The success of Mini Job Fair “My Career” at the Faculty of Economics
The UG Careers Office enables students to meet employers for years by organising mini job fairs at the University of Gdańsk. The last edition of the event, held on May 6 at the Faculty of Economics, was highly popular, with 19 companies participating.
We strive to make employers feel welcome here, and we are delighted to host them and encourage their return every year. The Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Management are located outside the main campus, so it is very important to us that companies want to come to us, and that students have access to employers on site - said Dr Magdalena Markiewicz, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics for Development and Cooperation with the Socio-Economic Environment.
The fair space was opened by the stand of the UG Careers Office, the event organizer. Interested individuals could learn more about the Office's activities and participate in a lottery. In addition to gadgets provided by sponsors, you could win a test examining thinking and action styles. - I am very happy that students from various faculties come, not only from Sopot - noted Aleksandra Stenke, Head of the UG Careers Office. Many students are curious about what this event entails and what is done here. We inform people about our exhibitors and their locations, and we also encourage them to contact and speak directly with the employers. There are students who have checked the list of exhibitors in advance and contacted the companies directly where they would like to work or do an internship. However, most want to visit all the stands. Aleksandra Stenke emphasised that this year's May edition of the Mini Job Fair, MY CAREER, enjoyed exceptionally high attendance, with many exhibitors gathering crowds of interested people around them.
- The fair is a valuable catalyst for discovering opportunities that are difficult to find out by browsing only online offers - noted the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Economics for Development and Cooperation with the Socio-Economic Environment, Dr Magdalena Markiewicz, which was consistent with the observations of students who discovered previously unknown companies or offers at the fair.
What were the visitors to the fair interested in?
Firstly, current job and internship offers. According to the exhibitors, many students pointed out the difficulty of finding paid internships in the market. Many people also took advantage of the opportunity to meet with company representatives and asked about what exactly a given company does and what the recruitment process looks like. Some visitors noted that many offers were focused on specific industries, such as IT, economics, logistics, and management, and there were no offers for students in the humanities and social sciences. Paid internships were offered by, among others, the Vipro company (in the areas of IT or foreign languages) and the Integralia Foundation, through the Efficient Internship program, aimed at individuals with disabilities. The Foundation's representative, Elżbieta Wojciszke, talked about the program, which is becoming more and more popular year by year:
- The Efficient Internship program, which we are presenting today, is in its fourth edition. It is aimed at students and graduates with disabilities. Its task is to make it easier for people who, for various health reasons, face challenges and often encounter barriers in finding employment. Therefore, we aim to help them gain experience through these internship offers. Large companies from all over Poland apply for our internship program, offering internships in various task areas, including analytical, HR, financial, and logistics. Internships usually last three months or longer. They are also quite effective, because approximately. 40% of interns later find employment in the companies where they did their internship. And what kind of candidates are companies looking for? A lot depends on the requirements of a specific area or position, although some skills or competencies are useful in many fields.
There is no single, ideal profile that we are looking for said Karolina Sas-Bojarska from Ocean Network Express. - Such a profile does not exist in any job. For example, our company comprises several departments that handle various tasks requiring different competencies. In one area, open-minded people, eager to engage in conversation, with highly developed interpersonal competencies, who are not afraid to tackle complex cases, will excel. Another department will require more analytical skills, focusing on numbers, data analysis, and other quantitative aspects. What we are looking for, regardless of the area, is proficiency in English (due to the international nature of the company) and proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets. However, I want to emphasise that when we meet candidates, we want to get to know the person first and foremost. It is important to us how candidates talk about themselves, what they do, what they have learned so far and how they use it.
Openness, willingness to learn, and the ability to cooperate also count. It is worth emphasizing that in addition to "hard" qualifications, soft skills are of great importance, especially interpersonal skills, such as the ability to start a conversation. The exercises that Dr Magdalena Markiewicz gave her students were intended to help shape these skills:
- Students were supposed to talk to employers and face challenges, such as establishing contact with a company they were not very familiar with. Additionally, they had the opportunity to test their competences, e.g. how they function in a new situation, in interaction with an unknown person. They can determine what is expected of a given job profile and how to plan their near future to develop the necessary skills.
Soft skills are also fundamental. Many people focus on knowledge of specific tools, programs or indicators. Meanwhile, the following are also significant: the ability to find solutions or creatively search for the heart of the problem, openness, cooperation, establishing contact, caring for relationships, etc. These are things that we do not learn directly at university, but they are of great importance, emphasises Dr Magdalena Markiewicz.
Another edition of the Mini Job Fair MY CAREER in the fall.
In the meantime, we encourage you to visit the UG Careers Office website regularly: strony Biura Karier UG
Source UG, fot. B. Jętczak
