Meet your future tech team at the Makers Careers Fair

London is at the epicentre of the UK’s tech boom, with the rest of the country following suit. As regions transform into thriving tech hubs, jobs in the sector are becoming hotter than ever, with software developers being one of the most in-demand occupations in the UK. This leaves businesses with the challenge of finding the right candidates for their tech teams. Makers are working to bridge the skills gap, so far training over 3000 people to become confident, agile, and ready to work software engineers.

After completing the Makers bootcamp, our graduates are always extremely eager to connect with our hiring community and hungry to get stuck into a role within one of their tech teams. The Makers Careers Fair gives them the opportunity to do just that. It also gives employers a platform to showcase the career options available within their company and express clearly what they’re looking for in a candidate.

What happens at the Makers Careers Fair?

Careers Fair consists of a series of presentations in which companies discuss their engineering culture, challenges they tackle, coding style, and their approach to promoting and cultivating talent. At our most recent event, TotallyMoney, ClearScore, Exceedra, Adsignal, and PaddyPower presented on February 24th to our fresh graduates at Toynbee Hall — a stone's throw away from Makers HQ.

We’ve now nailed the hybrid event framework, an ideal structure for the Careers Fair as students on-site and online were able to ask all of their burning questions about corporate culture, career advancement prospects, and the tech stack the companies use.

Check out some of our hiring partners' fantastic presentations in the video below.

“I am a Career Changer”

“I am a career changer“, is a common phrase overheard at Makers, and our hiring partners are often very happy to hear it!

The evolution of past student careers over time has been astounding! From scuba diving instructors to zoologists, we’ve had it all, now including a Japanese interpreter! Our hiring partners are continuously praising the enormous value that employees from various career backgrounds bring to their company.

When asked what he liked most about career changers, Victor Morales from ClearScore told us,

“they come in with so much experience and transferable skills. They know who they are because they’ve had life experience and they can apply that to this role”.

Brendan Roberts from Exceedra, who has hired Makers for just over six years, expressed the importance they place on diverse working backgrounds when searching for candidates,

“The fact that Makers come from a diverse range of backgrounds is very important to the hiring process…We’ve had people come from various university degrees, people who used to be chefs, working in coffee shops…It was refreshing for us to find graduates that were really excited about the tech world”.

When Makers Alumni turns Hiring Partner

A real highlight of any Careers Fair is having our hiring partners, who are Makers alumni, present to the graduates. Seeing them return after a successful career in the industry, and then choosing to hire Makers is always a proud moment for us.

Alex Mellor from Adsignal graduated from Makers in 2016 and is now returning as a hiring partner. He went from being a Makers job hunter to becoming a senior developer within a year. When asked why Adsignal choose to hire Makers Alex told us,

“The experiences they get at the end of their course almost get them ready to function in our team from day one. They’re the people that have the right attitude and skillset, where they can integrate with our team and progress very quickly”.

Take a look at what some of our hiring partners had to say in the video below.

Time to meet your future tech team!

Following the presentations, the graduates roamed free as they were eager to meet and chat with the various companies in the afternoon networking hour. ​​During the session, the students’ confidence shone through, and they all made quite an impression on each organisation.

With that being said, it’s no surprise that the February 2022 Careers Fair was a huge success, with over thirty graduates being recruited as an outcome! How amazing is that?!

Are you looking to level up your tech team? Join us! Discover how Makers bootamp can enrich your tech team by bringing you individuals who are ready to work, have a diverse range of life experiences and have innovative ways of thinking.

If you’re hiring this year, come along to our upcoming Careers Fair on the 19th of May, pitch your company and meet some of our amazing graduates!

To find out more head here.