With “educational opportunities’’ and “career options’ coming under one umbrella, “The Career Fair-2007” has been an unique one in many ways.   Precisely because of these reasons, the “Career Fair-2007’, the two-day Educational and Employment promotion event, conducted by the KAB Educational Consultants, at the Kamma Sangam Hall, Ameerpet, last month, proved to be a big success.

 For the young students, who are looking for opportunities and in a dilemma to choose which would be the best option for them made a beeline to the venue. “It’s completely different,” said Mr M Sajid, a final year MCA student from MJ College of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad. “With information regarding employment and educational opportunities both being put under one roof, it’s a good idea,” he said.
 
 Twenty-seven stalls of different organizations, ranging from software, BPOs, Animation, Higher Education training and Overseas education consultants, banks and some recruitment agencies all opened their “Help Desks’’ to assist the potential career seekers about the world opportunities awaiting them. Most of the job fairs, conducted in the Twin Cities in recent times are restricted to software and are unidirectional, serving the needs of a specific industry. This system generally leaves larger sections uncatered to.

 However, the ‘Career Fair-2007’ proved to be different in many ways. TMI First, one of the leading job consultants, who have entered into an agreement with ICICI Prudential, had conducted walk-in interviews for their one-year PGPMI (Post Graduate Program in Management and Insurance) course. The registration, short listing and selection is done “free of cost’’ for the candidates registered at the venue. The selected candidates will have the opportunity of choosing from 16 top B-Schools in India for studying the course and after completion of the course they are provided employment in the ICICI Bank. 
 
 Same is the case with Mensons & Quarks Consultants Pvt Ltd., who had opened two stalls at the venue, to attract the job seekers. “We have the openings for all disciplines of students including fresh graduates. But, surprisingly engineering students had turned up in big numbers,’’ said Ms. Divya Hamsa, their representative at the stall. “We are having openings for pharma, accountancy, HR, marketing, IT, non-IT and many more,’’ she added.

 Mesons & Quarks, who established their resource centers in many parts of Hyderabad and branches in the state including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Triupathi, Kadapa, Kurnool, Eluru, Khammam and Karimnagar, are also conducting training course in multimedia, leading to employment. Even the fresh graduates can also apply for the course. However, UD School of Animation has a different agenda. “We are here to promote our brand,’’ said Mr. Ch Vidyasagar, their representative at the venue. “Animation is the next big thing to happen in India after software and BPOs. There is a lot of potential in the industry. We are here to promote the employment potential of the industry and our own company,’’ he adeed.

 It is no denying the fact that Hyderabad is called “Cyberabad’’ because of its success in the software sector which is propelling the growth in the Twin Cities. And, it’s not different that software was cynosure of all eyes at the venue.  Be it promotion of Higher education and employment opportunities, software companies attracted the most number of visitors at the venue.
 
 Srinidhi Infotech, an authorized training centre for Oracle, had attracted good number of students for registration. “We are extremely happy with the response here,’’ declared Mr P Sai Kumar, their representative at the venue. “There were more than 70 engineering graduates who had registered with us for training at the venue,’’  he said. “Most of the students are either engineering graduates or MCAs,’’ he added.
 
 International School of Information Technologies, an IT finishing school, was elated with the response at the venue. “We assist the students in project work besides providing real-time training which is designed as per the demands of the software industry,’’ said Mr M Sridhar Reddy, administrative executive of the organization.

‘It’s the skill that matters’
 Speaking at the venue, Mr K Venkatesh, Director of KAB Educational Consultants, called upon the young students to make use of the opportunities available in many other sectors not just software. “There are plenty of opportunities available across several sections like education, management, sales, manufacturing, health, pharmacy and many more. But still most of the students are focusing only on the software jobs’’ he said. He said KAB is doing its best to make people aware of the opportunities available in both education and employment, “he added. Speaking about the future prospects, he said, “the world is changing at a rapid pace. In the next five years, the science and technology will be integrated with culture of the country. And, it’s only the individual skill of the particular person that’s going to decide his/her career prospects,’’ he opined.

 The two-day event also included seminars by eminent guests of honours including Mr. M Sudhakar, vice-president, HR, Satyam Computers, former MP and chairman of the CBIT Dr. BN Reddy,  Mr. Ramakrishna Prasad, personality development consultant, Mr. K Hari Prasad, News Editor, Prasara Bharathi, GRE training expert Mr. Krupa Shankar, Ms. Bhuvaneswari of Visu International Ltd. Chaya nad Ms Shameria of Destiny Overseas Consultants, Mr Anil Kumar of CTC, Mr AN Gruruprasad of ISIT etc. An interactive session was also held with the dignitaries answering to the queries of the students.

List of participants: Visu International Ltd, Depik Tech. Pvt. Ltd, Impact Informatics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, TMI First, Mesons & Quarks Consultants Pvt Ltd, Mind On-Demand Inc, Prolific Systems & Tech Pvt. Ltd, Wine Yard Technologies, ISIT International School of Business, Inea Infoline Ltd, UD Animationa, Chennai Orbit, I-Edge, The Princeton Review, Destiny Overseas, HVAC-Dhanush Computer Services Pvt Ltd, CTC Communications Training Centre, CTC Communications Training Centre, SBI Bank Ltd, M/S Sreenidhi Info Tech, Vidya Mitra, Futureage Consultants, AISS, AEGIS, Brain Tree, IFBI Institute of Finance Banking and Insurance and SKY Animations.