Many employers and job seekers made their way to a career fair at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Thursday.
Organizers say about 3,500 people attended the event, looking to see what businesses were there.
Employers we spoke with told us career fairs allow people to figure out what job field they're most interested in.
Jessica Maldonado, the HR Director for North American Specialty Lamination, said, "It's just a great opportunity for them to make a decision of what career path they want in the different companies. Right, we have manufacturing or retail here, so it's just a great opportunity of what route or industry they want."
They say participating in these career fairs allows a larger number of people to get introduced to their company.
Maldonado also told us, “I'm very surprised of just how many candidates we're getting here. In general, right, without these job fairs, it's hard to get candidates in, and it's probably because the market is really good here and very competitive."
Other employers we spoke with told us career fairs help prevent people from joining companies that they later find weren't the right fit.
Becky Pickerill, the HR Manager for Lawson Drayage, told us, "I think it gives us an opportunity to interact with someone so that we could see how they may interact with our employees and our customers, and I also think that it gives them an opportunity to know whether to work for a company that they would want to go to work for."
Both employers and job seekers told us that career fairs make it easier to get that first interaction out of the way, saying an in-person connection goes further than online applications.
Joshua Pinnow, a career fair attendee, said, “It's a lot easier to get to know somebody in person. You can see them. You can see how they react to certain things, the small inflections in their voice. It can make a big difference. Somebody can seem a lot more like a better fit if you meet them in person than if you just read their qualifications on paper."
Many of the employers we spoke with told us they're really just looking for people who are motivated to work and will even offer training to teach them something new.
