Grand Old Time at the Grad Fair

I walked into the IOM Grad Fair not knowing what to expect and walked out with a free water bottle, a new hoodie, one of those little pom pom things with eyes, 3 new notepads, 27 pens, and a surge of career options I hadn’t previously thought about.

Locate IOM, who organised the event, is clearly made up of the type of people who’d throw an exceptional house party because the whole vibe of the day was buzzing harder than a beehive that’s been batted by a Jade ‘The Grenade’ Burden boxing glove. As soon as I walked in the atmosphere was electric. Seeing as the event was sold out tickets-wise, it was busy in that wonderful hustle and bustle type of way, made up of young minds looking for direction.

The 2024 Isle of Man Graduate and Young Professional Fair at the Comis Hotel Golf Club

Zurich sponsored the event and I discovered, to my delight, one of the team members running their stall is a close friend of mine – not so close that I realised she worked at Zurich – which immediately made Zurich one of my favourite stalls. But there were loads to choose from.

The main hall included 55 stalls from different businesses – FIFTY FIVE; it was a Willy Wonka Factory of free pens in there – each accompanied by a team of smiley, approachable employees giving out information. It was my job to go around asking people for photos for the Gef socials, a task that goes against my painfully awkward nature, but made easy by the fact that every single person I spoke to was basically the loveliest person ON EARTH. The mutual vibe shared by all the different stalls on the day eradicated the usual, forced networking atmosphere that often accompanies these types of events and looked to make the majority of students at ease as they got stuck in asking questions.

Once I’d done the rounds in the main room, bagging myself 14 free coasters and 65 pencil sharpeners in the process – I found out the hard way at the IOM Constabulary stall that the handcuffs were for show, not to take – I moved onto the Standard Bank Speaker Zone.

The stage was set to a cool backdrop of neon purple, in front of which sat different speakers throughout the day. The talks were interesting, varied, and linked by enthusiastic presenter Charlotte Smith who did a fantastic job not only keeping the day moving smoothly but in creating a relaxed atmosphere for all, while asking interesting questions of the panellists.

Alison Teare – Locate IOM’s Head Honcho – kicked off proceedings with a delightful welcome chat, dishing out all the intel people needed to know to get the most out of the day. She was swiftly followed by the guys from Standard Bank who discussed career development and opportunities.

Vida Manuel, Standard Bank’s Learning & Change Facilitator:

‘We’re all about investing in your success and your career. We’re a huge support of anyone within the business who wants to do a course or a degree. We do training programmes for everyone who wants to build their career within the business and we also offer immersive job shadowing where you sit with departments for 2-5 days to learn about their roles and responsibilities.’

The Standard Bank team were the first people I asked to get a picture for the Gef socials and were very accommodating so I have a soft spot for them and have vowed to switch banks after our meeting. Next up was UCM taking to the stage to talk about degrees, post-grad studies, and adult learning, something that peaked my interest. I love a course. Probably too much. I’ve still got an online Zoo-ology one to finish that I enthusiastically started back in 2015 then enthusiastically forgot about shortly after.

UCM’s Higher Manager, Gail Corrin:

‘Undertaking your degree on the Island almost guarantees you a pathway into starting a career with employers on the Isle of Man.’

Moving along with the pace of a particularly graceful wallaby, Junior Achievement took to the stage next to talk about ‘Just the Job’ – a programme designed to help young people tap into career opportunities via apprenticeships, internships, and volunteer work.

Account Manager at Just the Job, Rhian O’Leary (same name pals):

‘You can use our free CV builder, which is completely mobile friendly, and includes tips and hints on how to enhance your CV. Just the Job helps young people unlock career opportunities on the Isle of Man. We’ve had over 100 new jobs added in the last 3 weeks.’

Isle Listen followed to share insight on how to build resilience and focus on what you can control – the key to a happier life if you ask me but Gareth Nicholson, Mental Health Trainer at Isle Listen, said it better:

‘You’re at the first stage. You aren’t going to have your career trajectory completely figured out at this point. The important thing is just to clarify what you really want from a job.’

As much as I’d like to list all the speakers, I’m only going to put one more in, which came from the ‘People Stories – Real Lives in Focus: Stories of Roles & Lifestyles’ talk which featured our very own Media IOM queen Jess Kneen who talked about how making the move back to the island after traveling the world was the best she’s ever made. Probably because she now gets to work with Gef.

Jess Kneen Queen setting the stage alight

After a cup of tea, served to me by a chap who looked the spitting image of Stephen Merchant – an added bonus – I went exploring the Career Development Zone, the one my same name pal Rhian had spoken about earlier. Paragon Recruitment was behind this area. I came in at the perfect time to see a young man asking for help with writing his CV. He was whisked away by the lovely team and never seen again. I can only imagine he went onto write a CV so successful he was immediately snapped up by a company and started work there and then. No, I’m just kidding. They helped him at a small table at the side of the room, it was a lovely exchange to watch. They also had some sort of wheel of fortune device in there with free chocolate so even if your CV didn’t get you jobs, you’d at least walk away with a free Creme Egg.

Overall, the Grad Fair seemed to be a roaring success. Instead of a dry, corporate event, it felt like a university fresher’s fair; fun, exciting, and friendly, while being brilliantly helpful and informative. I left there with a feeling of enjoyable contentment, my knees buckling under the weight of the 654 free keyrings I’d bagged.