In 4th year, students are already thinking about their future careers! As part of this process, they organize Career Day, a time for exchange between professionals and 3rd and 4th year students to find out about possible career opportunities after graduating from UniLaSalle.
A time for sharing between professionals and students
Career Day is an event organized 100% by 4ᵉ year engineering students, for 3ᵉ year students! On the program, round tables with professionals from 6 different fields:
- Sales and Purchasing
Agricultural Research and Innovation
Consulting
Production and Logistics
Quality and R&D in industry
Marketing
During these discussions, professionals talk about their day-to-day work, their missions and their feelings in all simplicity! Claire GABORIEAU, Career Center Consultant at the Rouen campus, and coordinator of the career day, tells us: "It was a very lively day, well managed by our students. The speakers were of the highest quality and conveyed their passion for their profession, but also sometimes the other side of the coin". She also noted the diversity of the speakers, an important factor given the students' ambitions and their attraction to completely different fields.
Valérie MONTEIRO, Sales Development Manager at Jacquet Brossard, comments:
"It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas on the professions to which some people are destined, or sometimes weren't destined due to a lack of knowledge. For me, the challenge was to open people's minds to sales careers in the agri-food sector, and to encourage young students to look for internships and work-study placements with companies like Limagrain and Jacquet Brossard, and to discover other career paths that may be less traditional, but which are nonetheless highly rewarding".
What were the objectives for the students during this moment of sharing? For the 3ᵉ years, it was first to discover the daily life of a professional in a field that seems to interest them and expand their network! And for the 4ᵉ years let's go ...
Behind-the-scenes at Career Day
For one day, it's nearly three months of preparation or students in 4ᵉ year coordinate, choose their round tables, distribute roles, and connect with speakers! "The students," Claire explains to us, "were adaptable, able to bounce back quickly and react."
That's right! Eloïse ROBERT, head of the Supply Chain group, tells us : "Three days before the start of the event, our speaker informed us that he would not be able to attend the Skills Day for professional reasons. So I had to quickly find a solution with the help of Mme Gaborieau. We had to manage the team's stress at having to reorganize everything at the last minute, adapt communication regarding the change of speaker and, of course, find a new speaker". Adaptability is a key value in engineering, so it was a bit of a challenge for our students to cope with such challenges.
The "Journée des métiers" was full of different facets of project management for future engineers! Team management, networking, logistics, communication - everyone pitched in to make it a successful event. "I was able to develop my skills as a group leader and also in terms of organization. It's an event that's prepared well in advance, so it's very important to be organized, but also to know how to organize your team," explains Eloïse.
In the end, the Trades Day was a flawless success, with speakers and students alike coming away enriched by this unique event, which undoubtedly aroused the students' passions!
An article written by Jules Houplon, UniLaSalle Rouen student.
