As the academic year draws to a close, careers fairs are taking place at universities up and down the country. These represent a great opportunity for students with a clear idea regarding their desired career path to reach out to employers in such a field, but can be of further benefit as well. For those without such clearly-defined goals, talking to the same people can shed light on how well-suited they are for a certain career path. In addition to providing valuable insight on specific graduate recruiters, the fairs also represent a great opportunity to obtain more general advice to help with a career search.
Advice of this kind can be provided both by employers at the fair on behalf of their firm or by third parties looking to help graduate improve their chances of identifying and obtaining the job that they desire. For instance, you need to think carefully about yourself before applying for a particular position, and assess your qualities and preferences in different types of work and skills such as co-operation with others. For those unsure of their strong points why not speak to those familiar with you and asking them what they thought they were. Another key area of self-development lies in the need to focus on extra-curricular activities rather than your actual degree when building on your CV and interview qualities. However, for those for whom a degree has taken the vast majority of your time, it remains of great use often in terms of the transferable skills it develops which are applicable in any area of work. Beyond this, enthusiasm, both in tailoring your CV to a particular job and in explicitly explaining in any interview why you want the job so much.
For many who are considering their future after graduation, such advice is already rather familiar; for others, it no doubt will be soon. But even when certain words and phrases seem extremely familiar in the context of careers advice, it is important to look closer and consider how they really impact on your job search and application. For this reason, the frequency of recruitment events at this time of the year can be invaluable to the graduate in deciding what they want to do and tailoring themselves to it, and can yield benefits long after the fair has closed down.
GRB are at the Yorkshire Fair in Leeds today, Southampton on 14th June, Manchester 16th June and London 22nd and 23rd June so come and visit our stand for some more advice!
