Start-up companies seek students at new careers fair
Tom Watson, organiser of Kick: The Startup Careers Fair. Photo: Tom Watson
Students looking for graduate jobs are shunning “pigeon-holed” roles in larger companies in favour of working for smaller start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), according to the organiser of a new student-run careers fair at Warwick.
Tom Watson, a Computer Science finalist who is organising Kick: The Startup Careers Fair, said start-up companies can offer graduates more responsibility and diversity in the workplace.
“You get quite a lot of responsibility early on and you can shape your role in the company,” he told the Boar.
“When people think of start-ups they think it’s a risky career choice, but some of them actually have a lot of money behind them and it’s a far more refreshing career path to the ones that usually get plugged at university.”
Mr Watson said the majority of the students he has spoken to at Warwick who have worked a year in industry in a large company did not enjoy their time there. He believes start-ups and SMEs may have more to offer students.
The idea for hosting the new careers fair at Warwick came after Mr Watson visited the Silicon Milkroundabout careers fair in London last year.
“It was a lot more inspiring than going to any of the university careers fairs I’d ever been to,” he said.
“I found people who were genuinely excited about their job, and I wanted to bring that experience to Warwick and show them the other options available after graduation.”
The careers fair will see 22 start-ups and SMEs showcase their job opportunities to students. Mr Watson stresses it is open to students from any discipline and said although some will be hiring from specific subjects, most will take students from any discipline.
“What these start ups care about is passion for the job and passion for the company,” he said.
Mr Watson is jointly organising the fair with his fiancée Charlotte Nash, 21, a History graduate from Warwick, and Anais Nanou, a postgraduate student at Warwick Manufacturing Group.
“If it goes well, I’ve already got requests to host another one in autumn when a few more students will be looking for jobs,” he said.
Kick: The Startup Careers Fair will be held in the Students’ Union Atrium from 12-3pm on Thursday 2nd May.
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