Job Fairs Take the Work, and Expense Out of Hiring : Employment: Firms find they lower costs, and prospective employees like the opportunities.

Anne Stalker is burned out. After toiling 11 years in the competitive real estate sales business, the Tustin resident says the desire is gone. She is looking for a new line of work to restore her career flame.

The search brought her to the Embassy Suites Hotel in Santa Ana on Tuesday to an all-day sales and management “job fair.” She was among more than 1,100 people, armed with resumes and references, who came shopping for job opportunities offered by 48 companies.

“I’m looking for brighter horizons,” said Stalker, as she filled out a form.

Whether or not she finds new employment, Stalker said the event--sponsored by The Lendman Group, a professional job-fair organizing company--is a big time saver, providing a broad mix of openings from a wide range of companies. There is no need for newspapers or headhunters.

And as unemployment in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties remains at a low level, more and more companies are turning to job fairs to attract new workers--often hoping to lure the best qualified from their competitors.

Karen Vari, chairperson of the Orange County Employment Managers Assn., estimates that nearly 20 job fairs with multiple corporate participants are held each year in or near Orange County. Close to 100 job fairs are scheduled by individual firms.

Lendman Group, a consulting firm based in Virginia Beach, Va., which produces 120 job fairs nationally each year, has scheduled a job fair for March 28 at Embassy Suites Hotel in La Jolla. Companies already signed up for the one-day event include General Binding Corp., Prudential Marketing Development, MCI Telecommunications and Donnelley Information Publishing, said Lendman Group Senior Vice President Joseph Di Geronimo.

Tom Hyland, Cerritos branch manger for Metropolitan Life, which is seeking to double its financial services sales force nationwide, said “bottom-line results are better” at job fairs because people who attend are generally serious about gaining new employment.

Hyland and other interviewers at the Embassy Suites fair said that after an initial screening, they decide which applicants would fit into their companies and invite them back for additional interviews and tests. Some companies, however, don’t like the competition of other firms at a job fair and prefer to hold job open houses at their offices or plants to attract applicants. MAI Basic Four, the Santa Ana computer company, held such an event last week in hopes of hiring some software engineers.

Many of the applicants visiting MAI were already employed. They were looking to upgrade their careers or find new employment in the wake or expectation of plant layoffs and closures.

With the high cost of housing and other living expenses, many recruiters often find it easier to attract workers already living in Southern California. This saves on relocation expenses and avoids the difficult process of getting a candidate to move from elsewhere.

Dave Fabian, vice president of human resources for MAI, said although that company also participates in professionally organized job fairs, open houses are preferable because “we can control the time we have it, the way we do it, and the interviewing process and we are not competing with 25 or more other companies.”

MAI carefully prepared for last week’s job fair, which cost $10,000. Company managers rehearsed the swift and efficient processing of applicants. On the day of the event, each of 126 applicants who arrived between 4:30 and 8:30 p.m. was whisked through the process in about an hour. While waiting for interviews, they were treated to a buffet and watched videos about the company and its products.

The efficiency was meant to impress. And it did.

“The way they handle this indicates the way they handle their business and their customers,” said Pat Schilling, a software engineer who had been laid off from her job at another company just two days earlier.

Employment specialists say the job-fair circuit tends to heat up in January.