EAGER: Candidates at The Hindu Opportunities' Fair held at Trade Centre in the Export Promotion Industrial Area in Bangalore on Saturday. — PHOTO: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: Most turned up before the scheduled time of 10 a.m. and waited under the scorching sun for the gates to open. And when it did, hundreds of hopefuls walked in looking for that right job which would propel them to making their dream a reality.

About 12,000 people attended the first day of The Hindu Opportunities Fair-2007 on Saturday, which was held at the Trade Centre in Export Promotion Industrial Park, Whitefield Industrial Area. People with experience were the preferred lot, though several companies accepted resumes from freshers and promised to contact them at a later date.

Pleased lot

Companies taking part in the job fair were a pleased lot, with many offering jobs on the spot and shortlisting other applicants for further processing. Cognizant, the main sponsor, made 30 job offers and shortlisted 205 persons for the next round. Candidates are likely to be placed at the company's centres across the country, including Chennai, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Pune.

Venkatesan Seshadri, vice-president, Talent Acquisition, Cognizant, said that the people the company had hired in the previous job fairs organised by The Hindu had performed very well. On the advantage of taking part in a job fair, he said: "We see a higher number of people with niche skills come to us at the job fair. This meets our requirements." Patni Computer Systems turned up with 25 job offers and shortlisted 150 based on different skill sets. Sangeetha Malkhede, Senior Manager, Human Resources, was impressed with the quality of the applicants. "We are looking for people with three years and more of experience in e-commerce, embedding systems, mainframe and data warehousing," she said.

Global Consultants Incorporated made job offers to 30 candidates; Covansys shortlisted 55; Standard Chartered offered jobs to eight candidates and shortlisted 50 others; 24/7 Customer offered jobs to eight candidates; Flexiworks shortlisted 20 for non-voice BPO jobs and tested 130 for ASC.net skills; Slash Support made three job offers; HSBC offered a job to one candidate and shortlisted six others; SAIC shortlisted 20 candidates; and Infosys shortlisted eight. SAIC's India Director and head of Human Resources and Training Peter D. Divaker said that the company was looking at recruiting at least 150. "Though we have received queries from many freshers, we are looking at people with more than three years of experience in legacy systems, support applications, development and maintenance. The advantage of a job fair is that we can finish the entire process of recruitment in a single day," he said.

From afar

Job aspirants came from many parts of south India, and some from as far as Bihar. Darshana Rajagopal was one of the many looking for a shift in career from an ITES to an IT job. "Even if it is a small company, that's fine. But it must be a good company," she said.

A bunch of five boys and girls came from Palamner in Andhra Pradesh and were looking for jobs in the IT sector. Started with the aim of creating a platform for job givers and seekers, the fair ended on a successful note on Saturday. It will continue on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu