Recruitment events are a critical component of any campus recruitment strategy — and benefit both recruiters and candidates alike. Events allow recruiters to meet and engage with top candidates either in-person or virtually, and help candidates learn more about your company and get excited about starting a career in your industry. They open the door for you to connect with candidates and follow up with resources and applications, and give candidates a friendly, human connection to your company who they can feel comfortable reaching out to with any questions or concerns they might be grappling with.
But while attending career fairs and presenting your company to interested candidates remains an important part of a recruiting events strategy, it’s only the beginning. As the market for early career talent gets more competitive, you’ll be expected to do more to attract top talent. To remain in the game, you are going to have to learn not only how to get the most out of the events you attend, but also how to execute your own informative and entertaining events for candidates looking to know more about your company.
Below are 50 recruitment event ideas that you can explore — which include career fairs you can attend and events you can host yourself — as you strategize how to attract and retain top talent. And after you take a look here, download our guide, “100 Events & How to Do Them,” for 50 more ideas and a framework for executing a successful event.
Early ID Events
Focus specifically on strategic audiences to build pipelines for the future.
1. Host an ‘Industry Discovery Day’ for promising underclassmen where you showcase what your industry entails and why it's a great place to begin and grow a career.
2. Organize a ‘Mentor Match’ speed dating event for high-potential underclassmen to connect with recent grads in your program and learn about the company organically.
3. Invite local high school students to your corporate headquarters and showcase career opportunities across departments.
4. Host an event over the summer dubbed, “College Course Guide: The Best Courses to Take as an Underclassmen for Your Career.”
5. Design an essay scholarship contest and host a kickoff meeting with high school students to win money for college.
Career Fairs
Cast a wide net at strategic partner schools you can attend in-person or virtually.
6. Attend a virtual career fair put on by several universities of a similar type at once.
7. Get major-specific and attend academic fairs offered by individual schools, rather than at the university-wide level.
8. Forge relationships with strategic HBCUs and secure your spot in their in-person fairs.
9. Plan a trip away from your region to visit several schools in another region hosting career fairs, such as a tour of the West, tour of the Plains, etc.
10. Attend a virtual career fair/summit hosted by an online platform, like RippleMatch.
Diversity Conferences and Events
Increase representation by attending conferences designed to connect you with a diverse slate of talent.
11. Grace Hopper: Celebration is a career fair for women in technology.
12. Campus Pride offers a National Job and Career Fair Program to connect young adults with LGBTQ+ friendly employers.
13. TransCanWork offers career fairs nationwide to empower trans applicants.
14. Black Virtual Career Fair (BVCF) hosts virtual recruiting events for Black professionals.
15. The Society of Hispanic Engineers (SHPE) hosts a national conference and regional events for hispanic talent in STEM.
Company-Hosted Info Sessions
Showcase what makes your company unique with these customizable info sessions and panels.
16. Lean into impact. Host an intriguing presentation on “How [Company]’s [Product/Technology/Service] is Building a Better Future.”
17. Get industry specific. Host a panel such as, “Cybersecurity: Exciting Facts About This Fast-Growing Industry Upcoming Grads Should Know.”
18. Offer an ERG info session, and invite students to learn about what groups they could join at the company.
19. Highlight the career paths of a few employees who were promoted within your company with an info session.
20. Host an info session titled, “Application A to Z: What to Know about Applying and Interviewing at [Company Name]” to help candidates prepare for interviews.
Professional Development Workshops & Webinars
Help candidates put their best foot forward before they even submit an application – and get stronger candidates in the process.
21. Work with career services to set up resume feedback sessions for soon-to-be applicants.
22. Help candidates get through a first-round of interviews with a webinar titled, “Nailing the First-Round: How to Prepare and Present Yourself.”
23. Get your technical candidates up to speed with a webinar and Q&A, “What is a Technical Screen? Your Top Questions Answered.”
24. Host an AMA-style webinar (Ask Me Anything), where candidates can submit anonymous questions ahead of time. Help candidates navigate all the things they are too afraid to ask about.
25. Provide a workshop titled, “Nailing the Final Round: The Top Tips For Making It to the Offer” to help students on the final push.
Competition-Based Events
Invite candidates or interns for fun competitions to gauge their skills and ability to work with others.
26. Challenge techies to a technology Hackathon to assess their skills and allow them to present their results to the hiring team.
27. Target entrepreneurs with a growth marketing hackathon, where they will be tasked with offering campaign ideas to help a business grow.
28. Case competitions are a great way to engage your business-focused pipeline and can be centered around financial modeling, stock pitches, or consulting.
29. Provide interns the chance to show how much they’ve learned at your company with competitor research projects - where teams of interns can compete to offer the best ways that your company can beat out the competition.
30. Challenge interns to come up with a new product or service addition to your company, and the best one gets a prize and a lunch with a high executive.
31.Host a social impact innovation challenge in which students from all majors compete to present a social impact idea tied to your industry and present to judges from your company.
Events to Close Candidates
Show candidates you are really interested by offering them an informal environment to connect with their potential team and coworkers.
32. Invite a wave of candidates to whom you’ve extended offers to a lunch and learn with a VP on their potential team.
33. Plan a casual dinner for candidates with their potential team and manager.
34. Invite candidates to a coffee chat with alumni to ask any final and burning questions.
35. Offer candidates to sit in on a fun company event, like a virtual or in-person happy hour.
Events to Prevent Reneges
Offer events for hires who recently accepted their offers to keep them excited before their start date.
36. Coordinate virtual dinner dates for new hires to chat with the hiring managers and their new team members, and provide them with a gift card to purchase food if the event is virtual.
37. Set your new hire up for a lunch date with a junior employee on their team that they will be working closely with in the role.
38. Mail a package of company swag or small gifts, and host a virtual happy hour where new hires present what they’ve received to each other.
39. Offer hires who are new to town a tour of the neighborhood where your office is located - including stops to the best ice cream shops, bars, and hangout spots.
40. Invite new hires to an “Unwritten Rules of the Office” event, where employees can share funny anecdotes about the office and any inside information new hires may want to know - such as where the extra coffee keurigs are stored.
Development Events for New Hires & Interns
Engage and excite the talent already in your pipeline.
41. Host a “Founders Chat” where your company’s CEO or president can present about your company’s beginnings and what he or she envisions for the future. Open the discussion to questions from hires about company growth and values.
42. Offer interns lunch and learn events — either in person or virtually with gift cards — to share a meal with their department head.
43. Allow interns to explore opportunities in your company by offering a “Switch Day” where they can swap positions for the day with an intern in another area.
44. Provide interns or new hires with recruiter or HR ‘office hours’ so they can schedule times to share concerns or ideas with a friendly face who is not their supervisor.
45. Facilitate a book club, where new hires and interns can opt in to join employees at every level to discuss a book once a month.
Fun Events for Employees and Interns
Offer employees or interns a casual environment to meet you and others with similar interests.
46. Sign up new hires and interns to work at a local soup kitchen or participate in a charity 5k.
47. Bring in a yoga or fitness instructor to offer a free session for new hires — challenge everyone to introduce themselves mid-work out.
48. Host an in-person or virtual movie night featuring a film that could lead to post-viewing party discussion.
49. Watch interns work together to solve a virtual “Escape The Room” and call on their problem-solving skills to succeed.
50. Host a game of Jeopardy online with a mix of questions about general knowledge and your industry.
Planning a successful recruiting event takes time, patience, and focus. With so many different types of events you can host, it can be overwhelming to narrow down the best event to meet your goals. Looking for a little more guidance on how to choose an event-type and execute a successful event? In our newest guide, “100 Events & How to Do Them,” we help you focus and set goals by laying out high-impact strategies to inform your event-planning process and ensure you are prepared to tackle the challenges that have been found to derail event planners. Plus, we also demonstrate how to utilize RippleMatch’s platform to execute a successful event, and provide you with 100 event ideas to get you started.