Before the UP Fair hits during the Diliman month of February, the University Job Fair does. On its 25th year it made quite an impression that I don’t believe has been done before. #YSS isn’t just a bunch of event announcements with posters that look good. It’s a proper campaign that encourages graduating UP students to not only find a job, but more importantly, to aim for success. And possibly more, as you’ll find out below. Here are the highlights:
Your Success Story
This flagship video is poignant but does not forget to thrown in some deadpan humor, and grows from struggles to dreams realized.
Tumakbo ka na ba from AS to Math?
Doray Alaskadora tackles a dilemma every Diliman student has gone through: making back-to-back classes in buildings separated by many blocks and kilometers, with the quickest route not by vehicle but on foot (not to mention flights of stairs). The video hit 12,000 views overnight.
Future Careers
Ikot jeeps were reupholstered with green and white seats labeled with many different career titles, having an aspirational and maybe even a fortune cookie-like aspect.
Next week, Manong Ikot Jeepney driver will take you to UJF 2014 so you can finally act on #YourSuccessStory. pic.twitter.com/QwpNFme04E
— University Job Fair (@UP_UJF) January 30, 2014
Priceless
Alluding to the award-winning MasterCard campaign, UJF also helped food stalls on campus by putting up better designed price lists, capped off with:
Ikot jeep fare to Bahay ng Alumni for UJF 2014: ?7.00
Finding the perfect job: Priceless
Happy Ending
Finally, Prince Charming invited students to find their “happy ending” at the job fair.
Past, Present, Future
25 years of success. This is the University Job Fair. pic.twitter.com/cjs19TmeMo
— University Job Fair (@UP_UJF) January 20, 2014
I find it interesting that many of these promotions allude to stories and characters this generation grew up on, since the act of career preparation, if not the last few months before graduation, is the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Channeling another form of nostalgia—a very specific problem experienced by students over the years—also tapped into the alumni crowd, helping it go viral and bonding students old and new to what hasn’t changed.
But probably the greatest feature here, and symbolic of UP’s uniqueness as a university for the people, made up of iskolar ng bayan, is how #YourSucessStory helps out those who make a living on campus as well.
The dream becomes this: UP grads, your success story can be everyone else’s too.