????親愛的安妮：我現在剛上大四，學校的就業指導中心發布了一則虛擬招聘會信息，該虛擬招聘會將在幾周內進行，屆時學生們將在網上“見到”許多潛在的用人單位。我參加過幾場現場招聘會（去年我在其中一場招聘會上找到了一個很棒的暑期實習職位），但是我不熟悉虛擬招聘會。虛擬招聘會是怎么運作的呢？除了準備好要上傳的簡歷外，我還能提前做些其他準備嗎？——WW

????親愛的W.W.：這是一個很好的問題。虛擬招聘會并不是新興事物，但是它正在迅速普及，很大程度上是因為, 這種方式可以節約用人單位大量成本，因為用人單位不必讓招聘人員飛到現場，就可以對千里之外的大量求職者進行評估。

????“和以往任何時候相比，我去年收到的虛擬招聘會邀請函要多75%，”西部公司（West Corp.）人力資源副總裁克里斯?布朗（Chris Brown）說。西部公司是視頻會議公司InterCall的母公司，而后者也已經組織了數十場網上招聘會。

????布朗注意到，現在，從退伍軍人團體到諸如Monster這樣的求職網站，再到大學，所有組織機構都在主辦虛擬招聘會，但是“千禧一代在這方面起到了帶頭作用。和之前任何年齡組的人相比，他們更樂于使用電話或筆記本電腦做任何事情。”

????在某些方面，虛擬招聘會和現場招聘會有相似之處。一旦你為該招聘會進行了注冊并在指定時間登陸，你就可以下載參加招聘會的用人單位信息、觀看視頻，還可以在預定時間觀看流媒體現場演示。你會發現，你不用走入通常的招聘會展位去詢問問題，而是加入聊天室進行提問。

????“通常，還會涉及到Skype組件，你可以通過Skype報名參加求職面試，”布朗說。“網絡環境給你提供了選擇，讓你通過不同的方式一次性了解許多未來的雇主。”

????正如對待現場招聘會一樣，要充分利用這種大雜燴式選擇，你需要提前對參加招聘會的公司進行研究，然后選擇一些你特別感興趣的公司進行“會面”。布朗還建議查看這些公司的網站。

????“通常，用人單位會在招聘會開始前提供許多信息，所以你可以提前進入聊天室并了解情況，”他說。聊天室的招聘人員可能不是“合適的人”——比如，你找的是工程類工作，但是發現和你聊天的卻是營銷類崗位的招聘人員——所以，“盡量確定你想從事的工作崗位，以便招聘人員最大程度幫你聯系到‘合適的人’。”

????Dear Annie: I’m just starting my senior year in college, and the career center at my school has announced a virtual career fair, taking place in a couple of weeks, where students can “meet” a big group of potential employers online. I’ve been to a couple of in-person career fairs (I got a great summer internship at one of them last year), but I’m not familiar with the virtual kind. How do they work? Besides having a resume to upload, is there anything else I should do ahead of time? — Wondering in Wisconsin

????Dear W.W.: Great question. Virtual career fairs aren’t new, but they’re rapidly growing in popularity, in large part because they’re a cost-effective way for employers to size up large numbers of far-flung candidates without having to put recruiters on airplanes.

????“I’ve gotten about 75% more invitations to virtual career fairs in the past year than ever before,” says Chris Brown, vice president of human resources for West Corp., the parent of video conferencing company InterCall, which has also hosted a couple dozen online fairs.

????Everyone from veterans’ groups, to career sites like Monster, to colleges like yours is sponsoring virtual recruiting events these days, Brown notes, but “Millennials are really leading the way on this. They’re much more comfortable than previous age groups with doing everything via phone or laptop.”

????In some respects, a virtual job fair is similar to the face-to-face kind. Once you register for the event and log on at the appointed time, you’ll find you can download information about the employers who are participating, watch videos and, at preset times, stream live presentations. Instead of the usual career-fair booths, you’ll find chat rooms where you can drop in and ask questions.

????“Often there’s also a Skype component, where you can sign up for a job interview,” says Brown. “The online setting gives you options for different ways of learning about a lot of prospective employers at once.”

????To make the most of that smorgasbord of choices, do some research in advance on the companies that will be there, just as with an in-person job fair, and choose a few you’re especially interested in “meeting.” Brown suggests checking out company websites too.

????“Often, employers make a lot of information available before the fair starts, so you can go in ahead of time and look around,” he says. The person who’s available in the chat room during the event may not be the right one—you may be looking for an engineering job and find yourself chatting with a marketing recruiter, for example—so “the more specific you can be about what you’re looking for, the better that recruiter will be able to connect you to the right person at the company.”