career
DTU’s annual job and career fair attracts around 10,000 visitors and creates an inspiring environment where students and recent graduates can build relationships, gain experience, and discover new opportunities.
Behind the large corporate booths, the many conversations, and the professional organization lies a student-run organization that not only connects students with the business world—it also develops the volunteers who run it.
This includes DSE department head Ida-Marie Colding Olsen. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics, but during the fair, her work with DSE takes center stage.
Ida-Marie Colding Olsen’s journey into DSE began when she spontaneously signed up as a fair assistant last year because her friend had done so:
"I lacked knowledge about the opportunities available after graduation and about Danish companies in general. It’s not something I feel I’ve recieved at home, so DSE seemed like a good way to fill that knowledge gap," says Ida-Marie Colding Olsen.
Later, the DSE office became a place she frequented. She pitched in wherever extra hands were needed, got involved in several committees, and got to know the organization from the inside. And when it came time to elect a department head at the general meeting, she ran for the position and was elected. Today, Ida-Marie Colding Olsen oversees both operations and HR and serves on the DSE board of directors.
It is especially the facilitation, and working with people that motivate her:
"I’m pursuing a very technical degree that I’m deeply passionate about, but where I truly thrive and find my strength is clearly in interacting with other people. In group work, I’m better at the big picture than the details."
For her, the fair is therefore not just about the two days it takes place in March, but also about all the coordination work that goes into it before, during, and after:
“I’ve helped plan a panel discussion on women’s leadership in engineering, featuring, among others, the CEO of Microsoft Denmark as a prelude to the fair. In addition, I’ve helped plan a networking event at the Opera House in Holmen, Copenhagen, where our volunteers will have the opportunity to meet with companies in a different setting than at the fair."
At the Student House on DTU Lyngby Campus, Berkcan Güzelocak and Stephan Eichinger from Germany take a brief break from walking around and looking over the shoulders of the DSE volunteers. They come from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, where they help run the job and career fair Hochschulkontaktmesse (HOKO). It is run by 26 other students and, according to them, attracted more than 250 companies over three days last year.
The German guests are using the visit to learn more about how DSE bridges the gap between students and companies, and they are particularly struck by the strong volunteer community surrounding the fair.
“Students at DTU can engage themselves in DSE for several years, whereas we in HOKO’s core group can only participate for one year at a time,” notes Berkcan Güzelocak, who is studying IT at the university in Munich.
When people choose to stay with the organization for several years, it speaks to the strong sense of community surrounding DSE, according to Berkcan Güzelocak and Stephan Eichinger, who have experienced this firsthand.
“DSE has welcomed us very warmly, and we’ve been invited to go sightseeing in Copenhagen,” says Berkcan Güzelocak.
During the fair, around 45 volunteers from DSE’s DTU department, approximately 40 fair assistants, and additional help from DSE’s Aalborg department will be participating.
Facts
