Parvaaz 2016: Thousands of aspirants throng job fair

Rozee.pk owners say over 100 companies put up their stalls at the event

ISLAMABAD:

Resumes were flying and QR codes being scanned thousands of times at the job fair organised by Rozee.pk, an online jobs portal. Taking advantage of the weekend, a large number of residents of the twin cities thronged the Pakistan-China Friendship Centre on Sunday in search for life-changing opportunities.

Thousands of job seekers attended the event, “Parvaaz 2016”, the last of a series of job fairs that the online portal has been conducting on consecutive Sundays in Faisalabad, Multan, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Gujranwala, and Sialkot with media partnership of The Express Media Group.

Monis Rahman, CEO of Rozee.pk, said the event helped candidates to find the right place as well as the entrepreneurs to find the right talent. “The event aimed at providing better opportunities for better professional growth,” he said.

Parvaaz project head Ali Javid Khilji told The Express Tribune that over 100 companies had set up their booths where a large number of people remained busy meeting human resource officials.

In the eight cities, Khilji said, “around 500 companies were engaged and thousands of people attended the events that helped us making people experience reality.”

He added that transforming things from online to reality has enabled people to believe that “everything exists in reality.”

While highlighting the impact of the event, he said that it has increased the database and provided youth with a chance to meet HR officials of huge companies.

Although CVs were handed over to the HR people, he said that most of the participants had “paperless experience” as they submitted their curriculum vitae through the QR codes displayed at the booths.

Apart from the selfie sessions carried out at almost every nook and corner of the centre, both the floors remained filled with people acquiring information and submitting documents to the relevant companies throughout the day.

While going through a pile of CVs, the recruitment officer of the Askari Bank, Qasim Raza, said that the pool of companies gathered at the event to select the right candidate for their organisations.

Calling the job fair a “successful event,” he said that normally a large number of people do not come to banks for one reason or another but the platform has pushed people to go through the hiring process without going through the usually long applying-and-hiring process. Besides, he said, it has provided a better resource for future hiring.

Waseem Akber Shah, a participant who has completed his MPhil in genetics, said that it was a wonderful opportunity for those who do not have access to the internet.

Commenting on the face-to-face interaction with the professionals, he said that tips were given and shortcomings were highlighted by the employers when they went into the nitty-gritty of the résumés. “In short, my time is not wasted here,” he said.

Hafsa Akbar, who holds a masters degree in human resource management, said that more opportunities were available for fresh graduates and such events should take place at least once a year as a number of graduates come into the market every year.

Comparing her experience with a previous job fair, Akbar said more booths offered jobs in the information technology sector this time around.

Previously, she said, HR vacancies had dominated the event.

Rozee.pk officials say their database consists of over 6.5 million people, which is expected to get a big boost by these eight events.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2016.