RP students had 3,000 jobs from 88 companies to choose from at this year’s Career Fair, the biggest edition of the annual event. Newcomers at the fair included major names such as DBS Bank, Rolls Royce, MediaCorp , Keppel Offshore and Marine, and P&G.
The fair gave graduating students an opportunity to secure jobs even before they leave school. For other students, it was an avenue to learn about the qualifications they require in order to clinch their dream jobs. Students who signed up for job positions were asked to submit their resumes online and the shortlisted few would have to attend interviews at a later date. Singapore Airlines was the only company that conducted live interviews and hired students on the spot.
Mardhiah Bte Mohd Khairi, 21, a third-year student from the School of Applied Science who applied for the position of a healthcare medical technologist with Raffles Medical, felt that the career fair was useful for graduating students like her. “As we are serving our internship now, we haven’t officially graduated yet. Therefore, it is an opportunity for us to secure a job before we graduate,” she said.
For many students, the career fair was an avenue to learn more about the paths to take when fulfilling their dreams.
“For jobs like microbiologists, we can’t apply right now because we need further education, a degree at least. However, I was happy after talking to the representative because now I know the necessary qualifications I need to reach my ambition,” said C. Keerthigha, a second-year student pursuing a Diploma in Biomedical Sciences.
Representatives from the various companies felt that the career fair was a valuable initiative by RP for their students and for the hiring companies as well.
Ms Lee Pei Sin, a Human Resource Executive at People’s Association, said: “I understand that one of the key strengths of RP graduates is that they can present themselves very well and they are taught to present during meetings. This is what we are looking for as we are in the community development industry.”
Most of the jobs offered by the companies were well received by the students. The position of Constituency Management Executive offered by People’s Association garnered close to 40 enquiries.
MediaCorp had 12 positions to offer RP students this year. These positions were targeted at students who have background in digital media, mass communication, sales marketing and engineering.
“For RP graduates we believe that when we throw them a problem, they will be able to come up with an innovative approach to solving it as compared to students from other polytechnics,” shared Ms Doris Or Wei Ru, Assistant Manager of Mediacorp’s Talent Acquisition team.
