The job fair

 

For two days, starting at the 8th of September until the 9th of September, the job fair took place at the gymnasium. Many different companies participated and hundreds of students visited, almost every person carrying a paper bag with something inside. For the Chung-Ang Herald to find out what kind of activities were going on, we interviewed participating students and human resource directors of various companies.

Like the picture on the left, there were hundreds of people walking, people getting advice, asking questions – the whole place was very crowded with people, all sniffing out information which would help get a job, or providing that information. “We’re consulting students about how one gets a job in this company, what kind of work one would get entitled to and etc. There are many different recruitment sectors and we tell the students on how they can make use of their expertise when they are hired,” says a human resource director from a Doosan company. It turned out that not only the students expected something from the job fair, but also the companies were expecting much more than the students would have expected. “Many people come to job interviews not really knowing what kind of things they would have to face if they were to be hired. It would be a nice change if students would at least know what kind of products we produce and what kind of company we are,” he continued.
People could think that job fairs are a waste of time where the information they provide is all on the internet. However, there are many things that one cannot know via the internet or even brochures. “The internet usually just provides job seekers information about how many people they pick. But we provide the things that job seekers are really curious about. For instance, work intensity, the working atmosphere and anything that we can tell straight from difference. The difference with just surfing the net is huge you see,” said another human resource director from Doosan company. So it might be a nice idea for job seekers to ‘seek’ some more job fairs in the future.
             This is not a statement made by just the influence of the job fair participating companies. “The advice that I received is really helpful. I got to know companies that I didn’t know that well and got much information that would usually be hard-to-get. If the company wasn’t that well-known, I could get information in very personal things so that was really nice,” said a student from the school of mass communication. “There was a company that I didn’t know that well, but I got to know it much better and I began to have interest in it. That was Bing-gu-re. I loved the fact that it was completely gender-equal and that one could show their competence,” she continued.
Students who came to the job fair also had something to advice to future job-seekers. “If there is one thing that I believe would help the most in getting a job would be intern experience. Experiencing the job beforehand is very important. The fact that you have something concrete to add to your work experience is something that you can definitely rely upon. Also, if you want to appeal to the interviewee, you need to know as much possible about what you are going to face once you get the job. If you don’t have any intern experience, it would make it difficult to distinguish you from a person who had just searched the internet,” said another student from the school of mass communication. It turned out that even great grades in university – which every students are craving for - didn’t even stand a chance against intern experience.
             Facing the difficulties of being jobless is something that almost everyone has to face in the future. The economy will always have its ups and downs, and even the most stable jobs could have a leak. For those of you who are still having difficulties, or might have difficulties in the future, perhaps the job fair is the ideal place to get a leg-up on getting a new job.
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