The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Job aspirants check out opportunities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Job aspirants check out opportunities

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, OCT. 15. It was a sea of anxious young men and women braving the hot sun as the three-day `The Hindu Opportunities Fair 2004' opened at the MRC Centre here this morning. The overwhelming response from the candidates, most of them final year students or first-time job seekers, almost paralysed traffic on the MRC Nagar stretch. The police and the organisers regulated the flow to the queues for registration.

The candidates began queuing up hours before the inauguration scheduled for 10 a.m. Within hours, the queues grew longer spilling into the nearby lanes and stretched to both sides of the huge auditorium. Thirtytwo companies in information technology, IT-enabled services, business process outsourcing, manufacturing, engineering and insurance are among the participants. The key sponsors include e-Serve, Vision Healthsource, Maples ESM Technologies, Reliance India Mobile and TMIfirst.

The stage for `The Hindu Opportunities Fair,' which will be conducted till October 17, was set days ago with the aspirants registering for a couple of online psychometric tests and filling up their resumes, logging on to www.hinduonnet.com or tmifirst.com. About 57,000 people registered.

Senior executives of many companies said the online tests helped in managing the more-than-expected number of job-seekers. With most of the firms displaying the job profiles and requisite qualifications, the interested candidates visited the stalls and left their registration numbers.

Assessment tool

``We will scan their records and call them for an interview,'' said an executive of Sherpa Business Solutions. The psychometric assessment would be a tool to judge aptitudes and attitudes. Job aspirants such as Uday Bhaskar Nagella, a computer science student from Tirupati, was all praise for the organisers. ``Considering the crowd, the management is very good. But, it would have been better had more preference been shown by the companies to freshers,'' said the 23-year-old.

A final year BCA student in a city college, Usha, said: ``I know I am not getting an appointment letter here. It is good to know the kind of openings and the job market now. After all, I may seek a job in mid-2005 if I am not pursuing higher studies. It's good to see some of the leading companies under one roof.''

The surge of freshers seemed to baffle many of the companies, particularly those into software development and processes. Intelligroup Asia and Verizon Data Services are among the companies scouting for experienced hands.

But there is no dearth of jobs for freshers — those who have finished graduation — as companies such as Aviva Life Insurance have vacancies. ``We have 30-35 openings for the post of insurance advisers and consultants that we want to fill up by next weekend,'' said Chinmay Chetan, assistant sales manager (Bancaassurance) of the company.

Some of the leading names looking at the fair, which has become a recruitment platform, are Allsec Technologies, Mahindra British Telecom, Sutherland Global Services, SlashSupport India, TATA AIG Life Insurance, Covansys, Larsen and Toubro and Ramco.

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

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section

State probe an eyewash: apex court

Trade summit an opportunity for Chennai

Ryots walk out protesting `non-disbursal of loans'

Job aspirants check out opportunities

`Declining preference for science streams cause for concern'

Beware vested interests, Minister tells panchayats

Governing councils: Anna varsity fiat to colleges stayed

Mental health scheme for Theni, Kanyakumari

PIL for `overtake signal'

Ponmudi appears in court

Membership forms distribution will be fair: Vasan

Trade unions urge employees to stage demonstrations

Briefly