UKM Career Expo 2015

By : Justin Tan

UKM Career Expo 2015 was pretty awesome, eh? Ever wondered what is it like behind the scenes? Well, today you’re going to find out a little about it.

Hello everyone, I’m Justin Tan, the Head of Employer Department in UKM Career Expo 2015. First of all, I have to say that Head of Employer Department is a very weird name as everytime I mention it to a working adult, they’ll be like “Head of what….? Employer? Why is it called Head of Employer?” So naturally, after a while I stopped mentioning my position and just say that I’m the person in charge to liaise with every company.

Let me go back to the first meeting of UKM Career Expo 2015, as Fatin (Project Director of UKM Career Expo 2015) and abang Chang Ee was going through the details of each department and so on, from that moment itself I knew what I wanted as I have already envisioned what was going to happen. Then Dayang said to me, “Justin amik head of marketing pastu Dayang jadi deputy okay?” but a few minutes later we were unsure to take Head of Employer or Head of Marketing. I ended up taking Head of Employer while she went under Marketing.

First few weeks was tough. Blasting out a lot of emails and 80-90% of the time, I wouldn’t get a response. I remember one of the meeting in late February,

Abang Chang Ee: “Justin, how many confirmed companies do we have now?”
Me: “We have 12 confirmed companies right now and more than 10 potential companies to join us”
Abang Chang Ee: “So we have about less than 2 months to find another 30 companies”

I wouldn’t lie, during that time I felt a little demotivated and started to wonder what if I can’t fill up all the booths in the hall. Then we blasted out and started doing calls for the second batch of companies with the help of my team members Fasihah, Syikin, Thessa and Hanani. Thankfully, some companies agreed to join.

We only managed to fill up all the booths a week before the event. In fact, there were a few companies who got rejected by us in the end. Mainly because they were insurance companies. Honestly, I have no problems with insurance companies unless their sole purpose of joining the event is to sell insurance and to recruit insurance agent, then I wouldn’t want it to happen. That is why I was rather mad when I saw how aggressive a few companies with trying to sell their product/recruit students during UKM Career Expo 2015 but nevertheless, if there’s a UKM Career Expo 2016, that will never happen. I rather have empty booths than to have these companies spoiling our good name.

Moving on, I am extremely grateful to Maybank for their kind generosity to take up the Platinum Sponsorship package worth RM15,000. Dealing with Maybank taught me how important it is to be very detailed and to be always prepared for any question. But in the end, Maybank was extremely pleased with the turnout and the response they have gotten during the expo. In fact, they are planning to conduct their Maybank Go Ahead Challenge 2015 in UKM because of how many applications they received (shhh, it’s supposed to be kind of a secret)

Personally I am a little bit sad that not many students took the opportunity to impress the present companies during our expo. I believe the platform we have provided is better than applying for jobs through online as most companies actually sent their recruiters. Maybe we can shoulder some of the blame as we should have conducted workshops on how to prepare for an interview, to write a proper CV and how to groom as well. Lesson learnt!

Last but not least, I have to mention that as a team we grew fond of each other with every meeting held and every activity or problem that we faced together. We started out as a group of people where we are like strangers to each other but in the end, we worked out butts off as a group of friends.

To wrap things up, I have a little piece of advice for everyone who have managed to read till this far. Work on your English if you plan to work in private sector, be brave and bold, be outspoken and always remember this, “Don’t fight for jobs. Make EMPLOYERS fight for YOU.” Recruiters can spot talent in a glance of an eye, and every company wants fresh graduates who can be an asset, not a liability.

Hugs to all,
Justin