We all enjoy a little competition. On Tuesday, our Opportunity Boulevard Career Fair was able to compete head-to-head with the Las Vegas Review Journal Job Fair. By all indications, Opportunity Boulevard was the winner in this battle. A few ’spies’ were able to visit the RJ’s event and reported back that attendance was ‘beyond’ light and employers were so disappointed that all but three of them broke down their booths an hour before the job fair was scheduled to end.
Of course we celebrated. But unfortunately there was another loser in this competition…..the jobseeker. And at the end of the day, that is why we are in business - “to serve the jobseeker.” If we lose their trust or confidence, they do not come back. And if they do not return, we are not able to serve our other customer (the one that pays us), the employer.
Well, on Tuesday there were surely some upset jobseekers that attended both events looking for a room full of employers who had jobs to offer during these disparaging times. Yes, those that attended the Opportunity Boulevard Career Fair were able to see more employers and had access to well over 14,000 jobs in Las Vegas. But, there were a few employers that chose to attend the RJ job fair rather than ours. And those employers were also offering real jobs that jobseekers were looking for. Maybe only a few hundred jobs…but nonetheless, jobs that are so desperately needed right now.
And the other jobseekers, those that attended the RJ job fair only to find a few employers offering real jobs, mixed in with vendors looking to sell products (including the RJ selling video resumes) and non-employment offerings, went home to their families and friends and shared their anger. And now (to them), ‘job fairs are a waste of time.’ Unfortunately, they do not differentiate between the two promoters because they do not know different. This negativity surely does not help the industry, nor the economy. We all need to get these jobseekers back to work. We all benefit from it.
I don’t like seeing unhappy, or discouraged, jobseekers. Although I truly enjoyed beating the RJ, I wish we could have avoided the competition for the sake of the jobseekers. For they were the unfortunate losers in this battle. They went home without jobs.
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