Festival of Careers 2013 Preparation

Today I went to a session at university regarding being prepped for the Festival of Careers 2013. Having gone to a prep session last year, I was disappointed to see no Geology companies. Having listened to feedback, this year CGG will be visiting the University of Leicester on 7^th November on the Engineering, Science and IT day.

Today I have learnt that there are 400,000 graduates from UK universities every year. I was quite surprised to hear that for every graduate role, a company receives on average 85 applications. Whether or not 85 had the desired qualities, this still shows the competitiveness graduates are now facing and how it is vital to now stand out in a crowd.

My objectives of attending the careers festival this year will be primarily to make contacts with companies that appeal to my interests – I will primarily be researching the geological companies first, but will keep my horizons open as I never know what the future entails. I hope to gain an insight into the company, their culture and asking the representative what made them want to join.

According to Albert Mehrabian, when engaging, your visual appearance makes up 55% of your first impressions of someone, followed by 38% vocal, and lastly, which was quite surprising as I would expect it to be the most important, verbal with a mere 7%. I was shocked that 93% of what influences someone’s like or dislike of them is non-verbal. This has influenced me to approach this situation seriously, in what I wear, how I stand, how I pitch my voice – as this ultimately will influence how an employer perceives me.

As well as researching the companies that are visiting this year’s career festival, I will begin to compile questions which have sparked my interest, as well as make an appointment with the Careers Development Service to see my gaps which I may need to improve on within my transferable skills prior to the festival.