Ole Miss to Participate in the Virtual Career Fair

A little over 100 potential employers at your fingertips, ready to chat face-to-face online with job-seekers, sounds like a dream career fair. Now, the University of Mississippi is participating in a multi-university virtual career fair this Wednesday and Thursday.

The Virtual Career Fair is one of many features of CareerEco, a virtual events company based in Atlanta, Georgia. The five year old company links student-alumni to employers and graduate programs online so everyone involved could be spared of countless hours and money spent traveling for preliminary interviews. It hosts these fairs from February to April.

Gayle Oliver-Plath

Gayle Oliver-Plath, founder and CEO, said “Our events are easy and efficient because you can log into them online from anywhere. It provides an opportunity to interact with multiple organizations at the same time, rather than standing in line after line at traditional campus recruiting events. All the information about the companies and grad schools are literally at your finger tips.”

She feels that due to less pressure from the virtual fairs the job seekers may have more time to think necessary questions and meaningful answers during the interviews.

This week the CareerEco will be servicing 27 schools in the SEC and ACC, University of Mississippi included. Interested students can register here and create a profile that shows their majors, languages and interests. They can also upload cover letters and resumes for over 105 employers to review. The job seekers can search for jobs in the Virtual Fair board and express interest to potential employers.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday those registered can enter a chat room to talk to a company recruiter who will explain their companies’ hiring process and openings. Here is a schedule of the two-day event.

The employers and students can also have one-on-one conversations, and some employers have also set up video interviews during the fair.

“Truly the virtual fair fits the style of the digital natives and their preference for efficiency and desire to leverage the speed of technology to get ahead,” said Oliver-Plath.

Here is a video provided by Gayle Oliver-Plath of employers giving testimonials to the Virtual Career Fairs.

Toni Avant, director of the Career Center at University of Mississippi, said, “The Virtual Career Fair is a great opportunity not only for our currently enrolled students, but for alumni, as well. There are 130 employers registered for this event, some of whom are active recruiters on our campus. A number of employers registered, however, do not recruit at the University or within our region. This fair opens the door for students to connect and interview with companies from all over the country. The virtual fair is an awesome way for universities within the SEC and ACC to pool their resources to expand networking opportunities benefiting all of our students.”

Avant hopes that the students and alumni will take advantage of this event and the virtual fair to yield great results for them.

Callie Daniels is a staff reporter at HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.