Early disclaimer: To Jobstreet.com, the organiser of MCTF, please.., please think of changing the event venue to somewhere else for next year as MidValley Megamall parking is really horrendous!!
There are better exhibition venue alternatives out there within the Klang Valley and I hope you can take this suggestions into consideration!
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| From Jobstreet’s Malaysia 8th Career and Training Fair 2009 |
in a cunning attempt to be featured on JobStreet Digest newsletter for February 2009 issue
TheJobHopper i.e. yours truly went to the MCTF’09 on the first day and as the early disclaimer above refers, I had to circle around for almost an hour inside MidValley shopping mall to find for a decent, legal parking. Just as I feel like giving up and exiting the premise, I found an empty parking space just before the exit. Thank GOD!
So, up I went to the Midvalley Exhibition Centre on Level 3 to check out the event, with my netbook and business namecards all in hand. One thing great about Jobstreet is their innovation in technology and communication. So this time around, they really took advantage of the mobile and SMS world.
Basically, since I pre-registered for the MCTF’09 before hand and already an active Jobstreet.com member, I got an Express Entry Code through SMS and all I had to do was show my code number (02018) at the entrance.
Hence, I avoided needing to ‘q’ to sign up or register for the fair. I saw a lot of young graduates or non-members of Jobstreet still had to fill in forms at the entrance. Wastage of paper I must say!
In the future, I hope that everything will be paperless & wireless. That’d be neat!
Once I showed my code, I got a visitor’s sticker that looks like below. I did though request for a media pass/press kit since I am after all from the media at the counter, but unfortunately they’ve run out. I guess I was a bit late (but, it was only the 1st day!)
The crowd wasn’t as big as I thought it’d be. 2 reasons for this might be:
- I came on a working day – Friday. I’m sure the weekends will be fulled with jobseekers (+ even worst parking condition!)
- I arrived around 5ish…
So, the first thing that I checked out was of course the Jobstreet.com booths. There were a lot of PC terminals there and promoters/Jobstreet’s staff around to assist jobseekers to register for membership as well as do some basic search.
What was new (at least to my knowledge) is this huge blue board below:
Well, it’s actually job postings in different segments such as Sales & Marketing, Engineering etc, but what’s unqiue is that you can apply for this job directly via SMS. All you had to do was type in
JSA <space> Apply <space> thejob code displayed and send to 39665.
Of course, you have to be a member of Jobstreet first. So, I did test the system and voila it works like a charm! The SMS charge was 30c per application/sms sent. From there, your resume stored on your Jobstreet online account will be sent directly to the respective employers. It’s quite clever and saves jobseekers time from actually submitting their printed CVs by hand.
However, looking at some of the job postings advertised on the SMS board, I’m guessing Jobstreet offer this service to those job agencies or employers who can’t afford their own booth or would rather spend their weekends doing something else rather than manning a public booth!
Then, at the end of the first middle stretch walk-away, Jobstreet sets up their Free Resume & Career Clinic services. This is quite popular among fresh graduates or even seasoned job-seekers who needs some help on improving their CV presentation. I believe this was one of the most helpful clinic judging by the response that they had.
But I think the private interview room were not being fully utilised as I didn’t see any interviews going on inside.
Being in the media line (radio in particular), I was interested to check out some of the media employers that showed up. Well, this time around, Radio24 from Bernama got the nod as their official radio/media partner. So, I went to check out their booth.
To be honest, there were nothing special and I did tuned into Radio24 prior to the event just to have a feel of what kind of promotion or interviews that they provide to highlight the fair. I didn’t hear a thing. Maybe it was my timing. But, it’s curious that Jobstreet would engage Radio24, a Malay-language based radio to tie up with when they use English as their main medium. Of course Radio24 does have their English belts nowadays, but still, I’m curious. I guess maybe for the free airtime that they’re getting!
Hopefully next year, they’ll tie up with BFM 89.9 which will be a better fit overall.. (for obvious reasons!)
(correction, it’s Suresh Thiru, not Sujesh. Sorry for the typo above!
Someone should fire our tech podcaster! hehe..)
Well, over the years, I’ve attended quite a number of career fairs both in Malaysia, and especially during my student years in the UK. What I love most or find it interesting is how employers present their booths in many creative ways to get more traffic in, as well as giving away freebies and souvenirs for the visitors to bring back home.
Unfortunately this time around, at MCTF 09′ there were’t much to shout about. Point of sales materials and goodie bags were lacking, and some booths are even empty! I’m inclined to assume that this is due to the budget cuts on advertising and promotion or because of the economic crisis that is affecting just about everybody now.
But, there are still some employers who went all out to showcase their company profile to attract the best talents, and lo and behold for me, here are the TOP 3 booths for this year’s MCTF 09′, not just in terms of creative presentation, but also of the traffic coming in, the enthusiastic staff/promoters + the goodies that they offer (experience and product wise)
1. TNT – orange display of products and a BIG plane banner!
2. P&G – 3 sports ambassadors for Gillette brand and excellent displays of product offerings
3.T-Systems - an F1 simulation game, who wouldn’t want to try that!
Well, the organisations above have big budgets of course, but special mention have to go to 95% The Advertising Academy. Despite a small booth, they manage to entice people with clever messaging on their displays and why wouldn’t they? They are after all the ’so-called’ experts in advertising and branding! 
Oh yes, towards the end, you can also check out the Malaysian A1 GP Team and also test out their simulator, which is pretty neat for the race driver enthusiasts out there.
(curiously, nobody was willing do be on the hot seat when I took this picture!)
Jobstreet combines both higher education & learning on their MCTF, which why it’s called career & training fair, so before exiting, you will have to go through all the education booths featuring: higher learning and private institutions, offering various courses locally and overseas.
As expected, this section does not attract as much visitors as the employers section, nevertheless, it gives visitors an alternative to the jobseeking process, i.e. invest in learning and education, then you’ll be more marketable to prospective employers.
What is lacking though are actual training centres or training vendors highlighting their products and services. Companies send their employees to specialised functional trainings and these kind of soft-skills training are also available via public programmes, hence I find it a bit weird that they’re not invited to attend the fair or showcasing their services.
Well, this is quite a long entry already. Anyway, to sum it up, I just want to share and highlight some key learnings from attending MCTF ‘09 or room for improvement to Jobstreet.com for their next upcoming event:
(in no particular order)
- Career fairs are a good start-up point, especially to fresh graduates to have a feel of what company they fancy working for and also improve their communication skills by approaching employers directly and present (sell) themselves to prospective bosses!
- Employers, especially the hiring managers and HR personnel need to be present on fair days because they are the one who will be the ultimate decider on placing the best candidate for the jobs advertised. Don’t just hire promoters or lower level event people to represent your company. Be there, share your experiences, schedule interviews via pre-registeration and show what it means to work for your organisation.
- Job seekers need to really make full use of these fair beforehand. Research the companies that you’re interested and vacancies available via Jobstreet.com. Then dig some more, improve your CV or try to get the hiring managers contacts and schedule an interview appointment on the event day. That would be the strategy to maximise the time you spend on the event day. Focus on quality, rather than quantity, i.e. pick who you want to speak to and customise your application towards that employer!
- Jobstreet.com need to find new or more proactive media partners, hence this is where BFM 89.9 can/should come in. Talk to me or hire me as your marketing consultant. Hehe.. (well, my boss was a pionner at Jobstreet and he found me through Jobstreet too, so I’m sure we can work something out!)
Anyway, all in all, I believe the recently concluded Jobstreet’s 8th MCTF was still a huge success. Hopefully, employers manage to get quality CVs through and hire some good people, especially during this tough times.
Well, good thing is, Jobstreet will always be there to lend a helping hand..
Ed
Tags: career fair, jobhopper, jobstreet.com, mctf'09, review
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Chen Chow
on January 29th, 2009Thanks for the blog entry on MCTF! Would keep you posted on whether your blog post can get into Top 3!
Thanks for the feedback too!