The Hindu : Front Page : 74 candidates land jobs, 360 short-listed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 26, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

74 candidates land jobs, 360 short-listed

Staff Reporter

Companies happy with quality of candidates who turned up at Opportunities Fair

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE: A section of job-seekers who turned up at The Hindu Opportunities Fair in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. — Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seventy-four candidates landed job offers and 360 others were short-listed for final selection at the two-day The Hindu Opportunities Fair which began here on Saturday.

Resumes of hundreds of other candidates are being forwarded to the headquarters of 24 information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services firms taking part in the fair. More than 15,000 candidates, mostly those who are in the final year of study or who have just passed out from college, took part in the fair. Invitations to the fair had been sent to 25,000 candidates.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, the event sponsor, took in the largest number of candidates on Saturday: 34. SlashSupport India took in 18 candidates and ISG Novasoft Technologies nine. Associate sponsor Patni took in five candidates, while Sun Tec, also an associate sponsor, took in three.

The number of candidates short-listed by many of these companies was significantly higher. Allsec Technologies has held out hope for 115 candidates, while U.S. Technology Resources is making up its mind up on giving jobs to 90 candidates. Network Systems and Technologies (NeST) has short-listed 80 candidates, while WINS Infotek has short-listed 20.

While companies such as NeST were looking at collecting resumes at the fair, those such as CTS chose to conduct written tests and interviews at the event itself. Some companies have promised tests and interviews for candidates, mainly `freshers,' in the coming days.

Representatives of many companies expressed satisfaction over the quality of candidates. Subhash Bansiwal, vice-president and head, human resources, Sun Tec, for instance, said he was quite impressed with the technical acumen of candidates. "I was able to short-list a candidate with nine years of experience and two with seven years of experience. Frankly, I did not expect this to happen," he explained.

On the second day of the fair, on Sunday, many companies expect more candidates with work experience to turn up.

After Thiruvananthapuram, the fair will move to Bangalore in May, Coimbatore in July and Chennai in September. The first fair was held in 2004 in Chennai.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail