Exhibitor Area: Making the most of the fair

Coming onto campus is an investment of your time and money. Naturally, you want to make the most of it and have good conversations that lead to successful applications. Get your delegates to take a moment to read through our tips on who you’ll meet and what you can do to make the most of the fair.

Come along to our informal info session on the day

11:45 - Making the Most of the Fair

Join us for a coffee in the exhibitor refreshment area at 11.45am for a 15 minute briefing on making the most of the fair. Come for an informal chat over tea and coffee with Careers Service staff. We’ll tell you a bit more about which students are likely to be coming to the Fair, what they might ask and what you might want to think about in terms of next steps after the Fair. If you can’t make it to our information session, please keep reading for an overview on who you are likely to meet at this event.

Who am I going to meet at this event?

In previous years this event has welcomed over 600 students, and we are hoping to attract a similar audience this year. The event is open to students from any subject background and at any stage in their course.  We can’t predict exactly who will attend, but we are hoping for a range of STEM and non-STEM backgrounds – based on previous years we would expect around a third from our School of Informatics, one third from other STEM disciplines and one third non-STEM students. 

We expect a good mix of post-graduate and under-graduate students; last year 56% were UGs and 44% PGs.  You can expect around a third of the students you meet to be PGT students; last year this was the largest group by level of study.

Typically the spread of UG year groups attending is quite even - years 1-4 each making up 12-14%. This means that early year UGs (year 1-3) make up around 40% of attendees.

We anticipate a male attendance of 55 – 65% and a female attendance of 35-45%.  

We are promoting the event to students as a chance for them to challenge their thinking on what a career in tech can cover.  We are delighted to have such a variety of organisations attending, and we want students to use the event to find out more about the wide range of possibilities that come under the banner of “a tech career”.

We are proud to have a very diverse student population – our international students make up over 46% of our student population and come from 167 countries. 33.8% are from non-EU countries and you may find they have questions about visas, so give thought as to how you will handle these enquiries on the day. Recruiting international students can be easier than you think. Read through our guidance and familiarise yourself with your organisation’s procedures.

We provide a useful insight into our student body on our website – it is worthwhile reading this to get a feeling for the range of students you may meet.

Preparation you can do

We encourage students to prepare for the fair by researching the organisations who are attending. We also share some of the information you provided on your booking form.  Realistically though, we know that some students will not have done as much preparation as others – but they may still be great potential candidates for you.  You can make the most of your interactions with students by:

• Familiarising yourself with your organisation’s processes regarding sponsorship of international students. Are you sure you can’t sponsor? You will really widen your pool of potential candidates and it is easier than you think.  Read through our guidance and review the exemptions.
• Being prepared to answer a wide range of questions - even if your main aim is to talk to students relevant for your graduate level roles, early year students may still ask you advice on what they can be doing now to enhance their applications later.  Given around 40% of attendees are likely to be from years 1-3 this is a great opportunity to build your brand for the future.
• Talking about opportunities you have currently, but also giving students a general picture of how your organisation recruits - so that they understand how they can increase their chances of finding roles you may have in the future.  
• Talking on a personal level – be prepared to share detail of your own career path, and give real life examples of what you/your colleagues are working on.  The benefit of the face-to-face communication at this event is to allow students to get a level of insight that may not be possible from your website.  
• Being mindful of jargon – the level of technical expertise of attendees will vary so we would encourage you to consider that use of acronyms or jargon may be off-putting – we’d ask for your help in supporting as many students as possible to feel like a future in tech may be an option for them.