Kontaktparty 2007

Job Forum for Students by Students

On 23 and 24 January, from 2.20pm to 5pm the Association of Computer Science Students is hosting the 22. Kontaktparty Job Fair at the mensa of ETH Zurich. Katja Abrahams spoke to Georg Troxler, the president of the organizational committee.

18 January 2007

What exactly is the Kontaktparty?

The job fair enables CS students and PhDs to speak to company representatives looking for interns or software engineers in a relaxed atmosphere. Next to students from ETH we also invited students of Applied Computer Science from the University of Zurich.

How can students prepare for the Kontaktparty?

As opposed to other job fairs, the main idea of the Kontaktparty is that students can attend spontaneously, without registration, and talk to company representatives of firms they are interested in. If you intend to negotiate an internship or even a job position it may be of help to wear an adequate shirt and bring your CV.

This year the event takes place on two consecutive afternoons for the first time. Why is that?

Last year, several companies complained about the lack of space in the mensa of ETH such that we decided to stretch the event out over two days. We considered moving to a larger building at the Honggerberg campus. But we would like for the event site to be easily accessible for all participants - also for students who just want to stop by to collect information - and we therefore decided to keep the mensa in the main building as our location.

How many companies will participate and how many visitors do you expect?

Each of the two afternoons we about 40 companies from Switzerland and also a few forgein firms. This means we have had an increase of about 40% from the previous year! We are slowly back to the participant numbers of the years 2000 and 2001. We also have several "regulars" who gather information on the upcoming Kontaktparty several months prior to the event and if they cannot participate they notify us. We expect about 300 visitors per day. But this is an estimate only.

Is it difficult to get companies to participate?

Convincing companies who have not previously participated can be challenging. It takes several attempts at times. But if we explain in detail, what the Kontaktparty is all about, most of the react in a very positive and open way and are willing to come up with the participation fee which we use - among other things - to finance the brochure containing the profiles of the event's participants.
This year we have for the first time large companies such as Oracle, ZKB and BEDAG. Also, Microsoft will be present once more after several years of absence.

Tell us about the distribution of tasks among the Kontakparty team.

Or team consists of 6 CS students, where each of us is responsible for one of the following divisions: Graphics/Layout, Web, Participant Administration, Logistics/Events and PR. As president of the organizational committee, I hold the overall responsibility. For the planning of this year's event, we gathered for the first time in May 2006 to decide who will be responsible for which part of the organization. In August, we sent out the invitations, thereafter the registration phase - the most intensive phase - begins. By the end of December or the beginning of January the students as well as the registered companies receive the brochure containing the profiles. The finishing phase during which we send out bills etc. lasts about one month.


How did you become president of the Kontaktparty?

After the 2006 Kontaktparty it became evident that the then president, Alexandra Junghans, was about to complete her studies and would no longer serve as president. Since I had been helping out at the event in the past, I was asked to succeed. After agreeing to do so, I was chosen president. In the coming fall, I will likely complete my master's degree, however, my successor has already (inofficially) been determined. Yet, we may still need new members for the committee in the near future!

For more information on the Kontaktparty, see http://www.kontaktparty.ethz.ch