It was 13 years ago, October 25 – 26, 2001, when the Careers Management Center organized the first annual Careers Fair as part of a drive to maximize the level of contact between our students and businesses. Some 14 multinational companies took part, conducting interviews and presentations on campus to students of our MBA and International MBA, which were IE’s flagship master programs at the time.

Since then, year after year we have held the annual Careers Fair on our campus in the grounds of the Calle Serrano 99 building. Today it is considered one of the most important networking events that none our students want to miss. Down through the years we have incorporated new ideas with the objective of making the fair better each year.

• From the second edition of the Fair onwards to the present day we have staged the exhibition in the first week of October in order to make it easier for students to attend.
• In the third edition of the Fair, we focused on our internationalization strategy, with the assistance of businesses like Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, thereby providing a major opportunity for young talent to become involved in the increasingly competitive global labor market. That year more than 60% of our students were interviewed for jobs by the participating companies.
• The fourth exhibition was centered on securing a sponsorship agreement with Adecco, a world leader in the recruitment sector, whereby the Fair would form part of HR week, featuring a series of related workshops.
• With Adecco as our sponsor HR week went on to run right up to 2010. Another milestone reached in the fourth edition of the Fair was that the number of participating companies surpassed the 100 mark, having come a long way from the initial 14 in 2001. In addition, for the first time the Careers Fair was staged over the entire week, with the last day given over to law firms, aimed at students of IE’s Masters in Legal Studies.
• In 2005, the fifth edition saw a new improved version of the Career Fair Report, which contained information on the participating companies. It was also an enormous pleasure to be visited by Ana Patricia Botin, CEO of Banesto.
• The sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh editions of the Fair saw a continued drive towards our goal of internationalization that had started all the way back in 2003. In the intervening years the number of participating companies rose from 120 to 155 with a big increase in the number of positions on offer at global level, which continues to grow today.
• The 12th annual Careers Fair was held in conjunction with the Switzerland Alumni Club, which enabled us to dedicate a day to Swiss companies, including Hilti, ABB, and Zurich. In 2012 we also extended invitations to our students in IE University, and devoted the Friday afternoon to NGOs and international organisms.

We continue to stage the annual Careers Fair for a full week at the beginning of October with the support of between 120 and 130 companies, primarily international. Today it is aimed at all students in IE Business School, IE Law School, IE University, and other IE schools.

I don’t want to finish this trip down memory lane without mentioning the loyalty of some of our recruiters/clients who have been with us since our first edition up to our most recent Fair held last year, such as Accenture, Santander, Deloitte, Europraxis, Grupo San Jose… to mention but a few.