All the fun of the fair

Careers fairs are supposed to be the easy way to getting a job, so how come it never works out like that. Sarah Knapton finds out how to get an interesting job at the Virginstudent.com Alternative Careers Fair.

Do you know what you are going to do with your life?  In a recent survey conducted by Virgin Student, students in the UK admitted to being more worried about their future careers than they were about relationships, politics and money. With this in mind, it’s vital to keep one step ahead. If you are looking for your perfect job (and yes, it does exist), you need to put in the groundwork, assessing not only your options, but your own aptitudes as well.

It’s about you

Looking for a job can be soul-destroying. You want to do something interesting, creative, sociable, unusual. You want to use your intelligence, work your way to the top, travel around the world – and to be honest, a bit of glamour wouldn’t go amiss.  The tricky thing is finding the job, and the industry, which will give you what you want – and to make everything even harder, as it’s a commercial world, you’ll have to give the company what they want as well. It’s not rocket science – but if you’ve got a degree in art history, you’re unlikely to be accepted as a trainee actuary. Thing is, should you have applied in the first place?

When you’re looking for a job, consider your own personality; if you’re a chatty type and working in a quiet team, you’ll be unhappy and therefore likely to be unproductive. You’ve got to bite the bullet and do the planning if you want a career that inspires you.

It’s about research

And where better to start than a careers fair? Whether you want direct access to recruiters or information about certain jobs, companies or industries, you’ll need all the information you can get if you are going to land yourself that prime position. The advice from Arcadia is ‘Research the role and company before an interview and demonstrate intuitive ways of doing this, like websites, industry journals and work experience.’ At a careers fair, chat to people that actually work for the company, go to useful presentations, and participate in workshops.

And if you know what you want to do already, remember that the companies going will have jobs, real live jobs, on offer to people like you. ‘We want exposure to independent thinkers,’ says Toni Castle, HR Director of Lewis PR.

It’s about focus

If you’ve applied willy-nilly to every company under the sun – your only criteria being that they’re based in London, and will pay more than £18k, you’ve already committed one of the worst crimes in job applications. Know who you want to work for and why. Toni says ‘A blanket bomb approach immediately turns us off an applicant. We want to feel loved and special to candidates, not just one of many – especially if the many aren’t even within the same sector.’

A successful job hunt is not about sending the same CV and covering letter to 100-odd companies. ‘Someone showing a lack of interest or focus, or someone who clearly hasn’t thought through why they want to work in fashion retail,’ would be the least impressive applicants, according to Arcadia. To find the perfect job, you should be selective and keen. According to Chris Elliott, Managing Editor of the Guardian, the most impressive quality in an applicant is ‘enthusiasm’.

Make sure you have found out all you can about the job you want. Clare Jackson, at Manning Gottlieb Media finds ‘So many people want to get into “media” and apply for planning and buying without any real understanding of what the job involves.’ Once at the careers fair, you can get a feeling for the company, the work and the people. It’s a safe bet that the people representing the company at the fair will know what it’s like to be in the position of having loads of options and not knowing which ones to follow. Lauren Taylor, who has now landed herself with a good job in marketing after studying media and history at Nottingham Trent, found this to be the case, ‘I found it was the most useful thing to speak to people who actually worked at the company – especially because most of them had been in my position a year earlier, so I knew it wasn’t just their recruitment spiel.’

But mostly it’s all in the planning

When I was at university, she was called Amy. At 20 she was offered a job at a high-paying law firm. Amy had a plan. Married by 25, earning a proper wage by 28 – as far as I know she’s on track. Compared to my aimless and sporadic wanderings in and out of the careers service, our friendship could not last. And everyone knows someone like this; someone who has not only planned their career before starting university – but who has amassed tons of work experience as well. Most of us mere mortals, though, are hoping that the right career will jump out of a brochure. To a lucky few, this is the case.  But the surefire way to get ahead is all in the planning. Kiminder Bedi, of Channel 4, says that if he could do it all again he’s have ‘learnt more about the industry as soon as I could.’ Before you go to a careers fair, make sure you’ve done your homework. Clare, from MGM, says, ‘An applicant who has researched the industry and has well thought-out opinions about media campaigns is really impressive.’ So, easy as it is to bung a few copies of your CV in a tatty folder, it’s not the way to win the hearts of the HR departments, whose main complaint is ‘unenthusiasm’.

Virgin Student Alternative Careers Tips

1. Research. Before you rush along to every careers fair you hear about, do a bit of research. Find out who is going to be there, and what format the day will take.
2. Be selective. Chris, from the Guardian, likes applicants to ‘have clear reasons for why they want to be a journalist.’ If you’re desperate to work in media, work out why, and tell the company you want to work for. 
3. Read all about it. Check the website, company brochures or any information lying in the street about the exhibitors you are interested in. Toni says ‘Do your research – if you want to impress us at Lewis PR, look at the league tables in relevant publications, talk to the industry bodies, attend relevant careers fairs and network.’
4. Make good time. Make sure you arrive in good time for any presentations or workshops you want to attend. It’s a good idea to get there early. You’ll catch the representatives at their morning best, before a hard day’s smiling has taken its toll.
5. Questions please. Get a list of questions together.  ‘The more you learn from people already in the industry,’ says Toni, ‘ the stronger your position, the more you understand and the better you look to a potential employer.’
6. Network. It’s a cliché but it works. Build relationships with the people you meet. Don’t expect to be their best mate in five minutes, but you should introduce yourself, smile, shake hands firmly, be polite and positive. Take a business card; and show your enthusiasm. As Kiminder from Channel 4 says ‘Many jobs in TV are not advertised – it’s often who you know that counts.’
7. Be good to yourself. Think about what you have to offer the company: your skills, your interests, your qualifications. While you’re chatting to potential employers, you can then reel off your talents, and good qualities. Find out what they are looking for; applicants to the Guardian, according to Chris, should at least ‘take the trouble to read the paper and find out what the Scott Trust stands for.’
8. Looking good. Make sure you dress smartly, right down to the shine on your shoes. Think of the careers fair as a job interview.
9. Be prepared. As well as your CV – which should be neatly typed and as targeted as possible, remember to take paper, and a pen. Look as professional as you can.
10. Focus. Once you’re read all the promotional material about a company, decide whether it’s priority one, two or three. Then make sure you do the most preparation for your priority one companies.
11. Individuality. If there are loads of people at the careers fair, go against the flow, so you are doing the rounds in the opposite direction to everyone else. You’ll probably still spend some of your time queuing, though.
12. Give good chat. Potential employers will want to know what you’ve done. Prepare some answers to questions about your degree, your work experience and your ambitions. Be confident, and enthusiastic.
13. Take advantage. Each of the companies is there because they want to recruit students. They want the most enthusiastic, keenest and brightest students they can get. Each part of the day is designed to help you get a job that you will enjoy, so use it. Ask questions, network, and if you can get a job or interview at the end of it, go for it.
14. Believe in yourself. One last comment from Kim at Channel 4: ‘Don’t take no for an answer!’

How to ensure you don’t get that dream job

1. Be rude, argumentative or appear uninterested. ‘Lack of enthusiasm’ was cited by the Guardian’s Chris as the biggest turn off in an applicant. Toni from Lewis agrees, ‘There’s nothing worse than impolite or uninterested candidates – they should be excited by the opportunities.’
2. Diss the business plan, or the MD. An applicant to Virgin Student’s own Student Marketing Network found herself at the end of a short good-bye after she had confided in current employees that her application was a joke, and that she wasn’t interested in the job anyway.
3. Swear excessively. Not only is it rude and disrespectful to your potential employer, it’s just plain stupid.
4. Expect a job to be given to you on a plate. For Lewis PR, the ultimate no-nos are ‘Someone who has not researched the company, and people who expect to get a job rather than presenting themselves to explain how they would assist the company.’
5. Lack of initiative. James, from Virgin Student, says that a major put-off is ‘Someone who comes up with problems but no solutions.’
6. Lack of enthusiasm. If there is one impressive quality mentioned by all HR directors, this is it. An open, positive, excited and focused attitude can work wonders.

by Sarah Knapton