Jaipur: At the two-day mega job fair in Rajasthan – organised by the state government on the occasion of Rajasthan IT Day, which promised the youth “a new chapter in their career” – employers either asked candidates to leave their CVs or offered them extremely low packages.
The job seekers at the fair – Class X/XII graduates, diploma holders and graduates/postgraduates of technical, management and other professional courses – were required to register and obtain four interview slips to apply in at the most four companies as per their qualifications.
The companies were, in turn, required to take these interview slips from the candidates and update their job status as either selected, shortlisted or consider later – which means the companies did not have an option to reject the candidates.
Interview slip at the job fair. Credit: Shruti Jain
Shortlisted candidates are ‘employed’
The press release issued by the state government states that “1,500 were employed through this job fair that saw the participation of more than 150 companies and on the second day 2,500 candidates were employed while 4,500 shortlisted”.
When asked whether these candidates are actually employed or just shortlisted for the next round, Ritesh Kumar Sharma, PRG of the Rajasthan department of information technology and communication, told The Wire, “As we know about the placement process of the companies, those candidates are shortlisted for the next round of interview. No offer letter is provided to the candidates as of now.”
Multinational companies like IBM, Wipro, Infosys, HCL, L&T, Reliance and KPMG participated in the job fair, but required all candidates to have between two and ten years of experience in the concerned sector. Since most of the participants had no past job experience, they were asked to submit their CVs to be ‘considered later’.
“This job fair is not meant for a fresher like me. All the good companies need job experience. Why will candidates having three years of experience come to a job fair to seek a job?” said Ravindra Singh, a 2017 engineering graduate from the Global Institute of Technology in Jaipur.
Eligible candidates were informed that they were shortlisted and would be contacted soon.
“I was shortlisted for the post of technical support at IBM. The company representative told me that they will contact me for further proceedings but when I asked them to give me their contact details so that I can inquire about my job status, they said no, saying that they are not allowed to share their details with the candidates,” said one candidate at the job fair holding a B.Tech degree, who declined to be named.
Low packages offered
While multinational companies were looking for experienced candidates, others that were open to freshers offered extremely low packages.
Genesys International Corporation Limited, one of the participants, offered internships to BTech graduates at an annual cost to company (CTC) of Rs 9,000.
Offer letter of the company that gave annual CTC of Rs 9,000 to the technical graduates. Credit: Shruti Jain
While the offer letter mentions an annual CTC of Rs 9,000, the company said they have offered that amount on a per month basis.
“We have taken interviews of 78 candidates as of now, out of which we have offered a job as ‘intern’ to 15 candidates with a package of Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 per month CTC. The qualifications required for the post were BA/B.Tech in civil engineering/M.Tech in remote sensing/MSc in geoinformatics or MA in geography,” Chiranjeev Pardasani, a company representative at the fair, told The Wire.
The company doesn’t have a branch office in Rajasthan yet but had assured the candidates that it will come up by the first week of April.
“Our company is based in Mumbai, but we plan to start a branch office in Jaipur by the first week of April. The candidates will be informed the date of joining as soon as the construction of the office is completed,” he added.
Another company at the fair, Pizone Infotech Solutions Private Limited, told The Wire that they also intend to pay the engineering graduates between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000.
Candidates who expected to grab a decent job at the much-hyped fair were disheartened upon learning about the salaries that was being offered.
“We couldn’t do well during the campus placement in the college so we thought of applying in the companies here, but the good companies like Infosys need a minimum of two years experience and other companies want to hire us at Rs 8,000 per month. That is the worth of an engineer. We still have two interview slips with us but it’s useless to sit in the interviews here anymore,” Sunil, a final-year student at Apex Institute of Engineering And Technology in Jaipur, told The Wire.
Few companies at the job fair even asked candidates to first pay for their training, and only then their job offer would be finalised.
“During my interview here, a marketing company asked me to pay Rs 35,000 for two month of training, after which they will finalise my job. It’s not even sure if I’ll get the job after paying the amount,” Pavan Jain, a candidate from Kota, told The Wire.
No advantage to the MMKVY candidates
Candidates holding the ‘Skill Rajasthan’ certificate under the Mukhyamantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (MMKVY) were offered a salary of Rs 6,000 per month at the fair.
“We were told that if we’ll do the certification course under the Kaushal Vikas Yojana, we will get a good job easily, but we were offered a salary of only Rs 6,000 per month here. This isn’t enough even to pay our bills,” Sandeep Verma, an MMKVY candidate, told The Wire.
Shruti Jain is a freelance journalist.
