Career Expo to connect English speakers with international firms in Czechia

Next week, Prague will host the 2024 Career Expo, one of the country’s biggest festivals for job opportunities – including for English-speaking jobs. Featuring dozens of large, multinational companies – such as Amazon and Raiffeisenbank – the maiden two-day event aims to provide guests with career counseling, job offers, and current trends from the world of work.

The free-entry event sets out to provide attendees with comprehensive job-related advice, allowing people to speak to firms’ representatives and exchange contact information. Job roles will be available to speakers of various languages, such as French, Spanish, German, and English.

Among the 120 companies attending the exhibition (many of which are global) are Allegro, Hilton hotels, Lidl, IKEA, Philip Morris ČR, Randstad, Smartwings, and more. Career Expo encourages guests to connect with companies’ representatives and other attendees to elevate their careers via stalls, talks, workshops, and skills sessions.

The exhibition provides panel discussions on the main stage about work-related topics such as mental health, personal skills, and branding. The event will also feature talks from industry experts on leveraging data in the workplace, the future of banking, and workplace diversity. These will all be in Czech.

Martin Howlings, founder and CEO of Expats.cz, will give a speech at the exhibition addressing the unique needs of international employees in the Czech Republic, from language barriers to cultural differences. The speech will focus on helping Czech companies better accommodate their expat colleagues and understand how to integrate them most effectively.

To prepare guests for their face-to-face meeting with their potential next employer, Career Expo has given people several pieces of advice in preparation for the event. These include: polishing your CV and printing out several copies; finding out in advance as much information as possible about a company you may be interested in; and preparing insightful questions for recruiters at the fair.

Career Expo also provides a list of dos and don'ts for guests coming face-to-face with a recruiter at the fair. The exhibition advises people to be proactive and make the first move when approaching recruiters, mentioning job interests, work experience, and skills. It also advises paying close attention to non-verbal communication – encouraging guests to maintain good posture, eye contact, and a positive attitude.

The list of three major don'ts comprises of: asking the company what it can offer without properly researching salaries (or the firm itself), speaking negatively about current or previous employers, and looking at your phone during a conversation.