IBA career fair 2016 – setting new records
The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi held its annual career fair recently at the IBA Main Campus with a record participation of 68 renowned local and international companies. Organized by the IBA Placement Society, Career Fair 2016 achieved an unprecedented level of success as compared to previous career fairs. Not only did they attract the highest number of companies, they also managed to conduct recruitment drives of eight well-established companies for Junior and Senior Year students, with nearly 100 scheduled interviews throughout the day.
With the participation of multinationals, the event proved to be hugely successful in its aim of familiarizing students with job prospects in Pakistan as well as allowing them an excellent opportunity for some business networking.
Career fairs provide an essential learning experience for concurrent as well as graduating students, as they introduce them to the professional world. Such events allow students to learn about the practices and functions of various types of professions, and learn directly from employers the kinds of expectations that they hold for future employees. At times, college training can be very academia-oriented, which is where such career fairs come in. They allow students to observe the practical requirements for their desired careers.
Career fairs are a win-win solution to everyone. On the one hand, they allow future graduates to introduce themselves to prospective employers and make connections that could be enormously helpful to them later on in their professional lives. On the other hand, the heads/owners of many businesses/organizations get the opportunity to observe and evaluate future employees before they enter the job market, and even make offers to the most impressive ones.
Other than following the norms of a traditional job fair, the IBA Career Fair 2016 also established a semi-formal venture termed “Alumni Station”. This particular project focused on inviting former IBA graduates working in various industries to mentor and guide current IBA students. Career counseling is perhaps one of the most under-sold ideas to the youth, and it was high time that this was introduced. Career counseling by alumni allows the students to receive valuable advice from someone who is young enough for them to relate to, but still has a wealth of important information and experience to share. Many new graduates can often feel overwhelmed when entering the job market for the first time, and any initial setbacks can often be extremely demoralizing. In this regard, counseling helps to both prepare them for such setbacks and to better equip them with the qualities of successful job candidates.
More than 30 highly esteemed former IBA graduates and almost 70 students attended these sessions. The alumni who participated in this venture included Mr. Raihan Ali Merchant - CEO Starcom, Mr. Ahmed Hassan Saadi - Head of Imports and Exports at GSK, Mr. ZeeshanBhaiyani - Head of Business Planning at Mobilink, Ms Umaima Shoaib - Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Tameer, and Ms Ayesha Menai - Head of HRM at First Woman Bank Ltd.
Counseling sessions were divided into business functions, namely Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management, and Business Data Strategy. Each counseling session was scheduled for forty-five minutes with three alumni members and five students. Two sessions were held in the morning, and two in the afternoon. After each session, refreshments were served and a volunteer was assigned to the alumni for a campus tour.
It is commendable to see young students coming forth and taking responsibility of helping out their fellow college mates. The organizer should be commended for setting a high benchmark for all upcoming career fairs at IBA; not only were they successful in coming up with a lot of constructive ideas, they also successfully executed them - methodically arranging platforms for students to make the most of their academic achievements and to utilize their potential to the utmost in their professional lives.
HIGHLIGHTS OF IBA CAREER FAIR
No. of companies................68
No. of stalls........................72
No. of recruitment drives........................08
No. of students interviewed......................87
No. of alumni for counseling sessions........................31
No. of students benefited from counseling..................67
