RightFIT Workshops at Career Days – Jobhunting in 2020

By participating in the Career Days project, organized by the University of Bucharest on December 2nd-6th, the RightFIT team wanted to share, briefly, within the workshops held during the event, useful and important information both at the beginning of the career and later on in the professional life. Thanks to the Career Counseling and Guidance Department of the University of Bucharest, the teachers who were enthusiastic and open towards this initiative, as well as the management of the university and the faculties within it, this wish was fulfilled over several days.

On this occasion we had the pleasure of talking to over 160 participants in four days, by organizing workshops in seven faculties. Although small, our team compensated by openness and willingness to contribute to the development of young people. Thus, the team made up of Adrian (Managing Partner), Ilinca (HR & Marketing Partner) and Mihai (Talent Partner) managed to cover a large number of

workshops and to deliver relevant information within each one of them.

Thus, we had the opportunity to talk not only with students in the bachelor’s degree cycle, but also with master’s students. We provided, in a clear way, the information that we did not have the opportunity to find during our studies, but which we discovered in time, through experience and through the participation in specialized courses. We consider that it would have been very valuable to receive this information sooner, so we were pleased to talk to the students of the University of Bucharest about topics that are less addressed in the educational institutions, such as:

  • How to identify the career that suits you;
  • How to know what resources you have when looking for a job;
  • How to you figure out what you want to do;
  • What skills you have and how they can be applied in the job you want;
  • The impact of personal interests, values and personal beliefs on your future career.

In addition to these particularly relevant topics, we sought to point out some essential information about the most commonly encountered myths in the employment process, which part of each of these myths is true, which is false, and why this is the current situation. Other information related to the impact of a CV, how we write it, what it should contain and how we choose the right format; why it is good to have profiles on professional networks as well as platforms dedicated to finding jobs; what role do the cover letter, the letter of thanks and communication with the employer have, and, last but not least, how do we know that we want to work for a particular company.

During the workshops we chose to give students the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a recruiter by creating interactive exercises, where they had the opportunity to look over a series of fictional CVs and to determine who they would hire, for what position, who they would not hire and why. Thus, they had the opportunity to look at the CVs from the position of an employer, with a critical and demanding vision, observing what stands out.

A very important element to keep in mind is that not only the students learned new things, but did too because we have found out what their concerns about a future career are, what vision they have regarding the labor market in the present and how they see its evolution, what shortcomings do they think they have and here could educational institutions or private companies help them prepare.

As expected, given that our purpose was to clarify any concerns the students had, we were able to identify those recurring information gaps in terms of amount of information that is being provided to young people. Among the most common curiosities addressed by students are:

  • How they can find out if they want to work for a certain employer;
  • How they can be efficiently informed before an interview;
  • How they can create relationships with resource people (networking);
  • How they can react when they are asked uncomfortable questions;
  • Which is the best policy when participating in an interview.

We met such possible problems with varied information that allowed us to offer the sincerest advice and the most comprehensive answers we could offer during the time we had available.

We have considered not only the provision of simple and tangible solutions (sites in Romania and abroad that allow them to make a comparison between companies and in which the opinions of the employees can be found regarding the companies in which they have been active; how they can start to build a network of resource people starting from the classroom), but also more abstract solutions (change of perspective, use of internal resources, treating experiences as ideal learning environments etc.).

Our gift for students who want to start the journey towards finding the ideal job is the opportunity to participate in career counseling sessions, a service offered to them, pro-bono, by RightFIT in order to develop the labor market in Romania and to help talented young people to become what they want to be.

We are very happy that we have been able to sustain these interactive courses and we wish to repeat these actions in the future, addressing as many colleges in Bucharest as possible, so that we can help as many young people as possible to start their professional life on the right foot.

We wish you a happy holiday and a successful career path!

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