CAIRO: Egypt's largest ever careers fair kicked off yesterday at the Cairo International Convention Center in Nasr City. Organized by Wazayef Masr employment magazine, the fair expects to attract somewhere between 10,000-15,000 jobseekers, mostly graduates. Judging by the throngs of people streaming into the halls from 11am, that target may well be surpassed. Multinational, regional, and local companies, from Barclays Bank to Arab Contractors, all had stalls aiming to attract fresh talent. Particularly impressive are the enormous Orascom Telecom, Coca-Cola, and Shell displays. More impressive still is the stall for Xceed, which comes complete with its own overarching canopy and laptops for on-the-spot online applications. According to Resourcing Manager Ahmed Aboulezz, Xceed was "overwhelmed with applications. "We had 5,000 pamphlets to begin with, Aboulezz told Daily News Egypt, "we only have about 1,000 left. That's after day one. Experts in a variety of professional fields gave seminars on everything from management to improving creativity, while special meeting rooms were set up for on-the-spot interviews. One stand drawing in applicants by the dozens was Recruitment TV, a Qatar-based television channel specializing in recruitment. The crowd around the diminutive stall was three people deep. "We have taken in thousands of CVs today, an exasperated Mohamed Gobrail, himself a recent addition to Recruitment TV, told Daily News Egypt. "People are attracted to us because they want to get into television, and they want the opportunity to travel. Two fresh graduates from communications and engineering in Ain Shams University, Sara Ibrahim and Dina Williams, told Daily News Egypt that the fair gave them a great opportunity to meet employers face to face, and also find out about companies they might not have known about otherwise. "We've been speaking to Orascom, ITC, Ericsson and a bunch of other places, said an excited Ibrahim. "They've been really friendly - I'm optimistic I will find a job from this fair. Employers too were hopeful of finding recruits at the fair. Sara Zayed, an HR specialist who was manning the stand for Berlitz Language Center, said Berlitz had received hundreds of CVs, and would probably fill quite a few of their entry-level positions from what was on offer. "Lots of the applicants are fluent in a number of languages - French, Spanish, English, Italian - as well as Arabic, so they could quite easily learn how to teach classes for Berlitz. However, she said most applicants did not have the required experience for senior positions, such as account management and soft-skills training as they were fresh out of college. The fair goes on until Friday, Jan. 18. For more information see www.wmfair.com.
