The first ever Student Job Summit – Brought to you by Mixtape.
As a trusted event management partner to UCD Students Union, Mixtape Marketing was asking to collaborate with them to help create a job fair specifically for students looking for part-time/casual work and thus came the idea of the Student Job Summit.
A survey with UCD students found the following findings:
- 79% of students are actively seeking part-time or summer employment, yet 75% of them find the process challenging.
- 87% of students are eager to attend an on-campus student jobs fair
- 86% were open to speed interviewing onsite to brush up on interview skills and techniques
Mixtape Marketing got to work creating the brand – everything from logo design, website building and social media presence. Once the website, LinkedIn page and Instagram were developed a plan was devised to help advertise to students, to potential exhibitors and also to promote sponsorship opportunities.
With just over 150 site sessions in February, the task was to increase this organically. From LinkedIn there was an average of 6.7% engagement rate on organic posts and 3,585 impressions that drove website traffic up to 4,000 site sessions before the event was over!
Next came the task of contacting prospective exhibitors. This was a lengthy process, drawing up lists of targets. These were specifically companies who recruit seasonal staff.
There was an instant and obvious appetite for the Student Job Summit amongst employers, with Circle K and Lidl signing on immediately.
In total, 17 exhibitors signed up and they ranged from summer J1 experiences such as USIT, American Summers, Camp America, STEAM Academy, GLOEX and LINES language school, to retail employers like Decathlon, Circle K, Brown Thomas | Arnott’s, Lidl Ireland. Other exhibitors such as OSS, Bluebird Care, Pulse Security were present and there were even opportunities for jobs onsite in UCD from UCDSU Shops. Finally, there was a presence from companies offering jobs with a little more flexibility, that students could choose around their own schedule from the likes of MOTEL, SET THE BAR and of course, Mixtape Marketing!
Over the two days, Student Job Summit welcomed thousands of students from across Ireland. Over 370 speed interviews were conducted with 10 different employers. Post event, the feedback from employers about the quality of candidates was extremely positive with Eddie O’Toole, MD of Bluebird Care saying;
“Hi Sarah, we were really impressed with your organization of the Student Job Summit… all my team singing your praises… we seem to have got loads of potential leads and all of a great quality.”
