How to make the most of our Autumn term employer events

Relationship Manager (Placements, Internships and Work Experience), Chris Knight shares how you can make the most out of employer events in the Autumn term. 

As the upcoming autumn term approaches, the CareersPlus team are preparing for an action-packed few months.

We are excited to welcome organisations to campus to meet with our students to discuss their opportunities, whether this be spring weeks, insight programmes, internships, placements or graduate roles!

Many employer events will be taking place, particularly throughout October and November, as this is when the peak recruitment period occurs for many of the big corporates! So now is the time to start planning your diary.

What is happening? 

Our WBS CareersPlus and Employer Relations team will be hosting a range of events with a wide variety of organisations throughout the autumn term, including:

• Sector insight events and festivals, ranging from consumer goods and retail, consulting, finance, healthcare to technology, energy and automotive
• Skills sessions with employers
• Placement year-specific events
• A Bootcamp for Undergraduates that will involve several company treks, networking opportunities and assessment activities.

Our central Employer Connect team in Student Opportunity will also be hosting a range of employer events on campus, including our Autumn Careers Fair, Law Fair and STEM Fair, plus a range of employer presentations and sessions, which WBS students can access.

The benefits

So why is it worth attending these events? Well, perhaps the following will help…

• Get noticed! You may end up speaking to someone who will make a note of who you are (and that person may be involved in any shortlisting processes…)
• Find out if the companies and roles that you are considering are the right fit for you – are you getting that vibe? This is equally important for employers
• You may gain some hints and tips on an employer’s application process
• Providing that the employers are happy for you to do so (check with them in any chats first), you could name-drop your conversation in any initial applications that you make to the company – this will demonstrate that you have gone above and beyond just reading about them on their website.

‘The Autumn term careers events are a fantastic opportunity for our recruitment team to meet and engage with students from a wide variety of backgrounds and can help to give a personal approach to the recruitment process. Working in a virtual environment definitely has it’s benefits but attending careers events on campus allows for better networking opportunities and gives us the opportunities to share some vital information that sometimes gets lost in the online world! Attending events on campus also has the added benefit of being able to answer questions directly to the recruitment team and can help put your mind to ease with any queries that you have.’  Rob Campbell, Early Careers Consultant - JLR

Preparation

When determining which events to register for or attend, it is worth bearing the following in mind:

• Take a look at which employers are attending any events that you are interested in – are you genuinely interested in them and the sector(s) which are being represented?
• Explore the roles on offer with those companies to see if anything really stands out to you – do you read the job description and think, YES that is for me?
• Prepare a list of well-thought-out questions that you may wish to ask at the events 
• Dress accordingly – check if events are advertising any specific dress code. If not, smart casual dress is usually fine
• Check the timings and location – avoid turning up late! This may get noticed, and it doesn’t look great, especially if the event is small and is in a venue where it’s easily noticeable that you aren’t on time.

Online events

Although there will be lots of employer events taking place on campus face-to-face, many employers will also be hosting their own online events – keep a look out for these, as they are still extremely useful and are a good way to get noticed and find out some more details about the company and their roles! If you do attend any events online with employers, consider the following:

• Turn your camera ON
• Dress appropriately and think of your background/surroundings and how these look and sound
• Use any ‘raise hand’ functions if you hope to talk and don’t want to interrupt anyone
• Similarly, to attending face-to-face events, have some good questions to ask pre-prepared
• Finally – talk and ask questions if you hope to get noticed!

Your autumn term will be a busy one, however, where possible plan your time well and schedule any employer events into your diary, as attendance could really pay off! Current WBS undergraduates can lookout for any events running on the careers tab of my.wbs and on my.advantage throughout the year.

Happy networking!