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The Philippines is probably one of the few countries that produce
job fairs on a regular basis. Our job fairs come in all shapes
and sizes, such as the traditional ones held in colleges before or
after graduation, the weekend meetings in municipalities and local
government units which has jobseekers submitting their resumés to
designated officials, and the corporate-led job fairs normally seen
in malls, convention centers and other public places.
It’s probably safe to say that we put up more
job fairs than our Asian neighbors. We in JobsDB set up an
average of four a month; some of these we organize ourselves, some
of them we put up and run on invitation by a university, an industry
association or a government unit.
“Why the diligence in putting them up?”
someone asked me before. “Don’t Pinoys get tired of seeing
another job fair the minute he sees another poster about it once he
turns at a corner?”
Well, I prefer to think that this is a case of
not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Yes, the number of job
fairs may be increasing but we observe that this is because there
are a lot of job vacancies out there that companies are waiting to
fill—and they are willing to go to the churches, the malls and the
local barangays, if necessary, to source the people they need.
That is one positive development that we should
take note of, which is happening not just in Manila but in cities
like Cebu as well.
A job fair is not just a place where you look
for work and drop your resumé and run—it’s the real-time
meeting ground for recruiters and jobseekers to assess what the
other needs and, how (and if) they can help each other.
The response has always been positive and,
generally speaking, people are always eager to line up to see what
opportunities they can avail of.
That’s one reason why we are expecting a crowd
of 25,000 in our upcoming Career and Entrepreneur Fair (CEF) at the
World Trade Center in Pasay City on May 21 and 22. Our
first CEF series—then known as Career and Education
Fair—garnered a record-breaking 15,000 participants in 2006. Jobseekers
got their first experience of a paperless job fair that reduced
their printing and transportation costs for job-hunting. Our
seminars which ran for two full days had SRO audiences—not
surprising, since our speakers were presidents of companies, general
managers, editors and even celebrities spoke about talent
management.
For CEF 2008, we are pulling out all stops to
make this particular fair more accessible to everyone. They
welcome not just jobseekers, but small-to-medium-sized businessmen
(and women), the so-called silent entrepreneurs who do business on
the side, and freelancers who capitalize a skill like writing,
voiceover or playing music.
Jobseekers who want to leverage on their skills
or increase their chances of being hired can benefit from the
following seminars: “Assessing How Close You Are to your
Dream Job,” by Job1 Global; “Career Management” by John
Clements Consultants; “The Power of Communication as a
Profession” by DZMM Radyo Patrol 630, and “The Need for
Continuing Education” by Inter-Education Specialists.
Present and prospective entrepreneurs will find
“Online Entrepreneurship” by Google Philippines and “Different
Business Ventures You Can Get Into” by the Technology Resource
Center interesting topics.
Skilled workers thinking of finding work
overseas can avoid the pitfalls of illegal recruitment in a talk by
the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. Career shifters
and new graduates can learn more about BPO employment in the seminar
by Convergys.
We are always breaking new ground in putting up
job fairs. We hope that in the process our countrymen, from
jobseekers to entrepreneurs, can find greater opportunities to
maximize their potentials and make their lives better.
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Jayjay Viray is the Country Manager of JobsDB
Phils, Inc. Log on to www.jobsdb.com.ph for job opportunities. For
feedback, e-mail feedback@jobsdb.com.ph
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