The NAO graduate blog has asked Rob Senior from our HR department to tell us more about the annual tour of graduate careers fairs – and that slightly strange photo box…
For four weeks between October and November each year, my HR colleagues and I as well as numerous volunteers from around the office hit the graduate careers fair circuit. If you’ve ever seen the NAO’s ‘Big On’ stand at a fair before, you’ll know that we like to do things a little differently; no mouse mats or free pens here. Instead we give you the opportunity to pose inside our ‘Big On box’ in exchange for a photograph and a free T-shirt. If this sounds slightly strange, well… I guess it is, but students at the fairs seem to love it (last year we took 1,346 photos!). Check out the pics if you don’t believe me and admire some of the more adventurous poses.
This year we’ll be attending 11 fairs; from Newcastle in the north to London in the south and various places in between. We opened up with Warwick Uni on Tuesday and we’re at the National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition at Olympia in London today. Warwick was a great event with hundreds of students visiting our stand, many of them walking away with a much better understanding of what we do and some helpful advice on the application process. Judging by Louisa’s (our HR grad recruitment advisor) hoarse voice the following day, she wasn’t short of people to speak to!
These events are a great chance to ask employers questions about their schemes and find out from people who have been on graduate programmes what it’s really like to work in those organisations. I encourage you to make the most of these opportunities and if we’re at a university near you please do come along to our stand and say hello. As for me, I’ll be at the Diversity Careers Show in London on 18 October and the Accountancy and Financial Services Fair Oxford on 24 October (spot me – I’m the guy at the back right on the picture above!). I look forward to seeing some of you on the stand… and in the box…