Why do so many careers fairs take place in the Autumn?
Simple: it’s when larger organisations’ graduate recruitment schemes are open for applications and they want to engage with as many potential candidates as possible. If an organisation is seeking to take several candidates on at the same time, it makes sense to gain exposure and raise awareness, before the application deadline:
The good news is that although you’ve graduated, you are just as eligible to apply to most graduate schemes as current final year students (indeed, we’ve heard of graduates who have applied successfully to grad schemes with some companies over five years after graduating). This means that you could benefit from attending some of the fairs at the University of Bristol this Autumn, to meet recruiters, find out more about them and their roles, what they’re seeking in their ideal candidates and decide whether or not they appeal to you.
What can I do?
You can find out about our careers fairs as well as all our other employer events through the events dashboard on mycareer and the events page on our website. This Autumn’s fairs include:
- Law Exhibition (10 Oct)
- Employer Showcase (8 Oct and 15 Oct)
- Engineering and Tech Exhibition (9 Oct and 16 Oct)
- Careers in Education (22 Oct)
- Careers with a Science Degree (30 Oct)
It can always be helpful to research which employers are going to attend a fair before you decide if you’d like to go. By downloading the Career Fair Plus app to your mobile, you can see who will be at our events and learn more about what they’re offering.
If you can’t attend one of our careers fairs, remember that there are other fairs you might be able to attend. The Prospects website maintains a list of open days and events. If you live some distance from Bristol, you could also approach your local universities to find out when their fairs are and if they welcome graduates from other institutions.
Whilst the Autumn careers fairs focus on the bigger recruiters, remember that the largest proportion of organisations in the UK are SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and many of these recruit throughout the year. If you’d prefer to work for one of these, you can find some amazing opportunities every day on mycareer.
If you would really like to come to one of our fairs, but are find it challenging, please do contact us and we’ll see if there is anything that we can do to help.
We hope to see you this Autumn!