As an entrepreneur, how do you attract the attention of potential employees, among all the other companies at the Northern Job Fair that are looking for fresh blood? Through fortune teller Marian, for example.
Crazy green glasses, red coffee cups, pens, key rings, shopping cart coins and lots of colorful keycoards. The more than a hundred participating companies and government institutions in the Northern Job Fair all do their best to stand out from the shuffling crowd in the MartiniPlaza in Groningen by giving away items with the name of their organization in almost the same way.
It was not quiet on Friday. And this Saturday it will be even busier at the Northern Job Fair – with people in their twenties, thirties and forties mainly – which indicates that many Northerners are open to a new step in their career. They can choose from stands from Defense to healthcare organizations, construction companies, educational institutions and everything in between.
‘I see and so it is’
In the battle for the attention of new staff, the organization DNA Next (vocational training for companies and adults) is one of the few not to opt for corporate junk. The appearance of Marian van Noort (alias the Walking Fortune Teller) in her blue glittery dress at a table in her booth evokes the association of a tarot reader at the fair.
“I don’t read someone’s future, but someone’s talents,” says Van Noort, who calls himself a ‘reader and spiritual entertainer’. She reads someone’s talents without asking questions. She just looks at the person in front of her and ‘reads the energy’. “A line goes up from you and via the supernatural it comes back to me.” There is no room for doubt with Van Noort. “I see and that’s how it is.”
You can watch
The seat opposite her is never unoccupied for long. Now it is Ria Swarts from Oude Pekela who allows herself to be read by Van Noort. The fortune teller writes down all kinds of good qualities of Swarts on the back of a beermat. Organizing, for example. “I like it, but when I have to organize something, people always tell me that I’m so busy,” says Swarts. “So maybe that’s not a good quality of mine after all.” Nonsense, says the walking fortune teller. “When you organize something, you are busy, so that is normal.”
Swarts is here with her husband. Not that she is immediately looking for another job. “I was just curious,” she says. “And you can watch, right?”
Mortuary houses
Less vague is the stand of José van Dijk and Suzanne Visser from cleaning company Eresdé. They are simply looking for more staff who are willing to roll up their sleeves. “From cleaning offices to funeral homes,” Van Dijk summarizes. It doesn’t deter you. She points to the eleven application forms that visitors have completed with her over the past two hours. “This is going very well. We need people who speak Dutch and preferably also have a driver’s license.”
Further along are the men and women of CGI, in their red and white baseball jackets. One of them is manager Joost van Keulen. The former Groningen councilor readily admits that the company’s name is not well known here. “That’s because we are active behind the scenes a lot. Yet 90,000 people work at CGI worldwide,” says Van Keulen. “So we are not small.”
The Canadian “listed family business” has a branch in Hoogkerk, where 250 people work. From here they provide IT systems for organizations in the Northern Netherlands. “For example, we provide the red crosses above the highways and the systems that ensure that the trains run on time. We need good IT people for that. Of the people walking around here, at most 2 or 3 percent have the right profile, with a higher professional education in ICT,” Van Keulen estimates. “Just let them come.”