Vietnam: post-event report for ‘Connect the Dots’ job fair, 20 Aug 2016

Connect the Dots job fair was first held in 2013 to bring together Vietnamese UK graduates with big firms and help boost their career success. This year’s event attracted over 1,200 participants and 33 recruiters, meaning a significant increase in the number of participants in comparison with the first year event (2013) with only 500 participants and eight recruiters.

The event included three parts – workshops, panel discussion and job fair. At the private workshops, representatives of Standard Chartered Bank, Prudential and Electricity Vietnam (EVN) shared information on job opportunities, benefits for staffs and career development in each company. In addition, the panel discussion provided a good opportunity for UK alumni to learn about Vietnam’s labour market, job opportunities and requirements for candidates from local employers and have their questions answered by guest speakers from a human resources company and participating recruiters.

One of the key elements, which contributed to the success of the event, is that the UK Alumni Association in Vietnam (UKAV) team has maintained long-term relationships with businesses through different services during the year. This has helped gain trust from businesses and enabled them to be successfully invited to the workshop.

The most interesting part of the event was the job fair where UK alumni could meet recruiters to find job opportunities. There were up to 33 job booths of recruiters with over 200 job opportunities which assisted the graduates to make an informed career decision and build a solid foundation for future advancement.

Connect the Dots, in general, has given Vietnamese UK graduates the big picture on the Vietnam labour market, helping them to know how to meet recruiters’ requirements in order to find jobs. Nong The Hoang, a UK alumni attending Connect the Dots last year shared: ‘Although I have a a master’s degree in the UK, I had been unemployed for over 10 months. It was Connect the Dots 2015 that gave me the chance to meet representatives of FPT, the leading ICT company in Vietnam, where I am now Sales Team Leader’.

Huynh Paul, Human Resources Manager, KPMG also shared: ‘We had a lot of UK alumni visiting the KPMG booth today. I am really impressed with how much they prepared for the job fair. A lot of them had their CVs as well as good questions to ask the company. It is their passion and attitude that impresses us. At this year’s event, they’ve really shown that they want to advance their careers.’

>> 'Drive Your Success' Career Fair in Ho Chi Minh city, 6 November 2016