Have you ever thought about what goes into the organizing of the European Career Fair? Here is the first part of the story by one of our team-members, Markos Kiosseoglou:
“I was fortunate enough to have been part of the organizing committee of the 16th European Career Fair (ECF); a career fair that takes place annually at MIT University in Boston. The 2012 ECF was between the 21st and 23rd of January and having just settled down I wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with everyone.
I don’t really remember how I first heard about the ECF and the fact that they were looking to recruit new people. I now know that 70% of each year’s team is comprised by new members so it probably makes sense that I heard about it.
What I do remember is that it all started on a Tuesday in one of the last weeks of August 2011. It was the first team meeting, one of the many that would follow until January 21st 2012. Apparently, I was a stranger among strangers, in a unfamiliar environment (I had never had the chance – one can call it privilege – to walk on the infinite corridor of MIT looking for the right class to enter), and I really didn’t know what to expect.
But the Chairs (Katrin and Pallavi) along with the veteran team members (Chiara, Sven,Katya, Natasha and others) – student themselves from different Universities around Boston – knew exactly what they were doing, what was meant to happen and how the team would get there. All team members, being part of one or more different sub-teams (design, hotel, press etc) and at the same time responsible for inviting to the Fair a number of assigned companies were contributing (most of us without realizing it) to a perfectly and professionally organized Career Fair.
As time went by, Tuesday evenings for the ECF @ MIT became part of my weekly schedule. What was originally a bunch of strangers was slowly becoming a group of friends on a mission; to get companies (and candidates) to sign up for the fair. The question “how many companies signed up this week” was always a hot topic among us. And it was great to see the number rising week by week from 0 to 10 from 10 to 20 and eventually to more than a 100 and know that some of this is because of your own individual work.
Throughout the way it was always surprising to me how the old team members, even the ones who are not physically present, have managed to find a way to transfer their wisdom and experiences from one year’s team to the next… (to be continued)”
Watch out for the second part of the story next week!
European Career Fair @ MIT 