Career Day is no longer reserved for high schoolers and job fairs for the enervated. No time has been better for the always in-demand tech pros to check out the wealth of opportunities available to them. Not only are there more job opportunities available to skilled tech pros, but it’s become increasingly easy to find venues that will guide you to a good match between your skill set and companies’ needs. 

The pandemic forced the enterprise to embrace the value and convenience of online communications. Fresh from a 2020 success of 23 virtual events reaching a 64% attendance rate (the industry benchmark is 28%), and generating 8,500 real-time chats between recruiters and candidates, tech-career hub Dice released its 2021 Calendar of Virtual Events. 

As TechRepublic reported last week, as tech evolves, it’s vital that those in the field are always aware of the changes, not only in technology, but the state of the companies they aspire to work for: “To keep competitive and even just to keep up, workers are going to have to be constantly current, and 58% of the workforce will need to develop new skill sets to do their jobs successfully. A new report from Gartner TalentNeuron said that one in three skills in an average 2017 IT job posting are already obsolete, and data indicates that the total number of skills required for a single position has increased 10% year over year since 2017.”

The 2021 virtual events calendar includes career events of varying interests: for example, focused on women and diversity in tech, college grads/interns, regional audiences, specific skill sets, and more. Job seekers can learn about employers through their posted jobs, content and videos, and can easily connect with recruiters during events through text, audio or video. Recruiters can build brand awareness, see increased candidate engagement, encourage candidate pipelining, and reduce time to hire.

SEE: Return to work: What the new normal will look like post-pandemic (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Addison Group’s Claudia Johnson, vice president internal recruiting, offered the following suggestions for job seekers and ways that new candidates can stand out: Know the industry language (show you can quickly acclimate to a new environment); come prepared with real-life examples (recruiters want to hear how you dealt with adversity or exhibited resilience), and demonstrate your ability to self motivate (show recruiters you can navigate remote tech skills–23% want candidates who can operate in a self-directed environment).

“While we launched Dice’s Virtual Career Event program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the extremely positive feedback we’ve received from both candidates and employers shows that there is real value in moving forward with virtual events,” said Arie Kanofsky, chief revenue officer for DHI Group, Inc., parent company of Dice, in a press release. 

The Dice career events for 2021 are

• Feb. 24: Diversity in tech
• March 10: Gaming networking and career event
• March 31: College grad and interns event
• April 13: Staffing firms event
• April 28: Women in tech
• May 12: IT operations
• May 19: Healthcare sector
• June 16: Veterans in tech
• July 21: Diversity in tech
• Aug. 18: Software developers 
• Sept. 29: Northeast regional tech event
• Oct. 13: Cloud-based event
• Oct. 20: Front-end design/development
• Nov. 10: College grads and interns event
• Nov. 17: Diversity in tech

Those interested in participating ( candidates and recruiters) can register and review more detailed information on the planned events. 

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