At the Job Fair That Wasn’t Quite a Game
On Wednesday, 18 March, the Finding My Future mobility took place out of the training room and into the real world. Or more precisely, into a simulation so well constructed that the line between exercise and reality became, at times, difficult to draw.
The 28 participants of the mobility travelled to the National Foundation for Youth, where an entirely different format awaited them: a job fair created specifically for them, with clear rules, real stakes, and interviewers who had no intention of going easy on anyone.
The Interview as Experience, Not Theory
Up to that point, participants had discussed CVs, personal branding, and competencies. They knew the theory. Day four came with the natural next question: but how do you cope when you’re actually sitting in front of someone asking you uncomfortable questions?
Each participant chose a field of employment based on their own preferences and competence profile — a decision that was itself an exercise in self-awareness. Then came the interview itself, face-to-face with professionals from the labour market.
The interviewers came from two organisations with solid experience in the field: Job cu Job and Școala de Valori. They were not there to be kind. They asked the questions they ask in real life — about motivation, about weaknesses, about difficult situations, about plans for the future. Participants had to be present, to be honest and, above all, to be themselves.
Observers With a Trained Eye
One element that gave the entire process real weight was the presence of representatives from DGASPC Sector 6, who followed each interview closely. Not as spectators, but as professional observers with direct experience in working with vulnerable young people and assessing personal development needs.
At the end of the sessions, their feedback was exactly what it needed to be: honest, direct, and constructive. They told each participant what worked and what didn’t, what conveyed confidence and what betrayed uncertainty, what was worth keeping and what needed work. The kind of feedback you rarely receive — and which, precisely for that reason, stays with you.
Why This Format Matters
The job fair at the National Foundation for Youth was not an activity to tick off a list. It was the moment when the entire week acquired practical meaning. All the previous sessions — active listening, the wheel of values, personal branding, CV peer review, the question about what you’re good at — came together that day into a single integrated experience.
For the youth workers present, the value was twofold: they lived through the challenge of a real interview themselves, but they also saw, from the inside, how an experiential format like this actually works. A method they can replicate back home, with the young people they accompany day after day.
Finding My Future is funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, under action KA210-YOU — Small-scale partnerships in youth.
