Lead Capture for Recruiters: Capture Candidates at Career Fairs and Events

The quick answer

Recruiters can treat candidates at career fairs like event leads: capture every contact (cards, LinkedIn QR codes, digital cards, badges), record four or five fields on the spot (role fit, seniority, availability, location, next step), add a short note or voice note, and follow up within a day. Habsy does this in one app, and lets candidates send you their details through a QR code at your stand.

Why recruiters lose good candidates at events

• Too many conversations, too few notes. By the end of the day, names blur.
• Paper piles. Resumes and cards are sorted days later.
• Slow follow-up. Strong candidates talk to several employers at the same fair.
• No shared view. Each recruiter has their own pile, and hiring managers see nothing until much later.

Capture every candidate

Candidates share details in different ways. Capture them all in one place:

• Business cards scanned with 99% accuracy, the highest in our in-house tests, or batch scanned in stacks of up to 150 in about 5 minutes
• LinkedIn QR codes, which many students and professionals show instead of a card
• Digital cards from any provider
• QR and NFC event badges at industry conferences

Capture works offline in crowded halls and is processed once you are back online.

Let candidates come to you

Put a QR code at your stand that opens your company’s Business digital card. Add your careers page and a hiring brochure as attachments, and, with Habsy Plus, turn on the enquiry form with the fields you need, such as name, email, phone, course and role of interest. Candidates fill it in on their own phone while they wait to talk to you. Submissions arrive in Habsy, where you can convert them into contacts.

Record the fields that matter

With Habsy Plus, set up intent signals for hiring, such as role fit, seniority, availability and next step, and tap them in seconds after each scan. Add a text note, or record a voice note, transcribed into English and searchable, such as “strong in SQL, wants Bengaluru, final round elsewhere next week”. See what are intent signals.

Follow up within a day

• Filter by your fields to build the shortlist: for example, engineering role fit and available within 30 days.
• Message candidates the same evening. Habsy writes a personal email or WhatsApp message with AI from a short prompt, free.
• Use templates for common messages, such as “apply via this link” or “book a phone screen”, with Habsy Plus.
• Set reminders so nobody waits a week.

See WhatsApp follow-up message templates.

A campus drive, end to end (illustrative)

Two recruiters from an engineering services firm run a campus drive at a university with 180 students attending.

• At the stand: the QR code on the banner opens the company’s Business digital card, with the careers page and a role brochure attached. 110 students fill in the enquiry form while they queue.
• In conversations: the recruiters scan the cards or LinkedIn QR codes of the 60 students they speak to properly, tap role fit, seniority and availability, and record a short voice note on the strongest.
• That evening: they filter for engineering role fit and availability within 30 days: 24 candidates. Each gets a personal message, drafted with AI from a short prompt, inviting them to the online assessment.
• Next morning: the recruiters assign the 24 to hiring managers on the Habsy Platform with reminders, and export the shortlist with the column names their applicant tracking system expects.

The enquiry form gave them everyone who was interested. The scans and voice notes told them who to talk to first.

For recruiting teams

The Habsy Platform gives a hiring team one view of every event:

• A campaign for each career fair or campus drive
• Every contact the team captured, with notes and voice notes
• Assign candidates to hiring managers with a follow-up reminder
• Team analytics and campaign reports
• Export with filters and custom header templates for your applicant tracking system, or sync with Zapier and supported CRMs

A simple recruiter workflow

1. Before: agree the fields, set up your Business digital card and enquiry form, create the campaign.
2. During: scan or receive every candidate, tap the fields, add a note.
3. Same evening: shortlist with filters, send personal messages.
4. Next day: assign candidates to hiring managers, export the shortlist.

Bottom line

At a career fair, the recruiter who follows up first with something specific gets the best candidates. Capture everyone, record a few fields, and follow up within a day. Habsy does it in one app, free to start. If you are a student on the other side of the table, read our job fair networking guide.