Mega job fair fails to draw in aspirants

Ravi Chandel

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 22

The ongoing second state-level mega job fair organised at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) has entered its third day today, but the number of job aspirants visiting it remained abysmally low.

As per information, on the very first day, 12 companies visited the fair and around 150 job aspirants approached them, of whom only 95 have been shortlisted.

The next day, six companies came to the fair and only 95 candidates visited it, of which only 18 have been shortlisted.

Today, 184 candidates appeared of which only 41 were shortlisted, so far.

Ironically, in view of the less numbers of job seekers at the fair, the authorities have also shifted the venue of registration.

Earlier, the registration venue for the candidates to generate the hall ticket was at the hockey ground, but now it has been shifted to the conference hall.

Meanwhile, many of the job aspirants said they were not well aware of the job fair. They only got to know about it from media reports. Besides, after shifting of the fair registration venue, a number of job seekers thought that the job fair has concluded.

Jagseer Singh, father of a job aspirant, said, “I came here along with my daughter who did graduation and ITI diploma. Firstly, we got to know about the job fair from newspapers. Secondly, after coming here we came to know that the registration site has been shifted. There was no signboard for the registration site to facilitate the candidates.”

Suresh Kumar, a job aspirant, said, “I completed my Class XII and did ITI diploma, but on reaching here I came to know that ITI diploma holders can apply for the job only on the last day of the fair.”

Manjeet Singh, another candidate, said, “I have three years of work experience, but the companies here are not offering me a respectable package.”

On the other hand, recruiters said candidates had not come well prepared for the interview and were only worried about the salary package. 

Jitin Khare from Imperial said, “We are disappointed with the response from the candidates as they are not even carrying the CVs with them. However, we have interviewed 30 candidates in the last couple of days and only seven of them have been shortlisted.” 

Ajammul Hussain from Convergys also echoed similar sentiments. He said here they only found candidates of the MRSPTU. Besides, they haven’t come across any such candidate who belongs to rural area, he added.

When contacted, Dr Rajesh Gupta, Training and Placement Officer, MRSPTU, confirmed that they have shifted the registration site to the conference hall due to low turnout of job aspirants. Besides, he said the weather is turning hot. 

Deputy Commissioner Diprava Lakra said, “We have kicked off an ad campaign to inform people about the job fair. It is difficult to understand why people are not visiting it.”