GradIreland Summer fair

Dymo

Just wondering has anyone been at any of these Grad Ireland Fairs and is there any point? there's one next Wednesday and I am contemplating going to this one.

I went to the Career Zoo and that was a waste of time, effort and money and was only Booths with people telling you to apply to their website, there was no decision makers there only people that were roped in for the day to do some PR work for the company.

Just don't want to waste my day again as I would have to travel a bit to get there.

I'm an IT grad if that's of any benefit and I don't have 5+ years of experience, nor able to code in 10 langues including the the most obscure ones. as seems to be the requisite these days.

freeze4real

I'm also pondering if I should go or not. There's one this Wednesday.

xOxSinéadxOx

Wondering the same meself, anybody who's been before have some insight?

skeleton_boy

I would also appreciate some feedback to commit to traveling to it from Kerry.

ElektroToad

I was initially tempted to go but I changed my mind once I saw the list of organizations that will be attending; nearly all of them are universities or professional bodies. Grand if you want further education - but if you want jobs I wouldn't waste my time as I only see a small handful of companies that will be there. See for yourselves:

http://gradireland.com/events/57016?tab=exhibitor-list#tabs-start

The big companies only seem interested in the GradIreland Fair that is held usually sometime during October which is when they start their big recruitment drives college graduates in their final year of study.

Froggy123

I went last year, and to be honest it wasn't great in terms of potential job opportunities! The main stands where for accountancy (with stands that had information on ACA, ACCA and CIMA) and also for postgraduate courses. Most of the jobs on offer where for things related to business related degrees. (I'd say overall there where max 20 stands if that).

There where a lot of good talks on building your CV and how to do up your linkedin profile and how to approach the job market.

One of the main reasons i went was for the CV clinic, unfortunately I didnt realise you had to make an appointment for the CV clinic in the morning, so if your going and you want someone to look over your CV make sure you head their first because all the places where filled by the time i got there(I went to talks to avoid the morning queue...)

Dymo

ElektroToad wrote: »

http://gradireland.com/events/57016?tab=exhibitor-list#tabs-start

Looking at that list, I'm not going to bother it's only colleges and some companies doing a PR exercise, waste of time like the Career ZOO, which had a better lineup with Twitter and Microsoft and they were just showing off their own products and giving the address of their website to apply too.

starlit

I was thinking of going to this but changed my mind have other plans that day but it might not be worth the hassle traveling to it! I would only go if there were more IT companies that be there on the day or for future fairs. Are the seminars any good for those that went to grad ireland fair before?

longhalloween

It was fairly useless, unless you're a marketing graduate with a 2.1 or higher.

Guybrush Threepwood

To be honest I found very little benefit in it. Far too many post grad study stands, not enough recruiters for Ireland (One in particular that was there I will never use as I found the man representing them to be very ignorant) and none of the major companies offering graduate programmes were there (baring Lidl and Smyths). I used the CV clinic and it was good, the girl I spoke to was lovely. Went to a seminar on interview skills and found it too directed at people who had never been in an interview before (but I suppose that's fair enough).
I'm glad it was a free event because I would have been disappointed if I had paid for it (I was already disappointed that I paid €6 on parking)