Career Days took place at SPbGASU
On April 19–23, SPbGASU hosted Career Days – a series of events for students and graduates dedicated to employment issues. The participants got a chance to meet with potential employers, to attend lectures and master classes, to take part in business games, training sessions, career consultations and an online job fair.
Business game organizers and winners
Employment of Specialists with Disabilities: State Support
The lecture organized by the Admiralteysky District Employment Service dealt with employment opportunities for graduates with special needs.
Psychologist Irina Milova emphasized that a job seeker with a disability must submit an individual rehabilitation programme to the HR department, in which the disease-related special needs should be clearly spelled out.
Some attendees noted that, being afraid of employment rejection, people with disabilities often have to conceal their health problems.
Nevertheless, Irina Milova is confident that Russian labour legislation is gradually changing in favour of people with disabilities. It should become beneficial for companies not only to hire university graduates with special needs, but also to promote their career growth.
At present, the St. Petersburg Employment Service is actively involved in assisting young specialists with special needs, including monitoring the observance of job quotas, participation in creating new jobs, payment of benefits, providing free training and psychological support for the unemployed helping them adapt to the labour market. Applying for these services is available through the website https://www.r21.spb.ru.
Personal Brand Building and Career Success
The master class given by Olga Zenina from Superjob, one of the leaders in the recruiting market, was devoted to self-management, i.e. the tools necessary for building your own personal brand: the skills of self-presentation, time management and networking, as well as visual and kinetic peculiarities.
The expert recommends to pay due attention to writing your CV thoroughly: first of all, indicate the desired position and the existing professional experience – work or internships. At the same time, it is important not only to record the experience, but to give specific examples of your achievements– this way it will be easier for the employer to assess your professional potential. Vague wording and formulaic phrases, on the contrary, should be avoided.
Another recommendation relevant in the present-day world is to use social media accounts in your own promotion.
“According to statistics, 68% of employers view the pages of potential employees on social media and other platforms. Therefore, it makes sense to put them in order: for example, prepare a competent profile description to make people notice you and want to work with you,” said Olga Zenina.
BaltMostStroy LLC presentation and open lecture
Engineering Career for a Young Professional: Opportunities
Dmitry Kalendarev, First Deputy General Director of BaltMostStroy LLC, spoke about the value of the profession of a bridge engineer. He considers this speciality one of the most promising in the industry today. Bridge engineers who recently graduated from universities are in high demand in different departments of the company. There is a particularly strong shortage of field staff, i.e. the employees directly communicating with site workers, for example, site supervisors in the regions. BaltMostStroy offers annual paid internships to students and young professionals. Some of them join the company team.
According to Dmitry Kalendarev, the candidates hired at BaltMostStroy will have a challenging, but also important and exciting job. Throughout its history, the company has participated in the construction of the Moscow Central Ring Road, Yakhtenny Bridge and Betancourt Bridge in St. Petersburg, the Taurida and Scandinavia routes, took part in the reconstruction of Tuchkov, Blue and Bank bridges in St. Petersburg as well as hundreds of other facilities around the country.
“In Saint Petersburg, many structures are of historical value, so reconstructing them is not an easy task that has to be solved in cooperation with the Committee for the State Inspection and Protection of Historic and Cultural Monuments (KGIOP) and other organizations, which, however, only makes the work more interesting,” the speaker noted.
‘Mostotrest’, Russia’s oldest enterprise in bridge and transport infrastructure operation and maintenance, is also open to hiring new staff. The company’s main activities include the technical maintenance of road structures, preventive maintenance and major repairs.
Graduates are welcome here in various departments dealing with supervision, works production, operation of tunnels, engineering design, price control, overhaul, occupational safety. 17% of positions in these departments are occupied by SPbGASU graduates, who are highly sought after in the market.
“Some of them were hired after completing an internship. The company and the university have signed an internship agreement, so this is a real chance for getting a job,” Anna Linyaeva, head of HR Operations, told at the meeting with students.
PhosAgro chemical holding company puts the focus on working with new personnel as one of its key areas of activities. In particular, the company has introduced the ‘Young Talented Specialists’ programme aimed at gradual adaptation of university graduates, including training, financial support and guidance.
The programme priority specializations comprise civil engineering, architecture, heat power engineering, standardization and metrology, information systems and technologies, applied mechanics.
You can apply for participation in the programme on the holding's website (‘Career’ tab) https://www.phosagro.ru/career/learning
Moreover, within the framework of the Career Days, a business game was organized by JSC ‘Stroyproekt Institute’, where the participants had to deal with a real working case. The assignment is part of a course for young professionals starting their career in the company.
Business game organized by Stroyproekt
✔ This is not the first time Stroyproekt representatives visit SPbGASU.
“This year we decided to hold a meeting with students in an unusual format, going beyond a simple presentation to give them the opportunity to communicate with each other and feel the real atmosphere of being the company’s team,” told Ekaterina Zlotnikova, head of the Training Department, adding that the solutions presented by students demonstrate a good level of knowledge.
More than 60 employers took part in the Career Days, including Passazhiravtotrans State Unitary Enterprise, Geo-Project LLC, Stroysila LLC, the Baltic Interregional Board of Lawyers in St. Petersburg, JSC ‘Atomproekt’, “EuroChem-Project” LLC, the European Centre of Forensic Experts, ‘Dornadzor’ LLC, St. Petersburg Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture, JSC ‘Auto-Dorservis’, Orchestra architectural bureau, ‘Avtobull’ LLC, HH.RU and Glavstroy-SPb LLC. All of them also announced job openings and student internships at the virtual job fair (over 150 positions).
More than 500 students joined the event either in person or remotely.
Text: Alexandra Podolnikova
Photos: Sergey Klishis
✔ Find out more about the SPbGASU Career Service