TEST OF SKILLS: Students of Osmania University at a recruitment camp held on the campus on Saturday. - Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

HYDERABAD: Over 20,000 students got a taste of what it takes to make it big in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in the first-ever Career Awareness and Recruitment Drive (CARD) organised at Osmania University here on Saturday.

It was not about getting selected in the IT and IT-Enabled Service companies, but learning the tricks of the trade and facing the demanding questions hurled at them by HR recruiters from top BPOs.

BPO requirements

Despite inadequacies in arrangements, the CARD programme turned out to be a fine learning experience for thousands of graduates who hitherto had little knowledge about the requirements of the BPO industry.

"I am a shy person and the HR recruiter suggested me to talk to him without any inhibitions. He also asked me to brush up my communication skills in terms of framing sentences while talking over phone," says Commerce graduate P. Sreenidhi.

Companies having requirement for call centre jobs, including Apollo Health Street, ADP, HSBC, 24/7 customer, Tata Sky, Sitel, Genpact and Brigade, participated.

There was a glut of B.Tech graduates who made a beeline to stalls carrying their resumes. "Majority of them are B.Tech graduates applying for call centre jobs. We promised them to screen their resumes for our technical jobs and not call centres because they are overqualified," said HR recruiter from ADP Vivek Thukral.

Skilled manpower

"It's a great experience for me because I had not decided till now what to do in future. But after interacting with them, I came to know that there is a demand for skilled manpower. Genpact officials asked me to fine-tune my communication skills and come back after a month," says another OU graduate T. Padma. Lakshmi. The recruiters pointed out that most of the candidates lacked communication skills, which is very important in a BPO. "We screened about 1,000 students till now and shortlisted 20. We may finally take five or six," said Assistant Vice-President (HR) Apollo Health Street Manuel Fernandes. The CARD programme will continue on Sunday.

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