Job fairs getting virtual makeover

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) - These days everything has gone high tech it seems, even when it comes to networking.

For the past three years, Marybeth Gillespie has been hard at work, looking for a new job.

"I used recruitment agencies, I had done cold calling,  I had answered classified ads," Gillespie says.

No job offers turned up, until she tried a career fair, right from her very own living room.

"I was able to study the companies that were offering local jobs, click through to their websites and learn their culture."

With the unemployment rate inching towards 9% and companies looking to broaden the applicant pool, the virtual career fair has exploded in popularity.

"We have companies like Microsoft that we've done that with.  Right now, we run probably a couple of hundred events every year," says Malcolm Lotzof of INXPO.

Some organizations host their own virtual fairs, while others join group fairs held by sponsors.

Participants simply log on, upload your resume and visit a variety of virtual "booths" organized by company or by field.

Recruiters have the change to pre-screen resumes, then target potential employees.

Virtual career fairs are free.

You can learn about them through the newspaper, a company's site, social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, even Google searches or word of mouth.