Over a thousand jobseekers trooped to the Glorietta Activity Center at the Ayala Center in Makati City at the opening of the two-day Manila Bulletin Classifieds Job Fair.

Registered job applicants sought employment from over 50 companies who joined the event, presented in cooperation with television network GMA 7.

Among the exhibitors are GMA 7, AEGIS PeopleSupport, IBM Corporation, Stream Global Services, Sitel Philippines, ePerformax, Interglobe Technologies, Dell, and Manila Bulletin Online (mb.com.ph).

Hundreds of job openings were available at the event, with call center agents and staff and customer care and technical specialists as the most in demand. Other jobs offered were for account executives, design artists, cabling support engineers, telephone operators, professional drivers, human resource assistants, sales executives, and office staff.

AEGIS PeopleSupport, a BPO company and one of the exhibitors, is looking for call center agent applicants.

According to Christian Kelly Mata, Senior Lead for Talent Requisition and Recruitment Marketing and Communication of PeopleSupport, they are targeting 100-150 hired employees by the end of the job fair Wednesday.

“The applicant should be a good English communicator and should have reached at least 2nd year in college,” said Mata. On top of that, the applicant should exude confidence, he added. Applicants who pass the initial interview, which is based on basic English communication test, are scheduled for a typing test and operation interview in the company’s office. For those who do not qualify, the company offers options.

For those who have average English communication skills, the company offers the Aspire Training Program, which can help applicants improve their communication skills. The training program usually lasts for 2-4 weeks.

As of 2 p.m., PeopleSupport had already listed 10 applicants for hiring from 21 interviewees.

“We joined this job fair kasi maganda ang marketing (marketing was good)... we believe that this is a good exposure for the company and also because Manila Bulletin organized this event. We trust the organizer and AdExhibit kasi based on our experience, they are good organizers and we have a good partnership,” said Charles Alegre, Specialist of the Recruitment and Marketing and Communication of AEGIS PeopleSupport.

The job fair continues today, March 24, from 10 a.m.to 6 p.m. in the same area.

The Manila Bulletin Classifieds Job Fair is co-sponsored by Stream Global Services, IBM, Sykes, Aegis People Support, Netopia, DZBB 594 “Super Radyo”, Max FM 103.5, DZAS 702, DWLS FM 97.1, the dailies Balita and Tempo, as well as Manila Bulletin Online (www.mb.com.ph), CareerCare. com.ph, trabaho.com, JobOpenings. ph, and WorkAbroad.ph.