When you hear the term “career event,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? If you’re like most people, your first thought is a career fair. The reality, though, is that a career event is so much more valuable than the average career fair.
A career event is a unique opportunity for professional organizations to provide a neutral meeting space for their members and industry employers to connect. In the past three years, there has been a shift regarding why members join professional organizations. This has made organizations reassess their services and offerings, taking a step back to understand what members are looking for.
By offering a career event, professional organizations provide their members with the key benefit they look for when joining an organization: career advancement.
Benefits for associations hosting career events:
- Increase member value and engagement
- Generate more non-dues revenue
- Foster new member acquisition
- Connect employers with your highly sought-after members
- Drive significant spikes in job board traffic
With nearly 100 turnkey events planned and executed by the YM Careers Career Events team, we’ve mastered the art of career events and want to share some of our tips and tricks to bring your Career Center to life with a career event.
On-site vs. virtual career events
When it comes to choosing your career event platform, be sure to choose the one that best suits the needs of your members.
On-site career events allow members to connect with employers face-to-face and create opportunities to:
- Bring in industry leaders and top employers to meet your members
- Give attendees the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships
- Generate revenue from recruiters who will pay a premium to exhibit at your event
Virtual career events may be more convenient for attendees and create opportunities to:
- Offer an alternative to your members who are unable to attend live events
- Allow your content to be accessible for longer, even after your event is over
- Provide a valuable service to your members that allows you generate more revenue
Things to consider when planning your next career event
Scheduling – Consider any scheduling issues that could conflict with planning your career event.
- What do the upcoming months look like?
- Are there any other events your organization is sponsoring and/or attending?
- Are there any specific “seasons” within your industry that are primed for hiring season?
Resources – Developing and executing a career event is not a one-person task.
- What kind of resources do you have to manage a career event?
- Who will be the event’s keynote speaker?
- Have you considered a joint event and thought of who could co-host/sponsor the event with you?
What type of event do you want to host?
- On-Site Career Fair – Allows employers and members to meet face-to-face
- Virtual Career Fair – Convenient for attendees and employers
- Tradeshow – Connects companies in your industry with your members
- Networking – Meet-and-greets and/or networking hours
- Resume Review – Provides an extremely valuable service to members
- Mentoring – Gives members the opportunity to learn from industry leaders
- Learning – Creates learning-focused opportunities for your members
- Membership – An event purely focused on your members
If you’re interested in learning more about career events, watch the recording of our latest webinar in our three-part series today.
Check out how YM Careers job board software and career services can help you bring your career center to life. Learn more here.
