Veliko Tarnovo, April 21 marks the closing date of the seventh edition of the Careers 2008 Forum, which took place in 8 university cities in Bulgaria. The 2008 Careers Forum sets up a record: a total of 179 companies from all over Bulgaria, and approximately 18 500 universities students took part in the biggest event for meeting employers and job seekers in Bulgaria. Academic representatives of the city of Bourgas also expressed their will to take part in the 2009 edition of Careers Forum as the ninth University City. Traditionally the Careers Forum serves as a meeting point of employers and young professionals and university students, helping the latter to find job or/and internship.
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Careers 2008 – Good Career, Good Life Forum in numbers:
| Participants: |
179 companies presented in 8 university cities (Careers 2007: Number of companies: 166). |
| Visitors: |
approximately 18 500 university students and young professionals (2007 visitors: 12 700). |
| Cities: |
| Sofia: |
126 companies presented at 152 forum-stands |
9 000 Visitors |
(2007: 121 companies, 5 000 visitors) |
| Varna: |
54 companies, 58 stands |
4 500 Visitors |
(2007: 56 companies, 3 500 visitors) |
| Blagoevgrad: |
25 companies, 25 stands |
900 Visitors |
(2007: 19 companies, 800 visitors) |
| Rousse: |
37 companies, 37 stands |
1 200 Visitors |
(2007: 23 companies, 1 000 visitors) |
| Svishtov: |
28 companies, 29 stands |
1000 Visitors |
| Plovdiv: |
48 companies, 49 stands |
900 Visitors |
(2007: 41 companies, 1 000 visitors) |
| Stara Zagora: |
15 companies, 15 stands |
250 Visitors |
(2007: 13 companies, 150 visitors) |
| Veliko Tarnovo: |
34 companies, 36 stands |
750 Visitors |
(2007: 31 companies, 1 300 visitors) |
Numbers and the scale of the event seem quite optimistic.
However, observations show that despite bigger opportunities for paid internships in various business sectors, young people show less interest then employers expect. Despite large scale event advertising, including Internet advertising, as well as presentations which JobTiger, and the Ministry of State Administration, and Nestle’s teams made, it was still rare to see students who were able to present an adequately prepared CV, or had a list of companies, who were of particular interest for them. We also could observe those well-known companies, offering clear and well-defined messages, as well as their branded stands, attract bigger attention. In this connection, there are many opportunities for employers to present and advertise their companies and job positions, such as planning and distribution of information beforehand for searching personnel, interns and part-time employees, and developing internship programs; developing a system for personnel training; company management’s trainings for working with interns, etc.
On the other hand we would recommend that job seekers invest more time and effort to become more enterprising, open, decisive, to plan and research more the professional opportunities that a certain professional field offers. They can do this with or without advice of career planning and HR advisers. This year’s forum made visible the importance of university career centers. The quality of their work as well as personal engagement of their staff influenced to a great extent the forum’s organizing and carrying out.
The forum’s organizers: JobTiger and the Ministry of State Administration and Administrative Reform would like to thank to the general sponsor Nestle Bulgaria AD, who has supported the event for fifth time now. We hope that our joint efforts will continue to be a factor for creation of a sustainable environment for professional development of young Bulgarians. We view the visitors and employers’ interest to 2008 Careers Forum as very satisfactory and do believe that we have contributed to raising chances of young Bulgarians for professional realization.
More detailed information and some statistics for the event could be found at
www.JobTiger.bg:
Participants:
http://www.jobtiger.bg/careers/2008/?mode=participants.
Visitors:
http://www.jobtiger.bg/careers/2008/?mode=statistics.
For additional information you could contact JobTiger’s team:
Tel.: (+359 2) 491 80 20, 21, 22;
E-mail:
office@jobtiger.bg.
