The Fashion Network Recruitment Fair

I attended The Fashion Network Recruitment Fair at Twenty-Twenty in Manchester on Wednesday 25th October, the event started at 2pm and finished at 6pm and I have to say it was the most valuable event I've been to so far this year. There were stands of brands such as Boohoo, Monsoon, Matalan, and JD as well as recruitment agencies such as Forward Role Recruitment.

I was finding the whole process and thought of graduating a bit daunting if I'm honest time has gone so fast and it's crazy to think this time next year I'll be a graduate does scare me a little. However, yesterday's event really helped give my mind a bit of ease. It was lovely being a room with such creative people and talking to people who are currently in fields I am looking to go into, hearing their experiences was really helpful.

I also attended four of the talks each one was led by someone from a different university and then a brand would give their input from an insiders point of view. The talks I attended were:

How to represent yourself on social media?

• Which involves having a strong presence on social media yourself, for example, a strong Instagram presence and ensuring you also use the platform to showcase your personality.
• Making sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and online.
• Utilising websites and blogs to showcase your work and other skills outside of your degree

Professionalism at Work (Settling into a new job)

This one was really reassuring, we were told to not worry about asking too many questions and that it's better to ask rather than spending hours struggling on your own as sometimes you worry you are burdening people when asking out too many questions.  

They reminded us to smile and that HR can be a good support team when starting a new job. 

Making internships work for you

• Cv as creative as possible to make you stand out.
• Any experience will always help even if it is not directly what you want to do later on down the line as the skills are transferable.
• Make contacts now whilst being at university. 

Finding an internship

• Stand out!
• Approach small businesses/ companies

Advice:

• Make the most out of every opportunity
• Be yourself
• Ask questions when on internship
• Find the right website to look at
• Don't give up when searching for an internship

Commercial Awareness

What is commercial awareness?

Being aware of a companies figures, their products, and their competition. The best thing is to do plenty of research into the job role you are applying for as well as thorough research into the company.

I am so thankful I was able to attend this event, and I'm grateful for all of the advice I received and all the people I spoke to.