In 15 years of running JobQuest Hawaii, the state’s largest employment fair, Beth Busch has seen and heard just about every job-hunting circumstance.

There are legitimate hurdles to surmount in any job search, but sometimes people erect barriers themselves, she said.

There was one woman, distraught about her failure to find work fitting her clerical skill set, whom Busch directed to several employers at the fair with positions to fill.

“She said, I can’t go to this one because they’re on the Windward side.… And this one, I need to be home by 3 because my kids come home, and my husband doesn’t want me to work at night.’”

Busch paused.

“See what the problem is? It’s not me, and it’s not the job fair.”

The fair has been a collaborative project of Busch’s company, Success Advertising Hawaii, and Oahu WorkLinks, the city-sponsored system of one-stop job centers, since 1998.

At 57, Busch has seen her share of economic tumult, the latest financial crash being the most disruptive. After working in management at various firms, she negotiated with New Jersey-based Success Advertising to take ownership of its Hawaii office, in the hope that she could better control the impact of the recession on her staff.

The bulk of her business now is in helping companies enhance their positioning in recruitment through branding campaigns, and guiding them through the online job recruitment world dominated by social media sites such as LinkedIn.

The best way to serve people needing work is in directing them to careers with prospects matching their skills, she said.

“They keep announcing all this money that they’re getting for training. I think they should start putting some of that money toward counseling, and matching these people up,” she said. “We’re not connecting the dots, in my opinion.”

QUESTION: How would you describe the recruitment challenge companies face now?

ANSWER: As long as six or more years ago, I could see that recruitment was going to change dramatically. … My grandfather worked for the phone company all his life. Retired, got a watch. Never changed. He might have had different positions within, but he worked for that one company.…

We have seen a business renting movies come and go, be invented and die within our lifetime. That’s how quickly things move. There was a time when large companies ate slow companies. Now fast companies eat slow companies.

Q: Fast, meaning what?

A: People who can move, who are nimble, who are on their feet. The companies that I see that go under, I just think they’ve got it coming, some of them just got it coming. They just did not move quickly. …

So we started branching out and doing a lot more digital advertising in recruitment. And that is the bulk of our business now. …

It (a site such as LinkedIn) has changed recruiting from “recruiting,” where you run an ad and your hope is that you get a lot of response, to “sourcing,” where you hope you get one, and it’s the perfect one.…

Q: So part of your service is recruitment support?

A: Strategy — and branding, more and more branding.

When someone suddenly comes loose — either they graduate or they’re leaving another position and they’re looking for work — what company is top of mind? If you walk into a bank or you’re walking up and down in downtown and you’re looking for work, what feelings do you already have about that company that you’re looking at? They need to reach (the prospective employee) before they’re ready to make that decision.

Q: How would you say the workforce has changed?

A: Two sides of that: Recruitment has changed for employers, how they’re finding people, and how they’re keeping people and how they’re branding themselves to people.

On the jobseeker side of it, it’s going to be much different because you’re going to have to stand out in a different way, be able to stand out online. It’s going to be much more than your resume. It’s going to be your presence in social media; networking is going to be a huge part of that.

I talked about my grandfather, who had one job. Anybody who enters the job market today should plan on having anywhere from three to 10 jobs, and they may not all be in your same career field. And if it were me, I would be looking all the time.

I had somebody say to me the other day that they were nervous about going on LinkedIn because it would signal to their employer that they’re looking. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And I happened to work with that employer, and I know that they’re  having internal campaigns to get their employees to sign up, because your statistics look better on Linked In.

Q: You mean you look more viable as a company?

A: Well, not just viable: You have a broader reach. … But in no way does it signal that you’re looking for work. It means you’re an active, plugged-in, in-the-know networker. And those are all good things.

Q: What do the job fairs tell you about the job market?

A: Whether it’s recession or boom time, high unemployment or low unemployment, we (Success Advertising) still have a lot of work to do.

If I’ve got 40 more employers at this job fair than the last job fair, people are hiring. That’s it. When unemployment is high, I’ve got lots of job seekers and I’ve got to get more employers to come — and, vice versa, I’ve got to beat the bushes and get the jobseekers in.

As far as the jobseekers, I think we have tried, and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of educating them of the fact that they’re going to have to go online to apply. And there are people who resent that, and if you do, proceed to attitude check and come see me when you’re done. Because it benefits you; it’s not a bad thing.

Q: How has the online environment changed the process?

A: These modern applicant tracking systems are, in some sense, in response to the digital recruiting which, as with everything, has an up- and a downside. When we were able to start doing (online) postings, you can change it more quickly, you don’t have to wait until the Sunday print, you can put it up, put it down, more space, you can link to the person’s website. There are a million good things about postings.

Here’s the bad thing about postings: Anybody can apply, at night, in their jammies, in front of the TV, eating ice cream, petting the dog. Click, click, click. They don’t have to be remotely qualified for this position.

And now, employers are inundated, and quantity is no longer the deal. We don’t want quantity; we want quality. So screening tools came into play. And then after screening tools we’re moving into sourcing, where we pick you.

I think jobseekers are getting much more savvy. We’re doing a lot of education, and we do it through social media. People sign up. WorkLinks’ board has classes and things.

Q: What kinds of things do they teach at their classes?

A: How to write a resume. How to interview. How to network. How to research for a job. All of the basic skills that we used to teach at our job fairs. Some of our employers do those things, but we’re really trying to gear them up, so that you have that by the time you get to the job fair.

Last year we introduced and are going to continue to do a series of briefings. So for example, (recruiting director) Sunshine Topping from Hawaiian Airlines comes down and sort of gives the overview of what their hiring situation looks like: We’re going to open these routes, we’re going to be hiring this many flight attendants, the classes are going to be here and here and here. So people are starting to get a broader view, a bigger perspective on jobs that are available, careers that are available, what their work life will be like. See what I mean? And one of the things we’re trying to address in those briefings is the skills gap.

Q: Do you see that a lot here?

A: Oh, it’s huge here.

Q: Do you mean people needing to learn something new?

A: We have industries that are closing. When the refinery closed down, where are they going? All those people? They have many, many skills, but do they know they should go over here and get a job at the Navy yard? Do they know how to do that? What else do they need to know to work at the Navy yard?

Didn’t we talk about the funeral parlor?

Q: No. Talk about that.

A: OK. I figure I’ve got five to 10 more years to work before retirement. If somebody said to me right now, “You can never work in advertising again, you’re done there, just pretend you broke that arm — what else could you do?” …This is my new go-to question for people. I ask people this. …

I had an employer call and want to come to the job fair, and it was a funeral home, and I said, “OK, what kind of jobs do you have?” They said, “We are looking for someone to be a general manager, and we would train them and they would test and become a funeral director.”

And I said, “What does that require?” They went through all of the things and, I tell you, you or I could easily do this job. You have to speak in a soft voice, be empathetic, greet people in their time of need, help them put together what they need. … It’s event coordination: Who can’t do that?

Q: Are younger people more willing to see themselves in a variety of hats?

A: I think more are getting a broader education, and they see themselves as having more than one skill. More and more it’s like, “Here’s my degree, but here’s all the other stuff I’ve done.” They can show that in social media: “Here’s all the cool stuff I’ve done.” And that matters a lot.