By Khalid AlAmeri (@KhalidAlAmeri)
Every year, the UAE exhibition centers open up their doors to host a variety of career fairs with inspiring slogans such as “Empowering Nationals” flying high on their banners. The sights and sounds of ambitious young women and men, resumes in hands, about to take the giant step into the corporate world are energizing to say the least.
For me, attending the various career fairs is like taking a trip back in time, bringing back memories of career counseling, resume drafting and getting excited every time you see a landline number popping up on your mobile phone; hoping that that your resume landed on the right person’s desk.
Post university job hunting is a sensitive period in everybody’s life. Being a student all your life and moving into a land where the spoon-feeding stops and adulthood starts can be nerve racking, this is why I believe a career fair is a critical tool in giving young career seekers an insight into what lies ahead. Therefore, it is the responsibility of both, the attendees and exhibiting corporations to ensure that the experience is one that is meaningful and valuable.
Let us start with who career fairs are all about, the career seekers. For them, showing up is an obvious good start, but I could not help but notice a lack of research on the their part, of both the exhibiting organizations and more importantly, on their own personal goals and ambitions. Instead of asking a company, in a very dull tone more often than not, “So what have you got?” career seekers should be asking if companies have roles that match their personal ambitions and skill sets.
It is important for attendees to understand that the event is called a Career Fair not a Job fair for a reason. A career is defined as an individuals’ progress through life while a job is a more task-based process leaving out the all-important aspects of life’s progression. That my friends is a significant difference.
When assessing career choices there are critical questions our young graduates should ask themselves before attending career fairs, such as ‘Where do my passions lie?’ ‘What role would give me a sense of purpose?’ and ‘What organization will support my long term ambitions?’ Answering these questions gives potential employees a clear direction of where their interests lie, and in turn, it impresses the organizations they are interested in through their goal-orientated approach to employment
Moving on to the exhibitors, the local & international entities are always out in full force making big statements that they are there to employ and develop human capital.
So what exactly does an exhibitor do and how do they interact with the career seekers? Well, after visiting few stands, the process becomes quite repetitive; you are greeted, briefed on the company and then asked to fill the online application at one of their laptop stations.
I can understand the company’s need to streamline the process by getting the highest amount of applications possible, but this should not be a numbers game. Top-notch companies should be looking for quality versus quantity, right? So it is easy to see why one would question the value of attending versus simply reviewing the website and applying from the comfort of their own home.
This can be frustrating and demotivating to a career seeker who slowly starts to believe that he or she is just another number in an ever-increasing pile of online applications. Organizations should start spending more time seeking ideal candidates by outlining the specific roles and educational backgrounds they require; this will save everyone a lot of time and effort.
Secondly, the all-important interview, which is by far the most critical milestone of the employment process, but for some reason, there was not much interviewing going on during my visit. Exhibiting staff may argue that there is an excess amount of candidates coupled with a lack of time, but I believe that every company present should have an interview room ready to sit down with high potential candidates and discuss employment opportunities in greater detail.
Being able to kick off the hiring process would benefit corporations through time and cost savings, in addition to attracting higher caliber talent to the career fair. Believe me, if career seekers knew that an opportunity to properly present themselves and get some personal one on one time with corporations was present, the talent level in attendance would sky rocket.
Lastly career seekers want to connect with people who have been in their shoes, which is why a certain Abu Dhabi based bank’s actions spoke a lot louder than their words. This bank ensures that several employees hired through previous career fairs are in attendance and ready to answer questions on personal experiences of the recruitment process. This is incredibly important; as it would make a statement that the company is in there to hire versus using the fair as a marketing platform. Think about it, how many people do you know who have been hired through a career fair?
So what is a career fair all about at the end of the day? I believe it should be used as a platform to tackle the ideology that the sole point of work is a text message from the bank at the end of the month saying our salary has been transferred. A career is so much more than that, in order to truly put your heart and soul into the work you do, you have to be passionate about it; this is when your job transforms into a career. The right career is out there for everyone and it is up to career fair exhibitors and attendees to make sure they find it.
August 2011 – The 17th issue:
Here We Start – Community Talk – Living Through the Eyes of Art
Microscopic Me – Society of Tomorrow – Too Blunt for Words – To The Point
That decision, I agree we take blindly. Sometimes it works and other times not. To think about it more we shouldn't settle for what works, we are better off striving for what ignites the fire of inspiration, motivation and work magic. The need to connect to your inner voice and bring it to speak wonders comes from doing the right things right…. Aimlessly throwing CVs in career circuits is for sure not the right thing…. aim!
Thanks for the feedback sister! … love your insight and inshAllah more people start listening to their inner voice and following their dreams.
I couldn’t agree more.
I advocate the idea of having on-the-spot interviews. I heard a couple of companies do that. The effect of this can be fruitful for both parties (job seeker and employer).
The company needn’t take the career fair as a mere opportunity to promote themselves, and job seekers –as you said- should take more responsibility in the job-seeking (or rather career-seeking) process.
Please allow me to add to your valuable insights.
Taking fresh grads as a point, whenever there’s a career fair, I believe universities should also take a stand; by guiding the students career-wise and directing them to the companies that best suit their majors of study.
It would also be wonderful to have all universities organize their own career fairs; I know a few already do. This will not only benefit the companies in increasing the chances of attracting young blood , but the fairs play a role in exposing students to the companies in the country and increasing the awareness on the demands of the market, as well as assisting in bettering their career choices.
These are thoughts that popped up out of reading your great article.
Thanks for sharing. Keep it up, brother.
Many thanks for the feedback and awesome thoughts on how to promote the process. I agree 110% on Universities leading the process, guiding their students and most importantly promoting thought within each of their students to think about what they really want to do in their life. Imagine, as you proposed, a University having a career fair and one of the students is checking out a stand, along comes a professor or the career counsellor to observe and ask the student why they are curious about the company, then post career fair the professors and counsellor could offer feedback and guidance to the students. There are so many critical milestones up to when an individual jumps into a job or career e.g. School, University and it is critical that each milestone is used so a person finds what they love to do earlier in life rather than later. Thanks for the words of support sister, it means alot. All the best,
Spot on Khalid! Wonderful piece and I wish also that career fairs become more useful. As you mentioned, this will only happen when companies take it more seriously and when applicants also think about it more deeply
Thanks for the amazing feedback brother, it means a lot. InshAllah we will start to see the changes in the future and really getting absolute value from the fairs.