The question of how to start developing their careers is quite acute among students, especially in the last years of the university. Options include early internships, additional courses, and professional events.
What are professional events
Professional events are forums, conferences, seminars, hackathons, business games, exhibitions, fairs and other activities that are most often organized by companies in different lines of business to promote, share experiences and find new personnel.
Sometimes such events are organized by universities, such as job fairs. Theoretically, they could also include scientific conferences if they are attended by entrepreneurs or business representatives. But, as a rule, scientific conferences have other purposes.
In other words, professional events are events at which participants have the opportunity to showcase their expertise, gain new knowledge that can be applied to their work, and make useful contacts with people in the industry.
Pros and cons of professional events
Over the past year we have seen a large growth of EdTech companies that promise to teach a certain specialty from scratch in a short period of time, from three to 18 months, and subsequently help with finding a job.
But such programs can be very expensive. Whereas participation in short (one to three days) day-long events can be free and give instant profits. Let’s look in detail at the advantages and disadvantages of professional events over educational programs.
Events help to improve your skills
Companies offering training usually choose several areas in which they can validate and promote their own competencies. As a rule, the course includes the basic information necessary for further work, and the students get to know interesting cases on their own by experience.
At the events, there are several specialists from different companies and different experiences, and they prepare the brightest cases and most resonant topics from their segment. Experts from customwriting.nyc share their experience, which in this case, a novice specialist has an opportunity to cover the immensity in a short time and learn more practical information.
Events give the ability to set your own direction
As a rule, all educational programs have their own curriculum, which includes topics, timing, and generally the rules of the class. If the training involves feedback from a mentor – it’s great! And you always have an opportunity to do my homework and get expert feedback on it. But this is not always the case.
More often we see classes in the record, where for all its advantages, the only feedback is to check homework and get a certificate/diploma at the end of training.
At the same time at almost all professional events after the speaker’s speech the listeners always have an opportunity to ask absolutely any question – from related to personal development and successful success to highly specialized topics of one market or another.
Atmosphere of competition
Professional conferences are mass events, where ambitious professionals with goals close to your own come. This is a psychological aspect.
The atmosphere can resemble a competition, where a person is included in a race: you have to do everything to stand out, to be noticed and invited to your company. In this case, the competition can play into the hands.
In-depth study of the subject
Usually, the events are one or two days long and, obviously, it is impossible to study the direction in depth or even one topic from the scratch. But this is not the main purpose of the events. Professional events are for those who already understand something and want to develop in this area, to make valuable contacts or for those who just looking at the chosen area, looking for yourself and trying to define what is interesting to you.
Training is aimed at deeper immersion into a certain topic. It doesn’t spread out in many directions, but leads to a specific goal. It’s a great option for people who already know exactly where they want to go.
Proven and up-to-date knowledge
As a rule, invited speakers are professionals with extensive experience and expertise, which means they possess new and relevant information that has not yet managed to reach textbooks and mass audiences.
Experts most often share their experience in a case study format, which is a very effective way of obtaining information and is still rarely used in universities.
Live networking
At forums and other events there is a real opportunity to present oneself live to an HR manager or another representative of a company. Of course, you can always write to the person in a social network, but in this case you leave him the possibility of not answering.
And let’s not forget about the most important thing – the community. It’s not uncommon for introductions to like-minded people at events like this to turn into interesting and successful startups.
Self-determination and market analysis
Attending professional events will help you quickly dive behind the scenes of this or that profession and learn about the pitfalls. It will help you understand how much you are really interested in your chosen area.
In addition, it is an analysis of the labor market in the selected area. Yes, you heard right. The most effective way to learn about the opportunities in the professional area, about the company’s philosophy and its people is to hear firsthand, claims PaperWritingService.
Inspiration
Events are always about the atmosphere that people create. These are success stories that will not leave you indifferent and that motivate you to action. This is a place where there is a concentration of a lot of people who are passionate about their work. It is the sea of various ideas and decisions. It is a good shake-up and open mind.
