From those born in the 1970s to the ones born in the late 90s, from an 8th passed to one with a doctorate, from a security guard to a sales executive, the Delhi job fair held in Thyagraj stadium on November 7 and 8 saw jobseekers in all of them. According to the Delhi government, over 47,000 job seekers had participated in the job fair. Not all at the job fair were jobless. Some were already in jobs but were somewhat unhappy with the pay and the work profile.

On day two, gate number seven was the entry point. A long queue led all job seekers inside the stadium. At the entrance, people who looked overaged for jobs were asked for identity cards and were asked to leave the venue as there were no jobs for those over 40. But only the previous day, there were reports that even those above 45 and 50 had participated in the fair. Inside the premises, thousands of job seekers were filling up application forms sitting on the stairs leading to the main stadium complex. There were 20 registration counters for submitting the forms. Shilpa, 36, who could not complete her graduation was busy filling up the job application form on the stairs. “I have come with my young colleagues in the hope of getting a better job. I could not study economics in graduation but my work experience is sufficient to land into any other better job,” she said.

As one would venture further inside the stadium, about 70-75 kiosks were set up for various private firms. Here, some candidates were standing in queue waiting for their turn for a two-three-minute face-to-face interview. Ankita Jain, a 21-year-old graduate in psychology, was disappointed. “There are no companies offering jobs matching my profile. All jobs are of sales and finance,” she said.

Commerce graduate and CA student Gurupreet Singh said, “I attended a job fair in Noida last year. A company shortlisted me and said that I would be called in their office for another round of interview. But that never happened. I never got to hear from them. I am trying my luck again this time. There are companies with just three-four vacancies. It’s tough.”

Shubham, who works with a private hospital as office assistant, was positive and was looking forward to getting a good offer. “I am a BBA graduate. A lot of companies from health and pharma sector are here. I am hopeful though yet to be shortlisted.”
Kaushal Khanna, a recruiter from a finance company, looked uphappy with the response. “I find the job fairs organised by private institutions much more fruitful. Here, it’s like open source and drives crowd from all educational backgrounds. You can’t find the right candidate,” he said.

There were separate arrangements for disabled people as well. However, most of these were promotional activities of companies which train the disabled for suitable jobs.

Many companies did not complete the hiring process because of the increasing number of application forms and thus they decided to shortlist the candidate from their offices.