The SZABIST Recruitment Conference

Rabiya Sulaiman takes a look!

The team photograph

The SZABIST Recruitment Conference, SRC- 2010 was a first of its kind event hosted by the SZABIST University, Karachi and organized by its Recruitment & Selection class of 2010. Professionals from the corporate world, along with the students of different universities including LUMS, IBA, Bahria University, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University (MAJU), College of Business Management, (CBM) and various other business and IT schools of Karachi.

The Conference brought together professionals from the corporate sector of Pakistan and students from some of Pakistan’s leading educational institutions on one platform so that they could together discuss Pakistan’s job market scenario and the students could learn what the leading organizations of the country look for when recruiting officers.

The guest speakers at the session were Mr. Sohail Zindani, CEO: Learning Minds, Mr. Paul Keijzer, CEO: Engage Consulting, Mr. Junaid Ahsan, CEO: Talent Experts International, Mr. Salman Munir, Senior Executive VP & Group Head HR: Atlas Bank Limited, Mr. Asha’ar Saeed, HR Director at Reckitt Benckiser Pakistan. The guest speakers also included Mr. Vaqar Khan, GM Human Resource- Training and Organisation Development of PSO, Ms. Shireen Naqvi, the CEO of School of Leadership (SoL) and also the Senior Management Consultant and Facilitator at Navitus. Mr. Syed Faraz Shahid, the Regional Manager People at Excellence-Telenor, Mr. Kanwer Saeed, GM Human Resources at Engro Fertilizers Ltd. and Mr. Farhad Karamally, the Co-founder and Director of Navitus, and Director at Stimulus and Partner at Tangerine Media were also guest speakers at the event.

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Mr.Ali Khurram Pasha-VP Head of Learning at Royal Bank of Scotland hosted the conference during the first half while Ms. Humaira Ahmad, Senior Consultant learning &Talent Management at Engage HR was the hosted the conference after lunch.

Revolving around the theme of what fresh graduates and professionals must possess to land a job with some of the leading organizations of the world, the consensus of the speakers was fresh graduates need to change their mindset. Elaborating on this point, Marketing Team Member for SRC-2010, Nida Nasir said, “SZABIST students for instance, leave the university thinking that they will immediately land a wonderful job, which pays tens of thousands of rupees. But that can’t happen at the beginning of your career, it takes time, dedication and a lot of hard work to gain the position all of us dream of.”

Some of the speakers also emphasized the fact that when going job-hunting, people should work in a capacity where they enjoy the work that they do. “If people are not happy in their job, they will never get job satisfaction and will be unable to perform well or progress in their career,” said Natasha Mukhtar, lead of the Marketing Team for SRC- 2010.

On their part, the audience asked that the corporate world should ensure that they explore the fresh talent that Pakistan produces annually because they are the future entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow and therefore their development should be encouraged in every way possible.

SZABIST University profited greatly by the experience. Not only was the SRC 2010 a trendsetter, but it also helped the university and its students build up an impressive image in the eyes of the corporate world. They now hope to continue holding this conference regularly on an annual basis.