The Autumn Graduate and Placement Fair is the largest university careers fair in the UK. Here are two steps that can specifically help you as an international student to make the most of this event:
1) Review which employers are attending and what steps you’d need to take
The fair brochure with details of all attending employers is now available –
If you are looking for opportunities in the UK and need a visa there is an exhibitors list which includes if companies are UKVI registered, and say if they sponsor Tier 2 and/or Tier 5 visas. The advice we would give is to use this more as a guide to what steps you would need to take to work there – for example, if they a company you are interested in doesn’t isn’t UKVI registered, that doesn’t mean you can’t work there, it would just take about 4 months for them to get registered. If they do not sponsor visas, you could ask why – for example, their jobs might not meet the minimum salary requirements for a Tier 2 visa. Please note that in many instances the people you speak to won’t be the experts on visas, so if that if is the case you can ask for contact details of someone at the company you could speak to about finding out more..
If you are looking for opportunities in another country, many of the companies at the fair are multinational. While the company representatives present may not know explicitly about opportunities abroad, you can still learn a lot of information about the company that can be used in future applications by asking them good questions.
2) Attend Prepare for the Fair – Wed 17th Oct
Every year the Careers Network run a workshop called ‘Prepare for the Fair‘ to help you learn about using social and face-to-face networking, before, during and after the fair. This includes going through a through a calendar of steps on how you can connect with your chosen employers prior to the event and then, once at the fair, how you can gain answers to your questions whilst impressing at the same time.
For more details and to book your place, click here.
– Christian Jameson-Warren
