On Tuesday, April 26, Putnam City held its first-ever teacher job fair. Nearly 400 prospective teachers – higher than anyone anticipated – attended the fair and got a chance to visit with administrators and teachers and learn about the district.
Evaluations forms were filled out by 137 job fair visitors. Here are some highlights what was learned from the evaluations:
How did participants know about Putnam City’s Teacher Job Fair?
Most job fair participants listed the district website as the way they learned about the job fair. Since the job fair was heavily promoted to graduating college students, that's expected. It's also a reminder that the district needs to continue to make sure the website in future years contains complete information about the job fair and the district.
Interestingly, an large number of people knew about the job fair through word-of-mouth. In fact, if you add the people who knew about the fair through "district employees or patrons" to the people who heard about it through "friends," word-of-mouth was the leading manner in which people knew about the job fair. Remember all those job fair posters in school buildings, churches and businesses? Did you hear about the job fair yourself through a presentation at a faculty meeting, PTA meeting, Foundation meeting or other gathering? All of that made a huge difference. People were talking about the job fair, and word got out and around.
Also ranking high in terms of how people found out about the job fair were flyers on college bulletin boards or picked up at other job fairs.
What did participants like most about the job fair?
It’s very clear: Job fair participants understandably were completely focused on getting jobs, which to them meant getting in front of administrators and having interviews. Far and away, those two factors were listed at the best part of the job fair. But reasonably high numbers of people also said they enjoyed meeting teachers and attending workshops on interviewing skills and educational technology.
What could we have done to make the job fair more beneficial?
Almost all of the specific suggestions about how to make the job fair better had to do with meeting administrators and getting job interviews.
However, many participants found the job fair to be almost perfect just as it was. A few of the anecotal comments:
- "I found it to be very informative. It was more than what I expected."
- "It was great! Thanks so much! "
- "Well organized. Plenty of help directing traffic. Employees were all very pleasant and helpful."
- "Everything was wonderful. Thank you."
- "Very educational and friendly."
- "Very well run and organized."
As the district looks ahead to the possibility of another job fair next year, evaluations from participants will prove helpful in making the experience