Spring 2022 Employment Fair: Looking Forward to Bright Careers
The Amerian University in Cairo's (AUC) Career Center hosted its fifth virtual Employment Fair on March 26, 2022, delivering yet another successful career event. The Employment Fair is a staple Career Center event held every semester, allowing students and alumni to connect with employers and grab available career opportunities. This year, more than 1000 people registered for the event, including more than 20 people who joined the event from abroad, and 70 plus companies were represented at the fair.
The opening remarks were given by Dalia Awad, executive director of the Career Center, who welcomed everyone to the 70th AUC Employment Fair, emphasizing how important and special this event is and has been throughout the years. Awad highlighted that AUC was the first university to ever host an Employment Fair in the Middle East.
The opening of the fair involved Provost Ehab Abdelrahman, who expressed his enthusiasm in witnessing yet another Employment Fair, albeit virtually and how the event is indeed beneficial and helpful in preparing students for their job search and future career, “students come hungry and graduate hungry for success and we have always told students that we prepare them for their last job, not their first job. He added, “we educate students to go out to the community and create jobs and solve problems, which is imminent of the Egyptian economy in the future.” Abdelrahman expressed his pride of the Career Center team for taking on the role of helping students’ careers from day one, “we make sure we provide an environment of learning and a plantation of self-learning.” He also assured “if we have learned anything from the last two years, it’s that we should always be agile and we are thus on the right track. During this time, we see AUC leaders everywhere because this is how we invest in them.”
The event was hosted through an all-encompassing vFAIRS online platform. Participants were able to apply to 1600+ career opportunities, for around 800 jobs and internships. Not only that, participants got an exclusive chance to reserve one-on-one chats with employers, allowing them to ask their questions and gain valuable insights from career professionals. The online appointments were very popular, with 800 reserved chats on the platform. Salma Tarek, a business administration senior, stated that the event was exactly what she needed to kickstart her job search and career journey “I’ve attended the virtual Employment Fair before but only focused on applying for internships. This year, I was more prepared and the tutorial video and sneak peek even helped more. I was able to get more out of the event, especially the opportunity to have one-on-one conversations with employers which were really beneficial to connect with professionals.”
On the other hand, our prestigious employers uttered their positive feedback regarding the fair. Anastasia Antoshina from Capiter expressed her appreciation of the opportunity to get in touch with AUC students and alumni and to filter the candidates and look for suitable talents. In addition, Eman Diab from the Egyptian Food Bank added, “We had a great prospect to brand our organization among AUC graduates”.
The event was well-received, managing to attract countless employers and job-seekers who were able to establish connections and apply for opportunities to kickstart their careers. The virtual employment fair has undoubtedly provided a roadmap for students to navigate the new world of work, to take risks, and cross over to the next chapter of their lives.