A night dedicated to making the right career choices

Finding the right job after graduating is not easy ¨C especially for those who are still not quite sure what career path they want to pursue. However, help was at hand on Thursday in the form of the ¡°Lange Nacht der Karriere¡± (¡°Long night of the career¡±) event.

The programme included activities such as ¡°career speed dating¡±, where participants had the chance to practise their self-marketing skills, as well as an opportunity to meet insurance companies to find out about their job profiles and various talks offering expert tips on how to pursue the right career and find a job.

The ¡°Long night of the career¡± attracted around a thousand visitors: the Auditorium Maximum was virtually full to bursting by 6.00 p.m., when project manager In¨¦s Constantin from the ETH Career Center declared the inaugural careers event open.

A good memory for networking

Once the event had kicked off, memory coach Gregor Staub explained how memory capacity can be improved. He showed the audience what to do at networking events to make sure they do not forget the names of potential employers, as well as how to memorise figures ¨C a very useful skill in the world of work.

¡°The good news is that having an excellent memory has nothing to do with being exceptionally gifted,¡± said Gregor Staub, keen to make this point clear right from the start.

According to Staub, the recipe for a good memory is to combine the right method with a few hours¡¯ practice. He demonstrated the method there and then, and within a few minutes the audience in the auditorium had learned the names of ten US presidents by heart. They did this by using mnemonics ¨C in this case short stories ¨C which are devised to help people remember names or numbers.

Staub did not stop there: he went on to tackle the Thai language, managing to teach the audience a dozen Thai words within a very short time by associating them with various body parts from head to toe. Judging by their frequent laughter, the audience members were evidently fascinated and amused, which is very much in keeping with Staub¡¯s philosophy:  ¡°You learn much more and much more effectively if you have fun while you¡¯re learning.¡±

Job hunting with the help of social media

The atmosphere then sobered somewhat a couple of floors down in auditorium D 7.2, where students listened to career advisor Anne Forster give a talk on ¡°Getting connected¡±. ¡°When it comes to looking for a job, self-marketing is essential,¡± she said to her large audience. ¡°70 per cent of companies use social media platforms to help them recruit staff.¡±

Anne Forster believes that, nowadays, it is all the more important for people to present a professional profile on relevant sites such as XING and LinkedIn, as well as Facebook and Twitter. ¡°Show yourself in the best light,¡± she advised, highlighting the importance of establishing an ¡°I¡± brand online, which includes carefully choosing which channels to use to present yourself.

¡°Think about what you are aiming to achieve with your profile and what message you want to convey,¡± she said. This should provide a basis for deciding what information you want to give to companies about yourself. XING employee Magith Noohukhan also advised that social media channels can be useful for people¡¯s own job searches: ¡°Make sure you show what skills you have to offer on the platforms,¡± he said, ¡°This makes it easier to distinguish yourself from the competition.¡±

Many companies post job adverts on Twitter and Facebook. Those who find a position that appeals to them can then use the various channels available to find out how the company presents itself and what sort of employees work there, as well as what kind of training and experience those employees have.

¡°Anchors¡± for finding a career you will love

¡°A successful career: taking a plunge over a precipice or a sensible path towards the future?¡± This was the theme of the next item on the programme. The name of this workshop, run by Head of the ETH Career Center Martin Ghisletti in room F3, said it all. He spoke in favour of pursuing ¡°a career you will love¡± ¨C one which is in line with your personal values and also fits in with other aspects of your life. ¡°A successful career is not always the one that earns you lots of money,¡± he said.

¡°What¡¯s important is that you are happy in your job and put your heart and soul into it,¡± he added. This will enable you to produce performances that help you advance. According to the HR expert, the challenge here lies in how to identify your passions and abilities without being influenced by the expectations of your social environment.

One tool that could potentially help with this is Edgar Schein¡¯s ¡°career anchors¡± theory, which suggests that people use specific questions to obtain information about their self-concept based on their personal values, wishes and abilities. Once someone has determined their ¡°career anchor¡±, it can serve as another useful indicator when looking for the right career and the right job.

Ghisletti believes that this concept proves its worth over time: ¡°The more experienced you are, the more your most important career anchor will take shape. This anchor is something you should never compromise on.¡± To finish, Ghisletti offered a final tip: ¡°Find yourself a job that you love and you¡¯ll never have to work again!¡±

Those who wanted to get actively involved as well as picking up good advice could do so in the hall of the Main Building, where mini golf, table football and an ¡°application catwalk¡± were on offer. Plenty of people took advantage of this opportunity.

The ¡°Long night of the career¡± came to an end on Friday morning with a ¡°CEO breakfast¡±, where chief executives and the Rector of ETH Zurich described how they started their own careers and the various career stages they have been through since.