Over 2,000 students visited our fairs in weeks 2 and 4 this term – and we asked them what they thought.  Thank you to everyone who gave us feedback. We had lots of great comments from students who’d enjoyed the fair, and some concerns as well. Here’s a quick summary, together with our responses:

Space

You said: The fair was too crowded, it wasn’t easy to get around; this could be difficult for students with anxiety; the fair should be in a bigger space.

• We hold the fairs in the biggest venue on campus and as you’ve seen, they are popular with both students and employers.
• To avoid the crowds, it might help to arrive early or late on in the fair.
• We offered early access to students with disabilities and health conditions who might find accessing the fair difficult at a busier time.
• We will look at better ways of access and crowd management for next year.

“Good number and range of companies”    “The people on the stands were friendly and informative”

Fairs guide

You said: It would be helpful to have a guide listing the organisations attending; we would like a fair guide in advance; the guide should list companies in categories (rather than alphabetically); the guide should list the jobs companies are recruiting for.

• We produce a fair guide, available at the entrance to the fair, and on the fair web page a week in advance.
• If you’d still like to view the fair guides you can find them at: Law, Grad Jobs and Placements, Technology fair.
• We have tried different formats over the last few years and will review the content and format again for next year.

Organisations attending

“a total eye opener”       “need more fairs like this”      “great variety of stalls”

You said: The fairs were too corporate, with too much focus on finance and consultancy; we would like to see more R&D, engineering and manufacturing; there wasn’t much for Arts and Humanities; I wanted to see more on environment/counselling/media; I wanted more local companies.

• Employers at the fairs are generally organisations recruiting a large number of graduates – it’s great that they are particularly interested in recruiting from York!
• For some sectors, and for smaller organisations, recruitment happens in a different way.  You can find out more on our job sector pages and on Prospects website.
• A number of the organisations at the fairs have offices in Yorkshire/North East as well as London. We work closely with local organisations in our Internship Bureau – doing an internship can be a great way of exploring opportunities in the York area.

International students

You said: Employers should be more knowledgeable about placements and grad jobs for international students.

• The representatives at the fair should be able to talk knowledgeably about their organisation and roles available, but they are unlikely to be immigration experts and so will be cautious about having conversations about suitable jobs and visas.
• Our fairs information for international students gives some advice and useful links so you are prepared for your conversations with employers.

Don’t forget

There’s lots of information on our website about looking for graduate jobs and the recruitment process.  If you need more help, come and talk to us.