Why “on-base” military job fairs?

Hi, I’m Marla Smith.  In my “day job”, I help employers connect with military job seekers, so I hope I can answer some questions here as well as the other contributors.

A recruiter asked me this week, “Why should I focus more attention on military job fairs that take place on the military installations as opposed to off-base events?”  What I explain is that by attending military career fairs on the installations, their chances for connecting with high-value transitioning military job seekers are higher than with “off-base” job fairs. In this same vein, military job fairs held on-base make it easier for the men and women of the military to be able to participate as in many cases they are simply walking from their current military job to the civilian job fair. In addition, the employers I work with enjoy being able to meet the military candidates face-to-face in a setting where the job seekers already have a comfort level.

I have clients that look for maintenance, logistics and driver backgrounds and they have informed me that they have been able to meet more of this profile via an on-base military job fair than with any other channel.  Part of this has to do with the specialized outreach we do to attract candidates, but much has to do with the fact that it is easy for candidates to attend an on-base career event.