Tuudo’s 100% digital recruitment fair was organized on January 16-22, 2023. A total of 82 employers and a record number of fair visitors attended the event.

Tuudo Recruitment Fair has been organized twice a year for almost three years. The January 2023 event was the fifth digital recruitment event in Tuudo and the third with a summer job theme. So far, two autumn fairs have been organized with a part-time work theme and the third one is coming up next September 18.-21.9.2023.

As usual, Tuudo users had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the introduction profiles of employers and hundreds of open job advertisements in the application, either by swiping or in the list view. Swiping jobs or employers means in practice swiping them either right or left according to interest, just like in a work life dating app.

In addition to swiping, fair visitors could apply for a speed date appointment with the employers they were interested in and participate in a two-day working life webinar on January 17-18.

The event was organized in cooperation with Oikotie and the Responsible Summer Job campaign.

A Finnish record in a couple of days

The recruitment fair had only reached the middle of its third day, when all visitor records from previous years had already been broken. Last time, during the week, more than 20,000 students visited the Recruitment Fair in January looking for their dream summer job. This year, more than 30,000 students had visited the event in a couple of days.

Finally, by the end of the week, the event was visited by more than 55,000 students nationwide from 29 higher education institutions. The actual number of participants is probably higher; due to the huge number of visitors, the data technology of the event experienced a crash and did not record all the participants and activities during the week. According to the most conservative estimate, the number of visitors increased by about 175% from the previous similar event, and the number of swipes also rose to a respectable half a million swipes, even though students swiped more relevant and more precisely filtered content than in previous years.

“The fair was really successful!” rejoices Ulla Rusama, the recruitment specialist of the Deaconess Foundation. “I met AMK students at the live fair this week and several of them told me how they had already applied for out summer jobs after seeing our announcement at the Tuudo fair.”

”[Messujen] ”The concept [of the fair] is interesting and fun. Easy and meaningful for the student”, describes Jessica Valkonen, project coordinator of Viafin Process Piping Oy, who also participated in the fair for the first time.

The webinar and speed dates were popular

At every Tuudo Recruitment Fair, a webinar on working life has been organized via Teams. Speeches are always heard on several days; now in January, the webinar were held over two days, January 17–18. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The webinar was lively; about 3,000 fair visitors came to hear the employers over the course of two days. During the speeches, the viewers had the opportunity to ask the employers questions in the chat either anonymously or under their own name.

“We have been participating in the webinar for several years and we feel it is a unique opportunity to introduce ourselves as an employer and tell what kind of work opportunities we offer to students,” LähiTapiola‘s recruitment expert Erika Vuori says.

Webinar speeches were particularly popular among employers this year; there were significantly more people willing to speak than there were vacancies.

Employers could also offer recruitment-related speed dating during the event if they wished. In January, 26 employers offered that opportunity. The idea of speed dating is that the student sends a speed dating request to an employer who they are interested in, which the employer either accepts or rejects. After acceptance, the employer and student arrange a time for the remote meeting, after which they meet in a quick 15-minute meeting via Teams.

“We want to offer students the opportunity to talk with us one-on-one and at the same time give tips on job hunting and hear what kind of wishes they have,” Vuori continues about offering speed dating at the fair.

Kati Kaihovirta from Esperi Health Services was also one of the employers offering speed dating. “A convenient and easy way to meet people to be recruited”, Kaihovirta sums up the service.

Next autumn we go again

The date for the next Tuudon Recruitment Fair has already been decided. The event will take place over four days, September 18-21, 2023. As usual, the theme of the autumn fair is part-time work, but every recruitment event includes all kinds of job opportunities, from full-time jobs to internships.

If you are an employer who is interested in recruiting students, contact us quickly and easily. We always first discuss with you how Tuudo could help you with your recruitment challenges the best. We have often been praised for the ease and speed of cooperation, and not for nothing. Try it yourself!