Misunderstanding blamed for complaints about jobs fair

Complaints have popped up after a job fair that attracted about 13,000 job hunters to the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

Some job applicants felt misled by employers at the fair.

"A lot of them are just giving out information about `log on to the web site,'" said one man, "so I could have used my time better, probably."

The employers said the face-to-face meetings were important, however, and that all those resumes would have left them with mountains of paperwork.

"It's very difficult for the employers to accept that volume of paper resumes, keep everything organized and make sure they're not leaving anyone behind," said Theresa Maher with jobing.com, sponsor of the job fair.

She said the applicants, themselves, may have not understood the importance of both the meetings and the request for on line followups.

"Many of them (the employers) asked the job seekers after they spoke -- `Hey, go apply on line. Make sure you're referencing this conversation in the cover letter, so I remember who you are.' I think that might have been a little misleading and made many of the job seekers feel like the one-on-one interaction wasn't something that was really effective when indeed it was."

Maher said jobing.com sent an e-mail to employers before the fair, suggesting that they explain to applicants why they need to apply online. The Web site now has a page explaining the online requests.

"Many times, people don't undersand why you're going to request them to apply online when they're meeting you face-to-face. Please be sure that you're taking the time to explain why, so they're applying in the most effective way and also so they don't leave discouraged," Maher advised employers. "So they realize that that face-to-face interaction really was valuable."

Some of the job seekers at the fair now have jobs.

"MTI Tech, which deals with tech support; Toyota Financial; Valley of the Sun School and Habilitation Center; La-Z-Boy and the Southwest Network are all companies that have already completed the hiring process for some of their positions," Maher said.

She said jobing.com was very pleased with the turnout and has another fair coming up May 6 at University of Phoenix Stadium. It also will sponsor a health career job fair in Phoenix in April.

On the Net:

• www.jobing.com