Good Vibe at Business and Career Expo

“The career expo was a really easy way to make contact with a lot of employers, so it was very useful to attend,” says AUT Master of Supply Chain Management student Dewi Muliyati.
She was one of over 600 students that took advantage of the large gathering of 50plus employers at the business and law career expo yesterday.

Dewi went prepared. She had drawn up a list of employers at the expo that she would like to work for and made sure she approached each one.
“I found out about internship and graduate opportunities that would be available when I graduate later in the year. There are a lot but the graduate programme numbers were quite small which is good to know,” she says.

Friend Kevin Baskara, who is also studying supply chain management, says he went to the career expo to get insights into the companies he’d like to work for.
“I’m not familiar with how New Zealand companies work and I learned a lot from talking to representatives about roles and career options within their companies,” he says.

Law Career Expo third year law students Pretti Rani and Lovey Kaur (left) also wanted to find out about potential employers.
“I wanted to learn what companies were looking for in graduates and what they expected on a CV and cover letter,” says Lovey.

She was surprised at how friendly and accessible the people were that she talked with.
“They weren’t hard to talk to at all, they were just like us.”

Pretti was keen to find out more about applications for clerkships.
“The message was to be yourself and include extracurricular activities in your CV and show your personality.”

Employers happy too

Foodstuffs recruitment partner IT Amy Varcoe says she had great interactions with students during the expo.
“There is very good talent out there. We’re having very smart conversations,” says Amy, adding that students were particularly interested in the Foodstuffs internship that runs from November to February each year.

PwC financial analyst Frank Leng was losing his voice when I spoke to him, a good indication of how many students were keen to connect.  
“We’ve had a steady stream of students who are eager to know more about us. They’re asking good questions to work out what area of our business they could fit into and what internship and graduate programmes are available.”

Getting out and meeting students and becoming better known was a big part of why ezyVet had a stand at the expo, says ezyVet implementation consultant Luke Pierce (right).
“I’m loving the atmosphere. We have many interns hired from AUT who are making quite an impact on the engineering and data team side of our company.”

Want help to prepare for employer events and career expos?

The Employability and Careers team offer lots of workshops to help students wanting to show their best face at employer events. These include workshops on networking and elevator pitch (introductions), CV, cover letter and LInkedIn profile writing, as well as job search.

Go to our online portal, Elab Online to find out about workshops and one-on-one appointments and other resources. Workshops and appointments are also offered online.

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