Careers Fair kick-starts student futures

St John’s College held its first Careers Fair this weekend, to provide advice and inspiration for students entering the job market.

Successful College alumni returned to St John’s on Saturday to inspire the next generation of Cambridge graduates.

The first ever St John’s College Careers Fair saw 11 Johnians, from fields as diverse as television, politics, business and science, give talks about life after Cambridge and how to get ahead in the career market.

Representatives from world-leading companies were also on hand to discuss internships, work placements and graduate recruitment positions.

Over 100 students and recent graduates of St John’s attended to hear expert advice and network with fellow Johnians at the Fair. The speakers, all of whom studied at St John’s themselves, were hand-picked because of their varied career paths and the obvious and inspiring passion they have for their work.

Zip Jila graduated from St John's in 2005 with a Law degree, and then went on to further study at Harvard Law School. She now works as a solicitor for Akin Gump, one of the world's leading law firms. She said:

"For me, practising Law is all about a marriage of logic and language, to solve problems. I also enjoy the variety and ever-changing nature of the Law and find my job intellectually stimulating and satisfying…I gained so much from St John's, both professionally and personally - I fell in love there twice, once with the Law and then with my husband (we married in the College Chapel), so it is wonderful to be able to come back and inspire current students with their career choices."

Harriet Baldwin, a second year History student, came along to the Fair because she wanted to know about the range of career options available to her after graduation. She attended a talk by Philip Collins, a columnist at The Times, who studied Philosophy at St John’s. Harriet said:

“I haven’t really decided what I want to do just yet, but I’m thinking of going into media. It’s really useful being able to hear from a wide range of speakers who have all gone on to do different things after their time at St John’s, and I feel much more confident now that my degree can open the door to lots of different opportunities, no matter what I choose to do as a career.”

The Careers Fair was set up by St John’s in order to provide guidance, support and inspiration for students and graduates as they take their first steps into the world of work.  This year was the first fair of its kind to be offered to students by the College, and it is hoped that it will become an annual event.

Will Evans organised the Fair with the College Development Office. He said: “We wanted to organise something with the widest possible appeal, so it was fantastic to have alumni from such a broad range of professional backgrounds involved. One thing that became obvious on the day was that many of our speakers have found themselves in careers completely unrelated to the subject they studied, which I hope showed our students that their options after John’s are in no way limited by their choice of degree.”

Presentations from the day will be made available to listen to online via the College website soon.

For more information about what St John’s graduates do once they leave College, see the “Since St John’s” blog.