|
The College of Business hosted our first, Small Business Job Fair tailored specifically for the unique needs of small business owners on March 25th, 2009 from 5:00 until 7:00 PM.
We had 12 employers participate and 57 students/alumni/walk-ins attended. Our intention was to provide small business owners with the same type of environment that traditional job fairs employ but with a focus on helping the students and the employers be more prepared for the interaction.
We encouraged our students to be open to a variety of employment arrangements such as: regular employment, Internships, full time and part time arrangements and even short term non-paid assignments for the right opportunity. In addition to traditional job fair arrangements, we also provided employers with on-site interviewing facilities. And there was no charge for the firms to participate in the job fair.
In addition to job incumbents networking with the employers, many of the firms also took advantage of the opportunity to network among themselves.
We all know that small businesses have different needs but they are also very open to innovative ideas. One idea that we plan to pursue next year is to use the power of Web 2.0 to facilitate dialogue between employers and job seekers before the event. We discussed this with several employers and they were all in favor of pursuing it. It would even tie in with the idea of our students having their electronic portfolios ready and being able to share them with the employers beforehand.
Also, we need to help job seekers expand their mindsets about the small business sector before the fair. Small businesses tend to not have rigid job descriptions but rather have general needs that are focused on serving their customers. If we can help our students expand their way of thinking about this market sector, they will be more effective engaging with small business leaders.
Bottom line….it was a great first experience. We learned a lot and we received very positive feedback from several of the attendees. In addition, we received press from both radio stations and the written media and intend to run it again next year with some further enhancements.
|
