PAU organises job fair, three students get offers of Rs 7.25L

Ludhiana: For the first time ever, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) organized the Entrepreneur’s Meet Rozgar Mela, where as many as 150 students applied for 52 vacancies in 16 companies. Students of the final year and graduates gathered at Pal Auditorium, where they were guided on entrepreneurship skills, and later appeared for interviews under University Counselling and Placement Guidance Cell. Ru-Ba-Ru — an interactive session by budding entrepreneurs who shared their experiences and the challenges coming their way — was also organised.

Students from other universities have also applied in this mela. A student from Punjabi University, who appeared for the interview said, “We do not even live in Ludhiana, nor have we studied in PAU, still we are here for the interview. We are glad PAU has organized such a job fair where companies of agricultural background are invited under one roof.”

However, a few students were disappointed over companies, positions, packages, and the training they needed to undergo. They claimed there was no assurance of a job even after training. A student who had done MBA in Marketing from PAU in 2018, said, “I am working in a hospital at Sherpur Chowk, but I came here, as I was looking forward for more options. Here, there was just a single company for MBA graduates, even that was not up to the mark. PAU needs to pitch in for more multi-national companies.”

He added, “As this is an agricultural university, it might lack a focus on other disciplines. After facing tough competition while taking admission and paying a hefty fee, every student seeks better placements.”

Another PAU graduate in Bsc Biotechnology, Lovepreet Singh, said, “Officials did not inform us about the enlisted companies. We got to know about the companies only a day before the mela, and I was disappointed, as there was no multi-national company. I feel that even after studying from a reputed university, we are recruited at low scales. Students were expecting more companies, especially multi-national firms.”

Dr Sarabjeet Singh, director of the University Counselling and Placement Guidance Cell, PAU, highlighted that there were 20 companies whom they had invited, but only 16 finally participated. PAU is a diverse university and companies from various disciplines took part in the fair. A few companies had their own choices, like they preferred male over female students.

On the ordeals that students face, Singh said, “We had mailed students three days earlier, and we also stated that this was going to be a challenge, as more than 150 applicants would participate. This is the first-ever job fair, but later in future, we would be pitching in for more companies to join the fair.”

Later , VC Baldev Singh Dhillon presided over the function and felicitated new appointments of PAU, including 32 teaching, 14 non-teaching, and 20 contractual employees.

Good package

Three students of the university pursuing VII semester from B.Tech in Agriculture Engineering of College of Agriculture got selected by company John Deere as graduate engineer trainees with the highest package of Rs7.5 lakh.

Vinod Yadav, Shubham Minhas and Samarpan Singh were issued appointment letters, and they would be joining in June 2020 after completing their degrees.

Besides this, 12 PAU student entrepreneurs who are occupying good positions at their workplaces were honoured for their remarkable achievement and out-of-the-box initiatives. The names include Harpreet Singh, Arjun, Sullibhavmath, Shaminderjeet Singh Brar, Somya Jain, Pragya Jain, Kanupreet Arora, Neha, Diksha Sharma, Tanisha Narula, Anmolpreet Kaur, Dr Ishina Sadana, and Aakriti Sangar.