Monster Job Fair Flop

Posted on February 26, 2007
Filed Under Advertising Mistakes, Resume Searches, Job Fairs |

Monster.com attempted to enter the Las Vegas job fair market this past week. Unfortunately the results were not very, say …. ”monster-like.” From initial feedback received - the results were quite disappointing. Less than 20 employers participated and the jobseekers were too few to count. Employers are out $2,495 and a day’s productivity. Jobseekers continue their job search using different means.

The disappointing results are not shocking. CareerBuilder attempted to enter the Las Vegas job fair market a little over a year ago, holding an event at Cashman Center. After a disappointing inaugural event, they have not returned.

Why can’t a national job board like Monster or CareerBuilder succeed in the job fair business in Las Vegas? A lot has to do with the Review Journal’s anti-competitive policies. Now that the RJ is “in” the job fair business they will not allow other job fair companies to advertise their newspaper. That would be competitive.

Monopolistic? You bet. But that is how “they roll” down there at the RJ. And unless you have strategic partnerships with local level, non-Review Journal media outlets, you are doomed to fail.

Additionally, I still am not certain Monster is serious about the career fair business. They entered the business by acquisition. They acquired National Career Fairs who once operated here in Las Vegas in some level of partnership with LasVegasJobs.

My gut belief is that Monster caught those folks (both National Career Fairs and LasVegasJobs) with their hand in the cookie jar. Many years back it was common practice for ethically-challenged companies like these to purchase resume database access, aggregate all of the local level resumes, strip them of their e-mail addresses, add those addresses to their distribution list and call them their own (registered users).

Most companies don’t take it kindly when they discover a company is building a business from intellectual property (candidate database) that they do not own themselves. Action is taken to put that business out of business and then business returns to the usual.

This could also be the reason Monster.com more than tripled its rate card for resume database access.

Sounds like a reason to attend Opportunity Boulevard Job Fairs.