By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

Don't ever describe job fairs as "cattle calls" to Brandy Owens.

As director of recruitment for Seneca Gaming Corp., she and fellow recruiter Anita Scordato swear by job fairs. In fact, they say they're essential for filling positions at Seneca Gaming, which oversees three casino operations in Western New York and has more than 4,000 employees.

"You never know who you are going to find," Owens said.

Seneca Gaming runs at least one public job fair each year. It also runs an internal one that allows existing employees to move up the ladder or shift positions within the company.

In addition, it participates in smaller, targeted job fairs such as those run by Niagara University that focus on jobs in the hospitality industry.

"Sometimes you find that diamond in the rough," Scordato said. "The best thing about the private or industry fairs is that you get people who really want to work in a specific industry."

While Seneca Gaming is best known for its casino operations in Niagara Falls, Salamanca and downtown Buffalo, it also operates two hotels that together have 806 rooms, nearly 20 restaurants and three concert/entertainment venues. That means Owens and Scordato have to find a lot of people to fill a lot of jobs.

They say Seneca Gaming also has 10 to 15 people come by each day to drop off a resume.

With the economy still sluggish and Seneca Gaming one of the few economic bright lights in the region, Owens said large-scale job fairs attract a significant number of job-seekers.

Last year, when it was looking to fill 125 positions at Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, it held a public job fair specific to the Niagara Falls casino. The event attracted more than 500 people.

"Sometimes we see a lot of the same people showing up, but you also find those candidates who you might not have otherwise come across," Owens said.

The biggest problem the company faces, she said, has less to do with the pool of candidates and more to do with the pay expectations of people looking for work. Some individuals expect to earn union wages.

"We've had some people come from a factory where they were earning $32 a hour and we have to tell them we don't have any of those jobs," she said. "And I doubt there are too many of those left in Western New York."

Tracey Coyne, meanwhile, is human resources manager for Hamburg Casino. She said she has had similar experiences as Owens and Scordato when it comes to job fairs.

The Hamburg Casino, operated by Delaware North Cos., added more than 100 jobs in the past year as it expanded the casino operation and moved it from the Hamburg Raceway grandstand to a stand-alone building. Staff grew from about 200 workers to more than 300.

Hamburg Casino relied on job fairs to look for potential employees, according to Coyne.

"Job fairs allow us to source better, and they bring the candidates to us," she said. "It helps when you are looking for the right people to fill in the right positions."

While the bulk of the jobs were entry-level, she said she was able to find a graphic designer and some IT workers through a job fair, as well.

The Seneca Gaming and Delaware North experiences are not unusual, said Susan Murphy, manager of the National Human Resources Association in Nashua, N.H. Job fairs can be highly effective, she added.

Still, a growing number of people are turning to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist to open doors. Others look to websites such as Monster.com.

"People are being much more focused," Murphy said. "You are not going to find a CFO position at a job fair, but you might learn of a lead through the social network."

In a nod to the digital era, the University at Buffalo recently held the Virtual Global Engineering Career Fair to match students from its engineering department with domestic and international companies via one-on-one interviews and video conferencing. Students were allowed to create a profile and upload resumes before meeting with companies ranging from IBM India to Lockport's VanDeMark Chemical.

"This kind of global recruiting is a fairly new paradigm, and our virtual approach put us at the cutting edge," said Holly Justice, a UB engineering career counselor.

UB scheduled a more traditional Global Engineering Career Fair on campus, which enables corporate recruiters to meet with upcoming graduates one-on-one. And it plans to take the same approach with other departments, according to Arlene Kaukus, director of career services.

"It would be our hope to seek more global employers for other academic areas," Kaukus said.

Meanwhile, Harvey Stenger, dean of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said the high-tech, global recruiting effort is a response to comments made by students and alumni,

"Comments on exit surveys from graduate students in engineering over the past several years have indicated a strong desire to have better career services provided to them," Stenger said.

Are the days of large-scale job fairs over?

Not in the immediate future, according to Murphy of the National Human Resources Association. Large job fairs serve a real purpose, she said.

"Companies use them effectively," said Murphy.

Brad Bisbing, director of public relations for the Buffalo Bisons, said the team relies heavily on job fairs to find people to work at Coca-Cola Field during the baseball season. They may not be permanent jobs, he said, but there's always a large number of candidates. And in some cases, seeing who applies in this difficult economy can be an eye-opener.

"We are seeing some applicants now that we might not have seen before," he said.

Jobs offered by the Bisons run the gamut from cashiers and cooks to porters and customer service representatives.

For some games, the Bisons utilize as many as 400 employees, according to Bisbing.

"These people are absolutely vital," Bisbing said. "That's why we are definitely looking for qualified people to fill these slots."