Bayt.com, a leading job website in the Middle East, has announced that it will host the  first ever virtual job fair in the Middle East region.  

The job fair, which will be operational on the Bayt.com website, will run from June15 to 19 and  offer both employers and job seekers a convenient and hassle-free opportunity to interact.

The first-of-its-kind careers event, sponsored by the Emirates Group, aims to effectively connect qualified job seeking candidates with gainful career opportunities.

Candidates will have the easy and unique option to ‘attend’ the job fair from any Internet-accessible computer and submit their resumes to participating companies of interest at all times, while enabling local, regional and international employers to establish an active talent-seeking presence, without physically being in a location.

“At Bayt.com we are committed to developing innovative methods and continually facilitating the process for employers to actively find, interact with, and recruit relevant job seekers; and for job seekers to easily research the newest and most exciting vacancies from some of the best employers in the region,” said Bayt.com’s CEO, Rabea Ataya.

As part of the initiative, Bayt.com will be setting up animated 3D “Virtual Booths” on the website for different companies participating in the job fair.

'Each booth will, as in a physical job fair, be branded with the exhibitors’ names and logos and will provide access to a range of information about the company, including its corporate culture, objectives and recruitment practices.'

The job fair will also provide a range of benefits for job seekers, he explained.

“Full-time professionals who are seeking employment might not have the time to attend job fairs, and so the virtual version is an efficient and convenient method for them to find new openings without taking time off work, Ataya observed.

Furthermore, the virtual job fair provides complete confidentiality to every candidate, regardless of which company or which job he/she applies to; and removes all the associated costs in terms of travel or transportation to get to a physical job fair venue,” he quipped.

Other features of the innovative virtual job fair include a CV drop option for job seekers to directly submit their CV to the booths of their choice and directly apply for advertised jobs; and an option for employers and job seekers to interact in real time via either online or video chat.

In addition, a series of links will enable job seekers to connect to a directory of current vacancies in a particular company, avoiding the hassle of having to root through various job postings.

'In turn, the virtual job fair provides employers with the ideal forum to increase brand awareness about the their company’s unique attributes, and allows organisations to advertise their job vacancies on the Middle East’s number one job site, which already has over 2 Million registered users from over 94 industries and 182 countries,' Ataya noted.

For employers and professional recruiters, participating in the online job fair will minimise the hassle, time, and resource requirements often associated with event management at a brick and mortar job fair; allows for cost savings of up to 50 per cent and can maximise an organization’s HR ROI. 

'Career seekers are increasingly utilising the internet to identify their next career move, thus it is important for employers like ourselves to be able to convey information on the range of opportunities we have available through new online initiatives like the 'virtual job fair,' said Rick Helliwell, Emirates’ vice president (recruitment).
 
'Most job seekers are already employed when they start seeking new career prospects - they are busy people and innovations like the 'virtual job fair' herald an exciting new future where technology is har