After rounds of grueling interviews, only the best, the crème de la crème of the students of USM Engineering Campus were selected to be part of the Career Fair 2015 team. In the spirit of unity and to foster a good relationship amongst the team, a team building workshop was held on the 24th to 26th of October.
The workshop started off with a night of fun and games. Each department was tasked to create something that represented their identity using whatever that they could gather from the hall. This task gave us a chance to get those creative juices flowing. The finished products of the eight departments were anything but ordinary. We got to witness the hilarious antics and sheer creativity of career fair members that night.
Rise and shine! We got the early second morning rolling with some physical exercise in the form of Zumba! This serves as a prelude to the serious mental exercises that was going to take place that afternoon. The first activity of the day is a career fair stimulation. For this, we were divided into four groups, each consisting of members from every department of career fair. Essentially, we were supposed to create mini career fair committees. Working as a team, we brainstormed and came out with fresh new ideas and improvements for the career fair. Then each team presented their ideal career fair to the high committees. Many fresh new ideas were aspired and we got to understand how all the departments in career fair complement and support each other.
After lunch, we played a series of games that test our critical thinking skills, leadership and teamwork. In the first game, we were put into an imaginary situation of crashing on the moon. We were given a list of 20 items and asked to arrange it in order of importance in order to make a journey back to the mother ship. After much debate, each team presented their case and justified their answers. To gauge the accuracy of our answers, we were eventually given the ranking that NASA astronauts gave to the same list of 20 items. It was a stimulating and interesting session.
When our mood was slowly glooming, it was time for more fun! We played a game called “Make as much money as you can”. This was a game of wits, sly and being as mean as you can be. Simple as it sounds, choosing between X and Y, the game quickly got everybody’s adrenaline pumping. In the end, despite all the backstabbing and betrayal of trust that took place, we can still put aside it and be friends.
That night, the director of Career Fair 2014, 4th year aerospace engineering student, Alex Khoo, returned to share his experiences of working in Career Fair 2014 and encouraged us to do our best. The previous HODs of each department also returned to give some advice to the new generation of committees.
On the last day of the workshop, we had a field trip to the beach at the Penang National Park. After a short hike through the jungle path, we arrived at quiet little beach called Pantai Teluk Aling, also home to the USM CEMAC Research Centre. Some station games were played along the beach. Putting aside the fact that we stumbled, screaming at each other out of exuberance and getting wet, the games engineered a strong bond between group members and also built up our problem solving, communication and teamwork skills.
After washing up, we headed to Queensbay Mall to have lunch and prepare for the event of the night, the Masterchef-esque cooking competition! Working with a limited budget, 50+ career members split into 4 groups, went on a shopping spree to buy ingredients to cook up a storm and impress the board of judges.
After that satisfying meal, we headed back to our rooms with newfound respect, friendship and faith in one another. We started the workshop as strangers, but we ended it as friends and as one entity, fresh and ready to make Career Fair 2015 the best one yet.
Get ready and expect the best.
Career Fair 2015
Your Future Unfolds Here.