Stupendous Opportunities!
Six a.m. August 20th, at HITEX, Hyderabad, it was bright, but not sunny, with a fortuitously balmy breeze blowing the cobwebs away and nearly sixty thousand young men and women made their way to the best and most modern exhibition grounds that the south can boast of. APSRTC went all out to provide extraordinary services from every corner of the twin cities to the fairgrounds and the youth took excellent advantage of it. By eight, orderly queues were already hundreds of metres long and lengthening by the minute. When the gates were opened, there was no mad rush, but an amazing, orderly and soft-spoken group of earnest young people who made their way inside. The progress was steady and continuous, the formalities quick and efficient and general movement was smooth. Hall No.2 housed the 35 companies that were participating and the thousands that entered followed the queue system, voluntarily. At the booths, orderly lines waited patiently to hand in their CVs and companies often over-eagerly took them for future reference. Some candidates were sent to Hall 3 for testing and seamlessly thence to quick interviews in private cubicles where they were processed at record speed.
Offer letters were made on the spot and on the very first day, just over six hundred offers were made. The employability seminars were held at the main HITEX administration building and since they were scheduled to begin at 11.00 a.m. very large crowds were grouped outside the hall where it was to be. Even the organisers were unprepared for the popularity of the seminars and there were only around 150 chairs for a crowd that exceeded 350. It was a testimony to the patience and the very acute learning desire of the youth of the region that they were not deterred by the minor inconveniences at the hall.
They stood for six hours, listening to experts like Mr.T.Muralidharan, Chairman of TMI Network ltd, a leading placement agency and Dr.Abhimanyu Acharya, Director,C & K Management Ltd. Not only that, they also enjoyed themselves while taking detailed notes on the important aspects of preparing a modern curriculum vitae, attending interviews, dressing appropriately, business etiquette and how to make the right impression in the first ninety days at the new job. Recruiters were rapturous about the fair. "The mix of talent here is amazing. I am appointing 30 people for my clients in Dubai and Singapore airports," said Mr. S.T.Vellu of Leo Marshell Agency, Chennai. Mr. G.K.Kalidasan of ISG Novasoft hired a trucking company to shift all ten boxes of CVs back to Chennai for processing. Dr. Abhimanyu Acharya, one of the speakers, said: "I cannot imagine so many candidates waiting so patiently to listen to me. Despite the insufferable conditions the audience were disciplined, attentive and very participatory.
Even though I was very uncomfortable in the heat, they inspired me to give all I could for the best and brightest of the south." Cognizant Technology Solutions the event sponsor was the single largest employer at the fair, snaffling 130 of the most suitable candidates. According to the first collated information on the offers made and accepted, 2100 offers were made on the spot, 1400 had been accepted. To sum it all up in the words of A.S.Gupta of Govindrajan College seems most apt: " ... it was monstrous! People had come from far and near to attend this opportunity of their lifetime. It was Woodstock minus the music, Mardi gras minus the revelry and Valhalla minus the Evil Loki. I am amazed that one hundred thousand young people can get together at one place and make no noise!" The twin cities must have the unique quality of exercising a beneficent and serene influence on all the young hopefuls who had come from all over the South.
JAMES ROBERT TEACHER
drwise@sify.com
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