The main reason for me going to Gibraltar, was to try to find opportunities to live and work in the sun permanently. Such an opportunity came one Thursday evening, with a career fair the University of Gibraltar Business School were running, after classes. However this career fair was strange. It was strange from the beginning!
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| Work to live in Southern Europe. |
The University of Gibraltar sold me on their pitch, that because Gibraltar is a small place, it was easy for the university, and it's students to develop strong networks, and working relationships, with local businesses. So when I saw a career fair advertised on the Business Schools intranet, I was keen to attend. The Business School is the department in the university that run my course, which made me think that this career fair would be directly for me and my fellow students. However it was not. Reading the advert further, it turned out it was only for second year students (to speak with potential providers of summer internships), not first years like myself. |
| I'm a first year in the Business School. |
My friend Diego had also seen the advert, and was interested in attending. We decided to approach the head of the Business School, to ask if we could attend. It was the day of the event, so we went straight from class up to reception, and asked if we could speak to Anie, head of the Business School (as the name suggests an Irish migrant). We explained to Anie that we understood the event was for second years, but were keen to attend the event, if nothing else so we could get an idea of the opportunities open to us in second year. It was a bit strange to have to beg to go along to a careers event held by our own university, but Aine was happy for us to attend, as long as it was just the two of us. Presumably the event would be very busy, and we both felt lucky to be going along. |
| Ok, it was busier than this! |
After smartening up for the occasion at Europa Suites, Diego and I headed back to the university for the careers fair. I had never been to a career fair, having worked for the Scottish Government (in one form or another, including NRS) since I graduated from my first degree at Glasgow back in 2005. Diego told me about career fairs he had attended in America. He described a large hall, with tables all the way round the side of the hall, and each table having a company name clearly marked on it, and representatives of each company at that table to talk to students about the company. Diego said it was almost impossible to come away from a career fair in America without being offered a job, and felt confident we would be offered a job at the event we were attending. |
| I imagined it would be something a bit like this, but with students. |
The event was being held in the main hall, and as we walked in, it was clear Aine hadn't needed to worry about the numbers, as only a small cohort of students had attended. We were disappointed to learn that some of the businesses on the billing couldn't attend, such as Gibtelecom (which as I've said in an earlier chapter is Vodaphone, Sky and Virgin Media rolled into one). The event started with a slick presentation from one of the large online gaming (gambling!) companies in Gibraltar, which my friend Mel (who I had visited in La Linea) works for. Things went downhill after that though, as the 'networking' part of the event got under way. |
| Students or business representatives? |
The problem was, Diego and I had no idea who to network with, as we couldn't work out who represented the businesses, and who were the students. Diego asked one woman which business she worked for, only to find out she was a mature student, like me. Getting a drink, I started speaking to a fellow Scot. I thought he was a student, but he turned out to be from one of the finance companies invited. Diego and I eventually spoke to a number of businesses, by enquiring of practically everyone in the room, "are you a student or a business?". No one had business cards, these days exchanging contact information is all done on LinkedIn or by virtual business cards (no wonder you can never get a reply from companies these days!). Unfortunately, with the exception of the gaming company that presented, none of the companies even had an idea of the sort of opportunities they were going to offer students, if indeed they were going to offer any opportunities at all. Even the gaming company wasn't actively recruiting. Diego's prediction that we would walk out of the event with a job sadly didn't come true, so we consoled ourselves with something that was a certainty in Gibraltar - Fish and Chips!
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| Even business cards are now in the cloud. |
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