When high-flying undergraduates have gone in search of prospective corporate employers, they have not usually had to look too far. The annual milk round of blue chip careers presentations has traditionally involved companies rolling into university campuses with canapés and crates of cabernet sauvignon.
But, with graduates facing one of the worst job markets in decades, students are taking the initiative by organising events for prospective employers themselves.
Katherine Lee, a 20-year-old third-year bioengineering undergraduate at the University of California, chairs Disciplines of Engineering Career Fair (DECaF), a job fair run solely by students, which attracted 70 high-tech and life science companies this year. “Students should and are taking more of a lead on approaching employers because they recognise the recession will affect their job [chances],” she says.