From the Careers Department

**Ms Julie Stephenson**
Careers & VET Coordinator

The benefits of attending open days/evenings and career expos

Throughout the year there will be many opportunities to explore different career options. An excellent way to gather up to date information is to attend open days, information sessions and career expos. It’s important to expand your knowledge and discover pathways or jobs you never knew existed; you might just find the one thing that ignites your enthusiasm!

Do your research

You could certainly walk into a career expo without any planning, but you’ll gain more from the experience if you know a little bit about the organisations who will be attending and what information you’d like to get. Career expos usually advertise a list of exhibitors who will be present so you can plan prior to the event. If you have no ideas about what you want to do then a wander around the expo may assist in understanding what is available.

Be prepared

If you’ve never been to an expo, you may wonder what to take on the day. My suggestion is to take a large bag as many exhibitors provide brochures and some give away free gifts! An iPad or phone is handy as lots of exhibitions have online competitions you may wish to enter.

Ask questions

One of the primary pieces of advice I can offer is to ask lots of questions. That’s why the exhibitors are there, they want to help and they want you to understand what their organisation can offer. It’s a good idea to have a list of questions prepared so you don’t forget!