Virtual Fairs in Handshake: A Guide for Employers

Handshake has built an innovative solution to help employers engage with students in a virtual fair environment.

Within this tool, Handshake supports 1:1 video chats and large-group video events. With campuses closed indefinitely, employers have new ways to connect with students:

Participate in university-sponsored virtual career fair on via Handshake
- Registration options will vary per institution, just like an in-person fair.
Conduct 1:1 meetings or small-group info sessions

To see a video demo of these sessions, check out Video: Virtual Fairs Demo for Employers!

Topic Checklist:

Register for virtual fairs

You'll need an approved registration for a fair in order to engage with students. See Identifying and Registering for Virtual Fairs for details on filtering and registering.

Check our our video walkthrough for locating and registering for virtual fairs here!

Tip: Make sure to link active job postings to your registration - this highlights opportunities for students participating in the fair!

Set your Schedule

Once the school approves your fair registration, you’ll need to create the initial schedule for your company profile in Handshake. The schedule may be composed of only group sessions, only 1:1 schedules or both –– whatever works best for your company's goals in connecting with students. Each employer registration allows for 100 teammates maximum to be delegated to Group and/or 1:1 Sessions.

For a walkthrough of this process, refer to Creating a Schedule for Virtual Fairs or check out our video on how to set your schedule!

Add Group Sessions

Add 1:1 sessions and set preferences

Pay any registration fees from the institution

Make sure to pay for your registration as appropriate per institution. See How to Pay for a Career Fair Registration for helpful tips.

Teammates claim their schedules

Once the schedule has been created, your teammates will be able to claim their schedules by clicking the link in the email sent, or they can login to Handshake, navigate to the fair, then click on the Schedules tab to claim their schedule.

Refer to Claiming & Participating in a Schedule for a breakdown of the full process or check out our video walkthrough of claiming a schedule here!

Manage schedule changes

Managing Schedules for Virtual Fairs contains all instructions on editing existing schedules, broken down by workflow (cancelling a session, transferring or removing a schedule to a teammate, etc.).

Check out our video walkthrough of managing schedule changes here!

Preparing for the Day-of a Virtual Fair

There are several steps you can take well before the fair to ensure that the fair goes as smoothly as possible. Check out this collection of best practices based on experiences so far this season: Preparing for the Day-of a Virtual Fair.

Encourage session signups*

Employers will not be able to invite students directly to their schedules –– students will be responsible for signing up for all sessions. The sooner your teammates can claim their schedules, the better, as this enables students to see more options for signup.

You can view empty and taken schedules within the Schedule tab.

*Premium employers can utilise Campaigns to promote their fair attendance and encourage students to sign up for sessions!

Host sessions day-of the fair

Review Hosting Virtual Fair Sessions for a full walk-through of the fair experience and check out our video walkthrough of hosting sessions here!

Follow up with students after the fair

After your sessions are over, followup with participants! You can send messages in Handshake, download public CVs, and Host Virtual Interviews!

For more information, refer to Following Up After a Virtual Fair.

Additional Resources

FAQs

Has Handshake thought of how this feature will accommodate needs of small local employers as well as massive employers?

Scheduling will honour employer preferences. For smaller and local employers we will recommend group sessions to reach as many students as possible. A large employer may have the resources to send multiple representatives that can create 1:1 availability throughout the day.

How will students and employers connect?

There are two modes of virtual fair engagement:
- 30-minute group sessions
  - Handshake video: can support up to 50 participants total
  - External video platform link: if the employer prefers their own video platform for large group sessions or expects to engage with more than 50 participants in group sessions
- 10 minute 1:1 sessions
  - Hosted via Handshake video or external video platform (can be changed to an external link individually after the schedule is created).
The length of both of these sessions cannot be updated in the first version of virtual fairs.

Can employers ask custom questions before students sign up for 1:1 sessions?

No, employers can’t ask custom questions as a part of student registration.

Will students be able to leave or join a session after it's started?

Students can leave sessions up until the time that it is scheduled. We will show them a warning whenever they cancel a session, to promote professional behaviour.
For the initial release, students will not be able to signup for a session after it has started.

What happens if an employer representative has to cancel their attendance?

The schedule may be transferred to a colleague that isn't already selected to participate in the fair - it can also be fully removed, or if it's just a portion of time, the representative can mark the 1:1 schedule as busy or group session as not attending.
- For a specific group session, they can also add a replacement host.

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