As a recruiter, finding good quality candidates is never an easy task especially if you work in the medical industry. MedBio Virtual Career Expo will host a medical virtual job fair from May 11-13, 2010 to bring together biotechnology, healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device employers, staffing/recruiting firms and medical professionals. With emerging web 2.0 technology, virtual job fairs have proven to be an overall cost effective strategy. By combining job opportunities, social engagement tools, networking opportunities, and webcasts/video presentations MedBio Virtual Career Expo will allow recruiters to engage with literally thousands of top quality medical professionals from across the globe without leaving their office.
Job boards are still used to source candidates, however, over 40,000 job boards are located online and it proves that one too many is not an effective strategy. Jeri Lyskowinski, President of MedBio Virtual Career Expo, states that, “on a job board jobseekers post their resume or employers post their jobs and no interaction or communication takes place between the two, you basically hope for the best that someone will find your resume or apply to your job posting. Job boards were popular starting ten or twelve years ago, however, web 2.0 technology has emerged as a leading alternative to traditional means. Lyskowinski adds, “People want to connect in real time so by hosting this virtual career fair we want to effectively provide a way for that to happen.”
Entry level to executive level opportunities will be available.
Several sponsorship packages are available for not only employers, but staffing/recruiting firms as well. Packages include a virtual branded booth, webcasts or video presentations, literature racks, virtual event bag, metric reports, and networking lounge. “We hope to have between 100-400 booths and make this a premiere event within the medical industry. Right now we are concentrating on obtaining sponsorships/exhibitors, the more we have will increase the amount of candidates that attend,” states Lyskowinski. She adds, “if everything goes well, we would like to have it available as an ongoing year round 24/7 virtual event.” Sponsorship packages can be purchased either by credit card or invoiced. Prior to the event, training will be provided to both employer and recruiting/staffing firms. This is to ensure that all participants are on the same page and allow a smooth transition and successful event. Valuable information will be shared so it will be important for recruiters to attend. Metric reports will be available during and after the event to measure the overall success of the event.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2014, over 3.6 million healthcare jobs will be available and the nursing shortage will increase to 1 million openings by the year 2020. Visit any hospital or biotechnology, medical device, or pharmaceutical company website and you will see the job openings, it is scary. Lyskowinski says, “by hosting this virtual medical job fair we are hoping to bring down those numbers significantly.”
We are anticipating several thousand medical professionals to attend our virtual medical job fair. Recruiters and medical professionals will connect in several ways including live chat, private meeting rooms (screening of candidates), company informational sessions, and several lecture halls will be available for webcasts/video presentations. The hiring process can take forever sometimes, so by providing a virtual environment it will hopefully reduce the timeframe by allowing recruiters to meet potential candidates, review resumes, pre-screen candidates, and possibly schedule face-to-face interviews taking place within hours compared to traditional standards of several weeks or months. Two sponsorship packages allow recruiters to receive resumes and schedule a private meeting with candidates prior to the event. Candidates will be allowed to have their resumes reviewed and updated for a nominal fee prior to the event by a leading resume writing service.
Lyskowinski adds, “anything that we can do to reduce the healthcare shortage we will do. By partnering with a leading software company that specializes in virtual environments, we are looking forward to making this event extremely successful and that makes us very happy.”
