Employers are hunting for graduates of St Petersburg University

 

Throughout the day, there was a poster session at the Assembly Hall and the corridor of the Twelve Colleges, where students could talk with employers, fill in an application form and find out about internship programmes. Also, the participants in the university job fair were invited to master classes and guest lectures, where students were told about the specifics of working in different companies and were helped to acquire the skills necessary for successful employment. For example, the HR Coordinator of the international auditing company KPMG, Rozaliia Maksutova, spoke about the rules for creating a successful CV. At the end of the lecture, students asked her how to make their CV memorable if the staff of the personnel department receive dozens of similar documents every day, with approximately the same level of education and work experience. The lecturer explained that the best way to stand out is to present information briefly and in a structured way, rather than try to look original: classics are always in fashion.

A good CV should be brief, specific, honest and well-structured.

Rozaliia Maksutova, KPMG HR Coordinator

Moreover, the personnel specialist advised university students not to be shy and to include any work experience. If a student has worked while studying it means that they are able to take responsibility and they have some experience; even if their work was not connected with their field of study, or they had started their own business.

Some companies have been participating in the Career Day of St Petersburg University for many years. Pavel Sorokin, Head of the Personnel Department at the Gazprom Neft Science & Technology Centre, said that the number of university students among their company staff has increased recently. Additionally, a digital simulation laboratory will be opened in 2018 at the Research Park of St Petersburg University. It is a joint project to train specialists in the field of creating geological models. «The key task of the laboratory is to help master degree students to gain industrial experience, acquaint them with the daily work of our employees, and also provide an opportunity for research,» said Pavel Sorokin. «This will enable young people at the earliest stage of their development as professionals to join the solution of technological challenges and use their creative thinking to find new ways of working with complex fields.»

Not only long-term partners of the University, such as Biocad, JTI, L’Oreal, EY, Deloitte or Schlumberger, but also other organisations, which were represented for the first time at the University’s Career Day, came to search for potential employees among university students. Representatives of the Moscow law firm Alrud conducted their master class for law students on how to start a career. «We employ a lot of graduates of St Petersburg University, so now we have decided to come to St Petersburg specifically to look for young specialists and get them to join our company. Absolutely awesome, smart students with a wonderful scientific base study at the University,» Arkadiia Basova, the manager of personnel assessment and training of the Alrud company, shared her impressions. «Now we will not just continue to attend Career Days at St Petersburg University, but we will also think about opening our regional office in St Petersburg.»

St Petersburg University is also an important supplier of personnel for WorldQuant, which annually signs up new St Petersburg University graduates with mathematics degrees. This time as in the past, the company’s representatives asked Career Day participants to solve several specialised problems and looked closely at the students who offered good solutions. So, today, some of them will receive a job offer or an offer to become trainees. For example, Budimir Baev completed an internship at WorldQuant when he was a fourth-year-student of the «Basic Mathematics» programme. This year, after graduating from the University, he has become the company’s employee. The alumnus noted that the education he received helps him at work. «The main requirement for candidates is the most advanced analytical thinking that enables you to come up with ideas and implement them in a strategy. To build different models on them, one needs some experience and a special mentality,» Budimir Baev explained. «As an Olympiad mathematician, I suited the company, but my specialty was not related to programming, so the internship was pretty hard. Over time, I understood basic things and now I do not experience such problems any more. If you have a good mathematical background, this skill can be acquired in a fairly short time.»

Employers note that attending Career Days is useful not only for upper-year students who are already thinking about finding a job, but also for young people who have just become students. Participation in job fairs enables young people to broaden their horizons and increase knowledge about the labour market and companies represented in the city, and to learn not to fall into the traps of fraudulent firms.