When the Career Expo, an event during which TU/e students are introduced to companies, was cancelled in March 2020, it became the first large physical happening in the Netherlands to suffer the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organizing committee was forced to pull the plug after day one. After the exhibition floor had been dismantled in great haste by order of the Safety Region Brabant, then chairman Boris Zwaan spoke of a mixed feeling of “great disappointment and much pride.”

Jules Vaes, third year bachelor’s student at the department of Mechanical Engineering and current chairman of the Wervingsdagen, understands those feelings all too well. “These past few months felt like a rollercoaster to us. We constantly had to anticipate the government’s measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic every time we wanted to plan an activity. Fortunately, we were only just able to host a physical edition of our Skills Sessions in mid-December. That wouldn’t have been possible if we had planned it a week later.”

Red signals

From that moment on, Vaes and his six-member board team saw how more signals started to turn red as far as large physical events were concerned. “We had prepared a scenario to go fully online, as we had done in March 2021,” Vaes says, “but we wanted to postpone that decision for as long as we could. After the press conference by Mark Rutte and Ernst Kuipers on January the 25th, we decided to focus all our efforts on a physical event, but we were afraid however that attendees would have to comply with a variety of measures: wearing face masks, social distancing and additional disinfection measures. It caused a great deal of extra stress.”

However, things started to improve after that press conference. The Omicron variant was more contagious, but it also resulted in less severe illness, causing the government to ease or abolish all Covid-related restrictions. “That was wonderful news for us, because we had prepared several scenarios and the best one, an event without restrictions, became possible now,” Vaes says.

“There was some fear that certain companies might be reluctant to take part, but those fears turned out to be totally unfounded after a couple of phone calls. No fewer than 172 companies will present themselves next Tuesday and Wednesday, and that doesn’t even include the startups, which will also be present to try and recruit talented personnel. Companies are so exited about meeting with our students again. We’ve noticed that same excitement for the Interviewing Days, which are scheduled to take place in May. More people signed up for that than ever before.”

Network Carousel

One element of last year’s online edition has been retained, Vaes says, the so-called Network Carousel. Students and companies are matched in a hybrid setting without knowing beforehand with whom they are about to speak. Each student meets with a company representative for a five-minute-long conversation. The carousel was a great success last year, which is why it has been included in this year’s program as well, Vaes says.

“Apart from that, students can also go on a speed date. Registration for this event is open exclusively to TU/e students and involves similar, short conversations, but the student will know the company’s identity beforehand,” Vaes says. “These meetings take place at several locations in the Auditorium.”

Peter Kuipers Munneke

Next week’s edition of the Career Expo needs to offer attendees an experience similar to that of previous editions before the pandemic. “We won’t take extra measures. Attendees aren’t required to wear face masks or to keep distance, nor will there be any hand sanitizer pumps. We have face masks and partition screens on hand by the way, but we don’t expect to have to use them. We will however hand out three thousand goody bags, because that’s roughly how many people we expect to welcome during those two days.”

The event will kick off on Tuesday 15 March in the Blauwe Zaal of the Auditorium with a one-hour lecture starting at 9.00 hrs. by NOS weather forecaster Peter Kuipers Munneke, who will talk about his research on the North and South Pole. Well-known neurobiologist Dick Swaab and former ice skater and entrepreneur Mark Tuitert will also give lectures, on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning respectively. Vaes says that he would have liked to convince comedian Arjen Lubach to return, since he opened the last edition of the Career Expo in 2020. “That would have been a nice symbolic gesture, we would have come full circle, but Lubach wasn’t available this time around, unfortunately,” Vaes says with a smile.