whatever reason it is okay. You can now search for job fairs in Austin, Texas, right. And now you could attend a Virtual Job Fair down there. Wherever it is, meet those recruiters do that first little interview. Instead of having to go down there first. Search virtual, your city, your location, your industry, you’ll have a list that will pop up again, follow up from your virtual you’ll see, you know, we post our clients events on there as well. So you can register for them.
Chris Villanueva 28:44
Awesome. And listeners, you know what I do, I’ll make sure to include the link to premier virtual and Steve’s handles as well. So you can access that. So Steve, I can’t thank you enough for coming on the show. I think we enlightened some listeners to attend a virtual event. I think this was very insightful.
Steve Edwards 29:01
Thank you, Chris. I know I got some crazy ideas out there. But I really want people to think outside the box when you’re looking for a job. Don’t do the same things. I used to tell people go knock on doors. I’m like, go knock on the company’s door, if you want to work for that company, go knock on their door and say, hey, yeah, I’m here. Right? Everybody’s your competitor that’s out there. How are you going to stick out and I don’t care if it’s from an entry level job to a CEO. And you have it right. Also, another thing on the virtual is affairs as you’re seeing more virtual job fairs that’ll have higher level positions on there as well, not just the entry level positions.
Chris Villanueva 29:35
Make sense. Alright, Steve. Well, thank you so much for joining us. You take care and join us today.
Steve Edwards 29:40
Have a great day, Chris.
Chris Villanueva 29:41
All right, listeners. This wraps up episode 282 of the Career Warrior Podcast, are job fairs dead? Well, not necessarily. There are better ways to attend job fairs, I think, which is my key takeaway here. And it’s to be strategic and I think yes, Virtual Job Fairs offer the flexibility that traditional job fairs just don’t have. And so if I was job seeking right now, I would hop on Google right now and see if there were opportunities in my area. And it doesn’t even have to be within a 25 mile radius of your home. That’s the beauty here is it allows you to expand a little bit. And perhaps I will check out a job fair in a neighboring city. If I’m willing to land a job and work for a company in that neighboring city. I just think this opens up a whole nother world. And I think that’s the incredible thing about what we learned today. Of course, I will link what was mentioned in this episode in the description of this podcast, and we release episodes every two weeks. These are episodes that are tried and true, good content for job seekers, because I have one goal here. And that’s to help you to maximize interviews and land your dream job. So thank you so much for tuning in. If you have a friend in your life who could use or benefit from this episode, please be sure to text them that or even better post this episode on social media and tag me. Thank you so much for tuning in. I will see you next time the career warrior podcast and before you go. Remember, if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job search, our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages. We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention. You’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster. Again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast. Thanks and I’ll see you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai