Students will have a chance to make a good first impression on potential employers and brush up their resumes and networking skills at next month’s College Student Networking Event (CSNE).That is according to David Cash, CEO of Endurance Specialty Holdings and chairman of Business Bermuda, who will be hosting the event at the Fairmont Hamilton on Thursday July 21.Mr Cash, who was promoting the event yesterday, said it was the perfect opportunity for students to meet with companies and take part in a number of activities such as four-minute speed networking sessions with the likes of Governor Sir Richard Gozney and HSBC Bank Bermuda CEO Philip Butterfield, as well as other top businessmen and executives from a combination of local and international companies and politicians, all within a career fair setting.He said the event would enable participants to sharpen up their presentation skills and how they market themselves, in addition to getting an idea of the career paths available, while prospective employers could probe possible candidates to test their strengths and weaknesses.With a primary role as a speed networker, Mr Cash will spend an hour meeting face-to-face with students to find out more about them and their personal qualities and technical skills for the job.“The event is about students being able to show their potential,” he said.“It will also help them to think about themselves as employees and to express what they do well.“But mainly it is just a fun event for all from students to employers.”Mr Cash, whose company will also have a booth at the event helping students learn more about careers in re/insurance, said that the range of students who have attended the event in the past have tended to vary in their approach and attitude and have learned different skills off each other while getting a sense for the competition they face.He said that it would also help the students refine their choices on leaving college, while others who had taken a related degree, in insurance or risk management for example, were seeking to get a summer internship and eventually land a job at that company.“Insurance is in the main an office job requiring analytical and team work skills,” he said.“But they vary from company to company with some jobs more analytical than others and jobs such as brokers being more interpersonal in terms of being interactive and negotiating with clients and companies.”Mr Cash said there were also opportunities for the more entrepreneurial-minded students who wanted to work in retail, wholesale or the service industry for whom gaining experience working for a business was key before starting out on their own.The event, which is in its 13th year, will reward those networkers who collect the most business cards for impressing their interviewers“Life is competitive and student networking can be competitive as well so the students should bring their A-game and their business cards too,” said Mr Cash.Admitting that he had found his first year in the role as chairman exciting, if a little daunting, Mr Cash said that he has been focused on the product that Bermuda offers and its target market in attracting business to its shores, working with the organisation over the past six months on a strategy to that effect.He said that he has been actively seeking out business people on the Island who know their customers well to help move from a general branding of the jurisdiction towards a more specific approach.As a result Mr Cash plans to better align the organisation internally and market Bermuda as a place to do business as well as exploiting other areas for potential growth like the investment and asset management industry.For more information visit the CSNE website at www.csne.bm