Accenture. Coca-Cola. Google. Hewlett-Packard. Johnson & Johnson.
These are some of the companies that joined us for the Asian Institute of Management’s very first career fair in Singapore held last September 14, 2011. On that day, AIM’s Career Management Services & Placement office (CMS) brought together recruiters and students of the Washington SyCip Graduate School of Business at the Mandarin Meritus Orchard hotel in Orchard Road, Singapore, for a day-long activity of company presentations and networking sessions. Headed by no less than the Dean of the Institute, Professor Ricardo A. Lim, AIM was also represented by Associate Dean Horacio M. Borromeo, Brand Manager Mia Zamora, myself, and Jade Galvan of CMS. Also in attendance were Greg Atienza and Sherbet Manalili of the Alumni Relations Office (ARO) and Dr. Gan Cheong Eng of the AIM Alumni Association of Singapore (AIMAS). Sponsors of the event were Accenture, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Contact Singapore, Hewlett-Packard, and Johnson & Johnson.
Dean Lim gave the welcome remarks to start the day. He gave a light and warm presentation about the mix of our MBA and MM candidates, and how their diversity is value-adding to their learning experience in AIM. Associate Dean Borromeo then presented the award for the 2010 Top Recruiter, Cognizant Technology Solutions, who was represented by Ms. Sonia Kolkarni, HR Head for ASEAN & Middle East. For the third year in a row, Cognizant has been the top recruiter of AIM graduates, where they gave 20 offers to our MBA candidates in 2010.
A series of company presentations followed, first from Ms. Mary Anne Hebert, Recruitment Sourcing Lead for ASEAN region of Accenture. Ms. Marie Curitana, Head of Talent Acquisition, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, then showcased a video of their company’s innovative marketing campaigns. Hewlett-Packard’s HR Management Associate Program was discussed in detail by Leon Chan, APJ HR Planning and Operations. Clifton Chang, University Recruitment Manager for APAC, gave a lively discussion about J&J’s International Recruitment Development Program (IRDP), and Akie Seno from AIM MBA 2010 also gave a few words about her experience in the IRDP program where she will be headed to the USA for the next stage of her training. The final presentation was from Cognizant, where we again called to stage Ms. Sonia Kulkarni. Ms. Kulkarni spoke from the heart, and reached out to the students by identifying with them being a former MBA student who went through the stressful experience of “placement season”. In summary, she advised the students that a job should not define one’s life and that sincerity is important. The rest of the day was given for networking sessions between the students and the recruiters, as well as scrumptious meals served by the good people of the Mandarin Meritus hotel.
The idea of having a career fair in Singapore started when I first visited the country last year in November. Recognizing the strength and potential of Singapore being a “placement hub”, I felt that bringing our students to the doorsteps of these recruiters was not only innovative but hopefully more effective than doing recruitment remotely from the Philippines. The planning and execution was definitely challenging, but we hope to improve on next year’s career fair in Singapore. But it doesn’t stop here - we will be having an on-campus final placement week from December 5 – 9, 2011 in our Manila campus (interested parties may email cms@aim.edu for more details!).
Alonto for the assist...
Khairy Alonto took his MBA at AIM and now works there. Follow him on Twitter @khairyalonto or view his profile on http://ph.linkedin.com/in/khairyalonto
