For job seekers, applying online can sometimes feel like sending a resume into a black hole.
They find a position, complete an application, upload a resume, and wait. Even well-qualified candidates may wonder whether a recruiter or hiring manager will ever actually see their information.
That frustration is helping restore the appeal of an older recruiting strategy: the in-person hiring event.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, employers, staffing companies, colleges, and workforce organizations quickly moved their career fairs and hiring events online. Virtual events allowed recruiting to continue while people could not safely gather in person. They also offered some genuine advantages, including convenience, geographic reach, and fewer transportation barriers.
But virtual events did not always reproduce the most valuable part of an in-person event: a real conversation between a candidate and someone with the ability to move the hiring process forward.
Today, the evidence suggests that face-to-face hiring events are returning, and both job seekers and employers are showing renewed interest.
The Numbers Point to an In-Person Resurgence
Recent research from the National Association of Colleges and Employers offers one of the clearest indications of the shift.
According to NACE’s 2024, 25 Career Services Benchmarks survey, median student attendance at in-person career fairs increased from 419 in the 2021, 22 academic year to 700 in 2023, 24. During the same period, median attendance at virtual fairs fell from 295 students to just 93.
Employer participation followed a similar pattern. The median number of organizations attending in-person career fairs rose to 109, while virtual-event participation declined. For the 2024, 25 academic year, 93.9% of the responding institutions planned to hold an in-person career fair, compared with 33.2% planning a virtual event. Some institutions offered both formats, so those categories were not mutually exclusive.
Although college career fairs represent only one segment of the labor market, the direction is difficult to ignore: when candidates and employers have a choice, many are choosing to meet in person again.
Why Hiring Events Appeal to Job Seekers
The biggest advantage may be remarkably simple: candidates get to talk to an actual person.
In a traditional online application process, a resume must make it through screening questions, applicant tracking systems, recruiter reviews, and potentially hundreds of competing applications. At a well-organized hiring event, candidates can often move directly into a conversation with a recruiter, hiring manager, or supervisor.
That gives them an opportunity to demonstrate qualities that may not be obvious on a resume, including:
Communication skills
Reliability and professionalism
Enthusiasm for the opportunity
Relevant hands-on experience
Willingness to learn
Schedule flexibility
Overall fit with the work environment
This can be particularly valuable for candidates whose experience does not fit neatly into an online application. Someone may have transferable skills, an unconventional work history, or strong practical experience without holding every credential listed in the job description. A face-to-face conversation gives that person an opportunity to provide context.
Research supports the idea that preferences vary by candidate and occupation. In Criteria’s 2024 survey of more than 2,500 job seekers, 43% had no preference between video and in-person interviews as long as the process was fair. However, candidates with a high school diploma or less preferred in-person interviews by a margin of 42% to 20%. Manufacturing candidates showed an even stronger preference: 49% favored in-person interviews, while only 16% preferred virtual interviews.
Those findings are especially relevant for employers hiring office-support, manufacturing, warehouse, logistics, and other onsite employees.
What Was Missing From Many Virtual Events?
Virtual hiring events solved an immediate problem during the pandemic, but simply moving an in-person event onto a video platform did not always create the same experience.
Candidates could encounter unfamiliar software, connection problems, long digital queues, or uncertainty about whether they would receive meaningful time with an employer. Recruiters, meanwhile, sometimes found it harder to sustain candidate engagement or recreate the natural conversations that happen at an in-person event.
Virtual events can also feel too similar to the rest of an online job search. If a candidate still submits a resume, waits in a digital queue, and has only a brief interaction through a screen, the event may not feel significantly different from applying online.
That does not mean virtual recruiting is ineffective. It can be extremely useful for remote positions, specialized candidates, initial interviews, or applicants who face transportation, scheduling, mobility, or childcare barriers. The lesson from the past several years is not that every hiring interaction needs to happen in person. It is that virtual events should be used intentionally, not merely as a digital imitation of an in-person fair.
Why Employers Are Bringing Hiring Events Back
Employers also benefit from a recruiting process built around immediate interaction.
A hiring event can allow a company to meet, screen, and interview multiple candidates within a relatively short period. Depending on the position and the employer’s process, candidates may be able to complete several hiring steps in one visit.
That can help employers:
Fill multiple openings more efficiently
Reduce the time between application and interview
Evaluate communication and interpersonal skills
Answer candidate questions immediately
Introduce candidates to the workplace and company culture
Identify people whose potential might be missed during resume screening
Make faster decisions in competitive labor markets
Hiring events are particularly useful when an employer is opening a new location, expanding a shift, responding to seasonal demand, or filling several similar positions at once.
The format also creates urgency. Candidates arrive knowing the employer is actively hiring, while employers have dedicated time and staff available to evaluate them. That is a very different experience from posting a position and gradually reviewing applications over several weeks.
A Hiring Event Still Has to Deliver a Good Experience
Simply opening the doors does not guarantee a successful event. Job seekers are giving employers their time, so the event should offer a realistic opportunity to be considered.
Employers should clearly communicate:
The positions being filled
Pay ranges and available shifts
Essential job requirements
Whether interviews or offers may occur onsite
What candidates should bring
How long the process may take
When candidates can expect follow-up
Pre-event registration and basic screening can help match attendees with appropriate openings. Scheduled interview windows can reduce long waits, while accepting walk-ins keeps the event accessible. Employers should also have enough decision-makers present to prevent the event from becoming little more than an in-person resume collection exercise.
Most importantly, every attendee should receive timely follow-up. A hiring event loses its candidate-friendly advantage if people leave and hear nothing afterward.
The Future Is Likely to Be Hybrid, but Human
So, are in-person hiring events making a comeback? The available evidence says yes.
Job seekers value the opportunity to be more than another resume in a crowded applicant pool. Employers value being able to meet motivated candidates, evaluate them personally, and move promising applicants through the hiring process more quickly.
Technology will continue to play an important role through online promotion, registration, pre-screening, scheduling, and follow-up. But for many positions, especially onsite, skilled-trade, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and high-volume roles, the human connection remains difficult to replace.
A successful hiring event, however, requires more than selecting a date and opening the doors. Employers need the right promotional strategy, clear candidate messaging, effective registration tools, and a plan for attracting qualified people, not simply generating foot traffic.
Planning a Hiring Event?
If your organization needs help planning or advertising its next hiring event, contact Polaris Recruitment. We can help you develop a targeted strategy to promote the event, reach the right candidates, and turn attendance into meaningful hiring opportunities.