Petaling Jaya, 20 September 2017 – Over 1,000 jobs were snapped up at the HRINCAMPUS’s Intercampus Career Fair 2017, the largest fair of its kind in Malaysia. Held at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre from 8-9 September, the fair, now in its fifth year running, was open to members of the public for the first time. 8,000 students, graduates and young working adults were seen networking like busy bees and exploring ideal career opportunities with some of the country’s most sought after employers. Yup, you read that right – some of the country’s MOST SOUGHT AFTER employers.
If you’re starting to hate yourself a little for missing out on the fair, we must warn you; it gets worse. Designed to better meet the needs of the current generation of graduates and job seekers, the Intercampus Career Fair 2017 featured more than 100 of the country’s Top Employers, some of which included big names such as Maybank, Sunway Group, AIA Shared Services and Cognizant, amongst others. Visitors to the fair were also treated to a host of exciting activities and mini-contests where winners walked away with a total of RM15,000 worth in prizes! A job fair that could potentially get you employed by some of the top guns AND gives away prizes? Holy coyote!
“The Intercampus Career Fair 2017 goes beyond conventional career fairs as it allows students to ‘shop’ for their ideal careers and employers, and have fun while doing it. On top of giving Malaysia’s talents access to their preferred employers, students and job seekers could also take advantage of the fair’s special programmes to make informed decisions and choose their career paths independently according to their disciplines, interests and abilities. This unique aspect to the event certainly proved to be a huge success with students and job seekers,” says Founder & CEO of HRINCAMPUS, Ben Ho.
Organised by HRINCAMPUS, an award-winning integrated HR platform specialised in graduate recruitment and employer branding, the Intercampus Career Fair was initiated in 2012 as an intervarsity job fair held within university campuses. This year marks the first time it opened its doors to all members of the public, to facilitate networking and employment opportunities for an even broader spectrum of talents and employers. Alongside its specially designed programmes, the fair added yet another dimension to the job seeking process by giving students and job seekers the opportunity to glean invaluable insights from experienced professionals across various industries, to further guide them in their career selection.
Mentor Hot Seats, a staple session at the annual fair was one of the highlighted programmes at the Intercampus Career Fair 2017. Under the programme, students and job seekers were able to pre-select their preferred mentors from a range of industries for a 1-on-1 chat to learn from their experience and discuss career options. Talents also had the opportunity to conduct practice interview sessions to boost their skills and confidence, and obtain resume tips and feedback. Wow. Amongst the mentors who were there to inspire the students were Allan Phang (AirAsia), Ee Lynn Tee (Sime Darby), Amir Amha (Google), Daniel Loy (Petrosains), Nicole Chin (Leo Burnett) and Brian Tan (FUTURELAB).
“The response to the Mentor Hot Seats has been great! Many young people these days have a lot of ideas about what they want to do, but are unsure of how to execute them. A number of them were also very interested in creating something new instead of joining a company, like Mark Zuckerberg. I hope they found my experience and advice useful, and look forward to seeing them turn their dreams into reality,” enthused CEO and Co-founder of FUTURELAB, Brian Tan.
What’s different about this year’s event was the introduction of new initiatives such as the Startup Career Fair and Entrepreneur’s Hub, to further help attendees maximise their time at the event. The Startup Career Fair is catered for talents with more creative inclinations, who are looking for alternatives to corporate careers.
You see, if you were one of those creative, free-spirited types and looking for a different pathway apart from the conventional (psst, boring!) corporate lifestyle, you could have scored some opportunities there!
Through the Startup Career Fair initiative, talents had the opportunity to meet with representatives from 28 startup companies, to learn more about their modus operandi and the startup industry as a whole. Numerous eligible candidates were also successful in securing interviews with several startups. Wohoo! Go millennials!
Entrepreneurs or future/self made entrepreneurs were also delighted to find a platform where they could meet and mingle with each other at the Entrepreneur’s Hub. The hub addressed some of the main challenges of entrepreneurship, and facilitated information sharing and knowledge exchange between participants.
For eager beavers wanting to work overseas, the Working in Singapore initiative would have certainly proved to be a crowd pleaser at the Intercampus Career Fair 2017. 15 Singaporean companies such as Singapore Airlines and Careerstar were present to meet with interested candidates and working professionals to tell them more about the career opportunities and growth in Singapore. Wah-lao!
If all of this information is simply too much to bear for the poor “lost and confused souls” who really don’t know what is next in terms of career alternatives upon graduating, the event organized a free Career Interest Profiling; to assess attendees’ skills, values, interests, personality traits and other background information in order to help them choose a suitable career option. I don’t know about you guys, but our mouths are wide open.
Other highlights include a free LinkedIn portrait shoot to boost attendees’ professional online presences; as well as HRINCAMPUS’ very own product, Intern2U.com that promotes a smoother and simpler internship recruitment and application process for students and employers.
Sharing her experience, Teoh Jia Yi, a 23 year-old student at International Medical University (IMU) shared, “The fair is really cool! I thought I was only going to pursue something related to my subject, but now I have more than 3 options across different industries. I’m heading back with a better focus, especially after my Mentor Hot Seats session. One thing I’ve learnt is that we must be open to explore and willing to try new things. Don’t limit yourself!” Good for you, girl.
In the same vein, Ahmad Zahir, 24, said, “The Intercampus Career Fair 2017 is very different from other fairs I’ve attended. It’s very complete. I’ve learnt not to be shy to ask and have gained the confidence to express myself. I’ve also narrowed down my career options and, with this renewed focus, I now know where I want to go.” The sky’s the limit for a very inspired Ahmad Zahir.
So, if you’re not already slumped in an isolated corner, regretting your recent life decisions for not joining this awesome event, fret not! According to Ben Ho, “HRINCAMPUS is always working to add on to the range of programmes and activities to be featured at the Intercampus Career Fair. We are already planning for the next big event sometime in April 2018, where we will be bringing in even more top corporations and initiatives for attendees. I urge everyone to look out for the announcement soon!”
Future employees and fresh graduates, do not miss this highly anticipated opportunity. It’s your time to shine. Go forth and conquer the world!
