BPMA 2nd Annual Career Fair a Big Hit!
by Ashima Dua -
On March 27th BPMA held its second annual career fair at WeWork Central Square (located at 625 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA). The evening was a packed house of companies and job seekers meeting each other, networking and learning more about the Product scene in Boston!
The career fair kicked off in the main area at WeWork, a nice open space to enjoy conversation and food, before 6pm for the 17 companies in attendance. The companies included established firms and startups across many industries:
- Acquia
- Blueconic
- Cambridge Blockchain
- Cambridge Mobile Telematics
- DraftKings
- EZ Cater
- Hubspot
- Iboss
- Optum
- Recorded Future
- Rue Gilt Groupe
- Shark Ninja
- The Board
- Toast
- TripAdvisor
- Wayfair
- Yesware
and were given the option to set up their table by picking first come first serve. As candidates began arriving the tables were filled with informational items, their company representatives and paraphernalia for candidates to take home.
Job candidates were able to check in at building security starting at 6pm, and come up a short elevator flight to be greeted by the BPMA table. Here they could create a name tag, place a dot on it (green if looking for a job, blue if hiring) and get additional information about BPMA and WeWork. We even have a couple people put both colored dots on their name tags since their companies were recruiting and they were also interested in learning about additional opportunities!
After that, it was a person’s choice, hit the food table, or go straight to the career fair to meet and mingle; most headed straight to the companies. People were excited to be there, with some commenting they loved the event last year and were excited to be back!
While last year career fair saw sessions that folks liked, this year’s breakout hit was a ‘resume review’ session. The slots were coveted and were filled up in the first ½ hour of the night! Everyone was excited to get the opportunity and as soon as the slots filled, candidates kept asking, are there are any slots that have opened up? Did anyone cancel? Any chance you can squeeze me in? Needless to say the reviews were loved by everyone and a hit! 3 rooms were set up for experienced PM Leaders to review and critique candidate resumes for 15 minute slots from 6pm to 8pm. And for those that weren’t able to get their resume reviewed that night, BPMA team members pointed them to the BPMA mentorship program for similar help.
The night was successful but the individual anecdotes have stuck with me weeks after the event. I heard, “I loved this event.”, “It was so awesome, thanks for putting this together.”, and even “I’d love to be more involved with BPMA, how can I do that?.”. The latter was especially endearing as I volunteer on the team that finds new volunteers!" Candidates and recruiting companies enjoyed talking to one another, making contact and collecting resumes. And companies started to head out with a pile full of resumes, and hopefully potential hires.
BPMA would like to thank all the candidates and companies for making this event a success. We look forward to more events to connect the community!
Join us, become a member or volunteer, and be part of the premier Product Management Community in Boston! We look forward to it!
Ashima Dua is Director of Product and Engineering at WiserTogether. In her professional life, relationships are everything and Ashima loves creating meaningful ones. This may mean connecting with her teammates, and understanding their ambitions and goals, or empathizing with customers and building something that is truly impactful. The people around us are the heart of any successful endeavor.