Business Forum, opportunity fair

The meeting is “also an opportunity to make students know more about the possibilities in the research fields offered in centres such as IQTCUB” says Francesc Illas, Director of The Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the University of Barcelona (IQTCUB), one of the fourteen own institutes of the University. In this yearʼs Forum there has been the participation of 102 companies, entities and research centres.

According to the companies point of view: “high attendance and great résumés”, this is how Raquel García, responsible for the Human Resources selection in the company Giesecke & Devrient (GyD) , thinks of her experience in the Forum. García also thinks that regarding different ways to seek staff “the forum enables us to get closer to the students, promote our company and encourage people who are still studying and deciding on their future”. “What we are looking for are students scientific-technology degree students, hard-working and with learning abilities”, concludes.

First future job experience

This company, which is growing in the computer safety field, collected more than 20 résumés in this forumʼs last edition. Six of these résumés ended up being internships and these people eventually became part of the company staff. The physic Víctor Machado is one of these students who -last year- while he collaborated in the forumʼs organization as an apprentice, got the contract which he says to be “his future first job”. This year, he has come back to the Forum to tell about his experience to other interested students. Machado says that even though he is not in charge of typical physics-related tasks, what has been very useful to him is “the way they make you think during the years of the degree”, which has given him skills to adapt to multiple situations as well as problem-solving skills.

Marta Baldrís, graduate in Physics and with a Masterʼs degree in Electronic Engineering, was another of the students who -thanks to the Forum- got her first job experience in GyD, from which she highlights the great atmosphere and treatment. Regarding the Forum, she says it is “a way to compare different companies at the same time. You can see what they ask for and mostly if their staff believe in what they do”. Regarding the studies, Marta says she would have liked to study some course “focused on business management or physics applied to employment”, a course which is already included in engineering studentʼs curriculum.

Another successful case is Xavier Montoroʼs, who participated in the 2015 edition- the year when he finished his Computer Engineering degree, and now he has been working for 8 months with a labour contract in the consulting company Enzyme, thanks to the contract he got at the Forum. He remembers that “the day of the event I did not have a great résumé ready so I asked the companies for their email addresses in order to send them the résumé later”. Xavier advises the participating students to hand in as many résumés as possible and says that “before handing in the résumé it is very important to know about the company and the profile they are looking for, the amount of workers they have, their successful events, etc.” “But the most important -he says- is to have fun and learn about the offers that the companies of your areas give”.

Meeting point

This year, it has been for the students, like Irene García and Jaume Ateca- students in the 4th year of the Electronic Engineering and Telecomunications bachelor degree. They are looking for a work placement contract which lets them combine work and studies. This has been their first contact with the companies and they think they are offered a great image of the businesses related to their field.

Núria López, who has recently finished her Masterʼs degree in Environmental Engineering, after visiting the Student Support Servicesʼ stand asking for advice on her résumé, has been looking for information in several companies and research centres of her field in order to see possible future options. “The main expectation in the Business Forum is to enjoy a wide range of companies and getting to know them in order to find a job related to my studies” she said. According to Núria, the Business Forum -compared to other job searching methods- has the advantage of “the fact that there are lots of offers in the same place. And this place gives you the opportunity to give your résumé directly to the contact person and you can talk to them and know more about the companies”. “You donʼt have to go searching for a company one per one and wasting time by visiting each one of them, you have all of them here altogether” concludes Núria.