Last Friday, we held our free online job fair, and opened it up to everyone in the aviation industry. In particular, we encouraged employees who suffered job losses as a result of airline collapses to attend, including ex-Flybe staff, Thomas Cook and Monarch.
The job fair included:
- 19 exhibitors
- 685 jobseekers who visited the fair
- 800 registered jobseekers in total at 10:00am (prior to the fair starting), which rose to 1079 by 4pm (the end of the job fair)
- 63% of registered jobseekers attended the fair
- Jobseekers visited an average of 7 stands
- The average number of job applications per exhibitor was 54
So what did jobseekers think of the experience being held online, and the overall setup? We asked a couple of them for a review:
“The situation myself and fellow former Flybe employees find ourselves in is not an easy one. While most of us at least have our health, the worries that redundancy and the coronavirus have put on us and our families are considerable. It has been hard to see much light at the end of the tunnel, with the aviation industry being particularly hard hit. It is with this in mind that an event such as the Aviation Job Search Careers Fair is so important.
The online fair allowed myself and other former colleagues to chat with several recruitment agencies, deliver our CVs and to also pick up tips from some of the webinars. While the fair couldn’t generate jobs that just aren’t there at the moment it did allow me to feel I was doing something positive to get back on track. A bit of positivity goes a long way after the events of the last two weeks.
In my particular case I was lucky enough to get a lead to a possible job opportunity. Fingers crossed and good luck to all those who attended!”
John Prudence, ex-Flybe Line Training Captain
RE: The webinars
“Thanks for the email. I spoke with Alistair and his feedback was very helpful.”
Michal Kuchmacz, Jobseeker
“Just wanted to say thank you for the seminar today which was extremely informative. I now have some really useful tools to maximise my LinkedIn profile.”
Anne Warne, Jobseeker
“Thanks for your very informative Webinar. I may be able to access one of your special offers, but I am going to have to find the funds!! I was with Flybe for 20 years as a Captain. I am thinking that, given the current unforeseen global circumstances, I need to start looking outside of aviation for my future career. To this end I have been looking at some advertisements for managerial type positions. I am finding it very difficult to figure out how my experience and skill set can be explained and shown to be advantageous. Even the job centre people suggested that I have real marketable management skills and experience but I feel out of my depth in making my voice heard. Is this something you can help with?
“Thanks for another very informative webinar. I think that LinkedIn is going to be a steep learning curve for me! I would very much like the opportunity to speak with you about my future. Given the current circumstances, it’s probably best to have a phone call or web meeting, and with this in mind, I would be very grateful if you could let me know what times would be convenient to get in touch with you next week and how to contact you. I look forward to speaking with you soon.”
Rowan Bendall, ex-Flybe Captain
“Hi Matt, I do hope you and your family are well. Thank you for all your support today at the job fair, I found your 11am webinar very useful indeed as I near the end of my pilot training and hence start of my job search. Sadly I missed your 2pm webinar. Am I able to get access to this at all? Thanks”
Michael Ashworth, Commercial Pilot Trainee, BSc(Hons) Air Transport, Kingston upon Thames
We also asked our exhibitors for feedback on the event:
“It was great to be able to swiftly help a number of people via the online chat mechanism in the same way that we would at a physical event, but without the hassle of both parties having to travel!
We were able to direct some candidates to specific vacancies and we also had a number of people registering to join our talent pool, meaning that we will be able to reach out to them if any relevant opportunities come up in the future which might be suitable.”
Coral Hoye, Media Consultant, BAE Systems
“I think the virtual booth went really well. Got some candidates that we will be able to use and some that we can point in the right direction. This was so much easier and better for managing individual people as I felt I could spend the time talking to people, getting to know them better and getting the best outcome for them.”
Jordan Edworthy, Resourcer, Carbon60
“It is a good place to connect and talk with potential candidates.”
Resource Group
“High ‘e-footfall’ to our booth, easy to communicate to the booth attendees. Access to information and job application facility gave us great conversion.”
Jade Haase, Communications & Marketing Manager, Aeroprofessional
“This is the first one we have been to and it was professionally set up, well run and had plenty of job seekers throughout the day.”
Tracy Grant, Senior Workforce Development Co-ordinator, Proud to Care Devon
We’d like to thank everyone who attended on Friday, exhibitors and aviation professionals alike – it would not have been possible without having everyone come together as we did. We hope that for those of you looking for work, you had a few positive conversations about your future, which still lies within the aviation industry.
We’d also like to thank those who took the time to come and speak to visitors on the day, including Matt Craven, who’s webinar you can link to watch below:
- Advanced Interview Techniques: 5 strategies to excel in interviews to get more job offers and a higher salary
- 5 strategies to raise your LinkedIn profile and attract the right jobs
The event is still open to visit for another 30 days, so if you would like to have a look around, you can login here and send a message to employers about job opportunities.
And of course, although the live version of the event is over, there are plenty of jobs still available through Aviation Job Search, so please don’t hesitate to apply now.
