Aalto Talent Expo 2019 took over Otahalli

The first Aalto Talent Expo fair was organised on October 31, 2019 in Otahalli, Espoo. The objective for Aalto Talent Expo is to offer all Aalto students contacts that can help them with career planning and job hunting. Previously organised fairs: TalentIT (for ICT students) and ARENA Career Fair (for business students) were replaced by the new fair, Aalto Talent Expo. During the day, students had the possibility to get to know the employers and job opportunities in their field at the organisations stands and through the program.

Students could get comments on their CV and portfolio from the industry professionals, hear interesting discussions about recruitment and work life at the stage and meet the participating organizations’ alumni at speed mentoring. Expo program was popular and according to the feedback from the participants, it was very useful as well. The students received practical hints for improving their employability and a lot of new ideas and surprising angles. The feedback praised the reviewers’ knowledge and input, but also pointed out that in many cases the students had received much more than they could have even hoped for.

There was a record breaking number of organisations present, both in quantity but also in industry diversity. The organisations were asked which school’s students they are primarily looking for and based on the results the "combined" fair was really a necessity. There were dozens of different school combinations and only a handful had chosen only one school as their primary target group.

Both organisations and students were very pleased with the Expo and useful connections were made. “You pulled off an Aalto miracle!” You can read more about the feedback and see pictures from the Expo here: https://www.aalto.fi/en/talent-expo/previous-expo.

First events are always a learning experience and even though the feedback was really positive, the concept will be improved and developed further in the years to come. However, the Expo did prove its worth and there will be a next Expo!