EVENT BUZZ
City talent draws BPO firms, more takers than jobs
Geetanjali Gayatri

Students throng the job fair held at GCG-11 in Chandigarh recently. — Photo by Manoj Mahajan

The two-day career counselling and job carnival that concluded at Government College for Girls, Sector 11, on Sunday was a first-of-its-kind affair for the city, both in terms of taking job opportunities right to the doorstep of students and bringing employers from different sectors together under one roof in a college campus.

Funding fundas

“We will urge the authorities to create a placement fund. Money collected under this head can be utilised to arrange more such events for the students.” — Manjit Kalra, Principal, GCG-11

With eight BPO firms, including GE, Vertex, Daksh and EXL, participating in it, the event was a pointer to the emergence of the city as a hunting ground for talent by the BPO industry. In addition, leading private players like DELL and Standard Chartered too scouted for local talent among the over 3000 students who visited the fair over two days. The following profile of the leading employers who participated is an indicator of the openings in the city's job market:

Bankable choice

Being the only banking company attending the carnival, Standard Chartered's stall elicited the maximum response. It came looking for executives, tele-marketing personnel and team leaders, offering pay packets anywhere between Rs 5000 and Rs 10000. After interviewing over 700 applicants, they shortlisted nearly 350 and plan to absorb only 70 of these. The final round of interviews will be held at a later stage and candidates selected for dealing in auto loans, personal loans and car loans.

Work well for DELL

Offering jobs in customer care, engineering, technical expertise, this premier provider of services and products to build IT and internet infrastructures, put interested candidates through numerous rounds of interviews to identify the best among the lot. Frequented primarily by students from local professional colleges, it seemed to have a place for anybody with winning work attitudes.

BPOs come calling

Call center jobs seemed to be in abundance, yet they fell short when compared to the number of interested candidates. With eight BPO companies screening candidates with the right temperament, pleasant voices and personalities, the students fluent in English had a ball as they went company hopping. Once selected, most these freshers would get anywhere between Rs 7000 and Rs 10000, depending on the company they join.

Queue for counselling

While many students flocked to the carnival for jobs, there were others who came looking for guidance on careers they could pursue. Frankfinn, TIME, Pyridion International, Omega, and IMS offered information on management, hotel industry and airlines services.