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By Natnipha Vimuktanon
Close to eight hundred job seekers last week attended AIT’s
largest ever single day on-campus Career Fair. All attendees hoped to
catch the eye of recruiters representing some of the Asian region’s
most prestigious employers.
This year, for the first time in two years, NGOs, UN agencies
and scholarship donor organizations participated with presentations and
information sharing sessions on internships and further education
opportunities available to AIT students.
Participating organizations included the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
GMS-EOC, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
Institute for International Education (IIE), TUSEF/ Fulbright
Scholarship, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and
UNESCO.
This year’s autumn event held on November 14 attracted thirty-two
companies and one international agency. A wide cross-section of leading
firms involved in the environment, engineering and technology, and the
management sectors participated, filling the entire AIT Center
with corporate promotional display booths.
Despite indications of an economic slowdown impacting the
region, Career Center organizers reported that more companies
participated at this year’s November event than in 2007. The AIT
Career Center also recorded more job and internship postings on
its website than at any time in the past, officials said.
According to Ms. Ann Lopez-Fontanilla (above), head of
students at AIT, one reason for this increase was the AIT
Career Center’s proactive campaign to connect its network with
companies all across Asia.
Ms. Lopez-Fontanilla explained that this year a large number of
companies were interested to fill regional vacancies for branch
operations. “Companies that are staffing their international offices in
countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, and many other countries around
the region, find our job fair quite strategic because of our tremendous
multicultural student body mix,” Lopez-Fontanilla said.
Notable examples of firms who came to AIT with
regional-level job opportunities included India’s Tata, Michelin
(Thailand) and Japan’s Showa Denko KK, which sent its recruiters
directly from Japan for the first time. Thai corporate giants Charoen
Pokphand Group and Siam Cement Group were also well represented, as
were many other well known companies.
alumni and graduates are very specialized in terms of their
academic expertise, and this tends to attract certain firms looking for
particular types of skill
sets in potential employees.
At the event, participating students and graduates easily
networked and introduced themselves to prospective employers for jobs
and internships. Lucky attendees like Piyush Kumar, a School of
Management MBA student, got on-the-spot interviews. “I was interviewed
by CP Group, Michelin, and Halcrow all on the same day,” he
said.
The November 2008 Career Fair was
officially opened by the
Vice President for Research, Prof. Sudip Rakshit
(above),
who welcomed all participants to AIT.
Dean of the School of Environment, Resources and Development,
Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, opened the informational
presentations
conducted in the morning.Afternoon sessions were opened
by Ms. Carla Gonzales, Coordinator of AIT Career Center and
Student Affairs.
Part of the large opening session
crowd.
Mr. Edgar Shank, UNESCO representative.
Ms. Lilita B. Pacudan
(middle) ADB representative at an exhibition booth.
Mr. Jorgen Eriksson, ADB representative.