Monday, 10 April 2006

Indian Headhunter Offer 'Speed Dating' Job Services

On a hot summer weekend in India's technology capital, 28,000 young graduates converge on a suburban indoor stadium and create a stampede for jobs in the exploding software and business service industries. A large board advertising Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. falls to the floor with a thud, jostled by a crowd of graduates clutching their resumes in search of a big break with the Nasdaq-listed company.

Cognizant was among 24 companies taking part in a job fair organised by a newspaper last month. About 100 of its executives sifted through resumes, interviewing candidates for quick selection and offering jobs to 150 people.

"It is like speed dating," said Gautam Sinha, managing director of recruitment firm TVA Infotech. "Speed is becoming critical because resumes are perishable, like fruit and vegetables," he said. "If you sit on them, they start to stink." Popular weekend job fairs enable companies and headhunters quickly to hire young workers, often with little or no experience, to fill tens of thousands of vacancies created by India's outsourcing boom.

India's software and business service industries, from computer coding and call centres to accounting, equity research and engineering design, are expected to grow 32 percent in the year to March 2006 from USD 17.2 billion last year.