Monster is kicking off a year-long Keep America Working Tour, a multi-city job fair that make 140 stops in cities across America.
According to a press release, the tour is promoting Monster’s mission to help rebuild the American workforce by connecting job seekers with new opportunities. Furthermore, the fact that the fairs are free invites more cash-strapped companies to attend without fear of cost barriers.
“Given the critical impact of jobs in the economic recovery, we recognize that Monster has a tremendous opportunity to help provide employers and job seekers with effective, relevant opportunities,” said Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, president and CEO of Monster Worldwide. “The Keep America Working Tour is designed to create a unique and different experience for individuals – one that goes well beyond a standard job fair – by providing access to Monster’s career advice experts and coaching to enable people to feel confident of their skills and prepare them to meet employers face-to-face. These Monster career fairs will help seekers differentiate themselves to not only find a job, but also to find their calling.”
Representatives of the Monster brand will descend upon each career fair to provide advice and toolkits to both job seekers and employers.
Monster has also invited two non-profits, Dress for Success and Career Gear, to come along for the ride and help job seekers at each stop. Joi Gordon, The Dress for Success CEO, said that they were forced to cancel their own career fair, but then Monster stepped in and offered up a seat on the tour.
“Monster literally resurrected this critical program,” Gordon said.
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March 5th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Has anyone ever been to a Monster job fair? They are horrible.
When I was unemployed, I signed up for one (which didn’t matter, registration was not needed), put on my suit and headed ot the Galleria in Marietta, GA.
When I got there, I about just left. There were about 400-500 guys in suits and ladies in nice attire, standing in line with resumes in hand. I knew I stood no chance against these executive-looking folks.
So, and hour and a half later, I got inside the hall, to see lines of 30-40 people at every booth. The problem was, there was hardly any decent employers there for blue-collar workers such as myself. The 4 major booths: Waffe House, a truck-driving company, the US Border patrol, and a secretary-recruting company. The others were temp agencies, who had hardly any open positions.
So the moral of the story… don’t go to a Moster job fair.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Did you see that the subsite is sitting on the Adicio framework? What’s up with that?:
http://monstervjf.adicio.com/monVjfCalendar.html
March 5th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Adicio powers registration and other virtual features for Monster’s job fairs nationally, in addition to providing the technical back-end and support for Monster’s newspaper alliances nationally.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Thanks for the clarification Tony
March 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
In response to Jonathon – Monster was partnered with a company called National Career Fairs and have recently severed those ties. This company is in debt to Monster and realized this parntership was not a good reflection on the Monster brand. Since this is a very important part of recruiting and having face to face interaction with job seekers, Monster created this new job fair, Keep America Working Tour, internally to help job seekers and employers alike in this difficult hiring environment.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/03/05/2009-03-05_lines_snake_around_block_for_new_york_mo.html
March 6th, 2009 at 11:45 am
The title of this post is misleading. These job fairs are NOT free to employers. We contacted Monster and only a few were free at first on the east coast but booths are going for $550. I still have not been able to get a list of the employers that attended. I can imagine the scene will be the same as Jonathan posted.
March 6th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Having been there I can tell you there was quite a buzz in the air. Not to mention that all the career fairs for the employers will be free.
March 6th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Wrong Chloe, every single one is free. You may have talked to someone who is misinformed, but they are all FREE
March 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
We recently called Monster and asked the rep if in fact the job fairs were free to employers, the response was that we had to purchase a job postings, not much details after that though and I did not speak with anyone else. It does sound too good to be true. It would be interesting to really find out if these were free to employers or not as I would love to participate.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It is free to “Monster employers” — which means you have to be an advertiser on Monster.com.