Dear Jonathan, I went to a couple of fairs last Michaelmas but found them a bit overwhelming. Is it worth going to this next fair, and if so, how do I get something out of it that’ll be useful?
Dear Jonathan,
I see there’s a careers fair coming up; I went to a couple of fairs last Michaelmas but found them a bit overwhelming and didn’t really know what to do there.
Given I do need a job when I leave Oxford, is it worth going to this next fair, and if so, how do I get something out of it that’ll be useful?
You are not alone in finding careers fairs overwhelming, noisy, busy, and a bit puzzling. Yet, given that employers keep coming and hundreds of students attend, what are the benefits? And how can you get something out of a fair?
It is not uncommon for students to be unclear about what they do first in their career, after graduating. A fair can be a really time-efficient way to learn about many different organisations, either in a specific sector (e.g., Law or Engineering) or from a wide range of employers (e.g. Summer Graduate and Internship Fair). In an hour or two, you could meet people from 20 or 30 organisations and learn about the opportunities they offer.
And that’s the second benefit: meeting recruiters. One of the most important aspects of any organisation is the culture, and while web sites and brochures can tell you many facts, it’s hard for organisations to capture what it’s like to work there, and what the people are like. But on a stand at a fair, you can quickly see if these are people you’d enjoy working with.
Third, when you do meet them, you can start to practice your introduction, asking informed questions, mentioning what you might have learnt elsewhere – a great way to polish your communications.
Fourth, with the increasing use of AI by students to make applications and by employers to select applications, meeting people is a great way to stand out. Often recruiters send their HR or recruiting teams and some definitely take names of students who impressed them; with AI, it’s likely that this behaviour may increase.
How to make the most of the fair?
Go with an open mind, read about who is attending and do some background research on them (that can be very impressive to the recruiter), prepare some selected questions, e.g. about their schemes, the type of work, or the culture, go early before the rush, and be open to chatting to other stands not on your list.
The Careers Service will also be at every fair, so perhaps chat to a Careers Adviser during your visit to discuss what you’ve learned. With all this planning, your feeling of being overwhelmed should be lower, and you can leave the fair having gained more information and perhaps a clearer idea of your next steps.
Jonathan Black - Director, Oxford University Careers Service
Read more guidance on Making the Most of Careers Fairs.
About the Dear Jonathan column
For six years, the Oxford University Careers Service Director Jonathan Black, wrote a fortnightly column for the Financial Times answering readers’ careers questions - you can still find it here.
Now, the “Dear Jonathan" column has come to Oxford.
If you are an Oxford University student, send in your career question to dear.jonathan@careers.ox.ac.uk and each week of term, he will answer one of the questions in this feature. We’ll anonymise the author (but please tell us whatever is relevant) so you can be sure that readers won’t know it’s you.
