Stand and Deliver – graduate recruitment careers expo season


5th August 2016

August is a funny month. Not quite spring and not quite winter. All in all though it’s a long time since the autumn leaves were dropping and you were all consumed with the challenges of the graduate recruitment careers expo season.

We bet some of you are still wearing the battle scars. Racing from venue to venue. Arriving ten minutes before the doors open. Pulling up the banner stand. Setting up the table for the giveaway items. Looking desperately for the giveaway items? Oh no – where have the giveaway items disappeared to again? Sound familiar?

Angle limited photo of AUT ICT Careers Fair July 2016

Despite all of the challenges of being a careers expo road warrior for a month or so, the important thing to remember is that students are desperate to talk to you. There’s only so much they can research and find out about your company online. Meeting you at the careers expo is their chance to engage with your brand. And for you to impress them enough to want to make an application.

Angle limited photo of AUT ICT Careers Fair July 2016

At Angle we’ve got some tips to help you make the right impression with students at your next careers expo. And to help you stand out from the opposition.

1. Get rid of the table.

Nothing creates more of a barrier between you and the students than a table. Putting your give-away items in a nice dispenser and doing the same with your print collateral frees up the stand space to talk to students. And it forces your stand crew to, err, stand and talk. Nothing looks worse than crew that sits and talks.

2. Use lights

Careers halls are often gloomy on rainy autumn days. Invest in a cheap pair of low voltage lights to sit above your stand and you’ll literally stand out with instant impact.

3. Have the right mix of people on the stand

Students want to be able to talk to the right people. That usually means taking along a recent graduate (ideally from the uni where the event is being held) to answer questions about what the company and the graduate scheme are really like, and someone from the recruiting team who can answer detail questions about the recruitment process. In our opinion senior executives are far less useful because they can usually answer none of those kinds of questions!

4. Give students something to take away

Making sure that you have an appropriate give-away is a great way to build brand recall. Appropriate is the key word here. You want to give away a product that reinforces your campaign theme or message. We’re also strong believers in the role of print (sorry Siobhan!) as a recall device for students to further engage with your brand after the fair. Done well, a brochure can invoke extra senses to further reinforce your brand message.

Is there anything else that you think is a must have at a careers fair? We’d love to know more.

Please email us:

alastair@angle.co.nz

rob@angle.co.nz