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Career Services

Virtual Career Fair Checklist

Maximize Your Virtual Career Fair Experience

Set Your Schedule

Now that you have registered for your selected career fair(s), the Schedule Owner will be able to create a schedule for representatives attending the fair. 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 a video on how to set your schedule.

If you do not build your schedules prior to the event, you will not be able to interact with students. Late schedule set-up will result in low student participation.

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 a video walkthrough of claiming a schedule.

Manage schedule changes

Managing Schedules for Virtual Fairs contains all instructions on editing existing schedules, broken down by workflow (cancelling a session, transferring a 1:1 session schedule to a teammate, etc.).

Prepare for the Day Off

Ensure Team Has Active Accounts

Ideally at least 2-3 weeks before the fair, you'll want to make sure all of the staff from your company participating in virtual fair sessions have active Handshake accounts, are connected to the correct company, and have claimed assigned schedules.

Ensure Your Device and Browser Are Setup

Preparing for day-of, make sure you and your team meet the right requirements to use audio and video smoothly.

How to Launch and Host Sessions

Please see Hosting Virtual Fair Sessions for steps on how to launch your session

Take Note of Participants to Follow-up With

During your group sessions, keep track of participants that you want to follow-up with later. While preparing for the fair, it's a good idea to get familiar with ways you can keep track of participants you want to further engage with.

Next Steps

The sooner your teammates can claim their schedules, the better, as this allows students to see more options for signup.

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. However, employers can reach out to students prior to the fair by searching for qualified students and sending them direct messages through Handshake.

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

Editing 1:1 session qualifications

If you have set 1:1 qualifications and are seeing a low number of signups from students, you can remove or edit qualifications to allow more students to participate.

  • Note: Early in the school year, new/transfer students may not have data for GPA, have a Major selected, or a grad date entered. By selecting these preferences, students that are missing that data will not be able to sign up for your sessions.
  • How to edit 1:1 Session Qualifications

Host session day-of the fair

You will be able to join a session up to an hour early to test connectivity and performance. 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, follow-up with participants! You can send messages in Handshake, download resumes, and Host Virtual Interviews.

For more information, see Following Up After a Virtual Fair.

How to Troubleshoot

Please use this Troubleshooting Guide for detailed requirements and how to resolve issues.

What Can Be Changed During the Day of the Fair

Please be extra thorough and careful to setup your schedule, sessions, and team as you can't make many changes during the day of!

You CAN mark yourself as busy on sessions or cancel sessions during the fair. If a session is cancelled by an employer or student the other party will receive an email notification.

You CAN manage and edit your group sessions during the fair and coming soon you'll be able to manage team and edit preferences on 1:1 sessions during the fair.

How to Get Help

To report a technical issue from or during a session, click on the 3 dots from the session screen and select Report a Problem. The Handshake Support team will suggest some troubleshooting tips and you can reply back if further assistance is needed.

Additional Resources

Questions?

Contact Erica LaRue at elarue@mail.wvu.edu.