Mixed Messages from Careers Fair as First Wave of Graduates Enter Doom Market

One of the locally acknowledged highlights of the Careers Department’s calendar at Oxford University is the Law Fair. It’s an event brimming with over-enthusiastic, sweaty students eager either to make top notch first impressions or grab as many freebies as physically possible.

The Fair is jam-packed with stalls adorned with flashy banners and backdrops, and tight-suited young reps who only graduated a few years ago themselves.

This year though, under the pall of national recession, it appears many of the smaller firms haven’t made much of an effort, and are dishing out Quality Streets and Roses instead of the usual branded rugby balls, key rings, book markers, designer USB sticks, boxes of mints, pieces of chocolate, stress balls and plastic pint glasses. One student I bump into says, “I’ve got a big box of pretzels. That’s quite good, but most of the giveaways weren’t worth grabbing.”

However, over at Wragge & Co, they’re still upbeat. A rep tells me that the white bird-cage they have on show is an alter-symbol representing the freedom their employees have within their jobs. He also shows me a USB stick in the shape of a ginger-bread man.

A number of other reps tell me that the money and energy going into marketing recruitment in the legal sector has exploded in recent years, and is nothing like what it was ten, or even five years ago. Paradoxically, they confirm that areas of the legal sector are doing a roaring trade because of the credit crunch, where litigation is a definite growth area. Silver lining, anyone?

The problem is that no amount of freebies and graphic design can anaesthetize the harsh realities of a competitive graduate job market. In fact, it seems like they make things more difficult and confusing. The young reps seem quietly aware of this, but are addicted to the marketing game – I even see them looking around each other’s stalls, taking notes on what the competition’s got.

Leaving the fair I notice Mayer-Brown have paid a locally-based rickshaw company to ferry students – free of charge – to a destination of their choice. Who said lawyers never take you for a ride?

Posted by Chris Baraniuk in Other | November 17, 2008 10:24AM |