BrightSpyre Blog- Jobs in Pakistan

BrightSpyre Launches GIKI Job Board

2008-04-15T21:24:00.011+05:00

BrightSpyre on Thursday, 10th of April, 2008 has launched Pakistan’s first ever university Job board (http://giki.jobboard.com.pk) for Ghulam Ishaque Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences & Technology (GIKI) graduates. GIKI Job Board was officially inaugurated during "Open House" event by NWFP Governor Mr. Awais Ahmed Ghani. This Job Board was result of combine efforts of BrightSpyre and GIKI Career Cell who took the initiative and introduced this new concept in academia. This Job Board will offer GIKI students and alumni’s & employers direct contact with each other and will also provide easy & quick access to companies to hire fresh graduates from GIKI. This Job Board will also be highly beneficial for the employers from all over Pakistan, as they can easily target GIKI fresh graduates from all disciplines.

In Addition this job board will create a huge opportunity for graduates and graduating students to search jobs under one platform with more awareness about the market trends. BrightSpyre will help in leveraging the relationship between university and employers’, increasing the access to these candidates for employers as BrightSpyre is highly motivated to provide the University recruiting segment in GIKI. BrightSpye has always set their own trends and standards with continuous expansion and growth in Local & International market. Although BrightSpyre has started university job board for first time in Pakistan but has a vast global experience in Job Boards. BrightSpyre has its own Product with the name of personforce (www.personforce.com) in USA. In a very short period of time BrightSpyre has gain a vital place in US academic institutions and it is now highly regarded among the top online location for recruiters in the USA to hire the best talent from prestigious Universities like Harvard, Standford, Cornell and Yale.

Job Board URL: giki.jobboard.com.pk
This news is covered in Green & White and PASHA official website "PASHA News".

Event in Pictures

Career Counselling for IT graduates in Kohat University

2008-04-02T15:17:00.013+05:00

Education in IT has grown tremendously; Kohat University of Science & Technology is playing a vital role in grooming its 200 IT graduate students and getting them prepared for challenging global IT industry.

BrightSpyre is expanding its program to all parts of country and playing its major role to provide industry feedback into the academia. In the continuation of its programs BrightSpyre.com conducted its career grooming seminar in Kohat University of Science and Technology on Friday 28th of March, 2008.

BrightSpyre had a career counseling session and resume building workshop with the students of KUST. This session was attended by more than 200 students with faculty members including Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Lutfullah Kakakhel. BrightSpye had a productive discussion with the students regarding current market trends and technologies in which students also shared about their views and perception about industry.

The students showed keen interest in asking how they can apply for jobs online; what are the skill sets required by companies; how they can find internship opportunities; how to compare companies before joining organizations for jobs; how fresh graduates can be hired without having any experience.

In a statement, Vice Chancellor appreciated the initiative taken by BrightSpyre and termed this event as a very healthy & fruitful activity for students of KUST. BrightSpyre is the only recruiting company in Pakistan who has such an extensive university outreach program and first one to visit Kohat-NWFP.

This year, BrightSpyre University Outreach program is scheduled in more than 30 universities from all over Pakistan featuring career guidance, career counseling, workshops, academic seminars and interviews on spot for current open positions. We have helped thousands of graduates and employers make employment connections over the years as we make every effort to provide flawless customer service, promote our programs comprehensively and make success as job seeking and employment clients our highest priority.

BrightSpyre team is grateful for the efforts of Vice Chancellor, faculty members and students who were indeed a great help in organizing such a remarkable and successful event.

Event in Pictures

Startup Insiders Session #8

2008-03-31T20:28:00.008+05:00

Once again, BrightSpyre is proud to associate itself with Startup Insider Sessions which have become one of the most talked and heavily attended event for the Pakistani IT industry. Already seven such sessions have been held this year in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. This April 4th, 2008 Islamabad will have its third session of the year.

Startup Insider has a simple philosophy as explained by Osama Hashmi on Greenwhite.org, “A lot of bright, energetic and passionate entrepreneurs have great ideas but want to figure out how to take their brilliant idea and convert it into a business”.

We recommend everyone interested in Entrepreneurship and venturing out on their own to attend. Here are the details of the event:

Theme: Starting Up: the first essential steps
Date: April 4th 2008 (5:30pm – 9:00pm)
Location: NIIT Campus, Chaklala III, Rawalpindi (http://www.niit.edu.pk)

Please register yourself for the event at the following web address:
http://www.niit.edu.pk/Seminars_workshops/pages/startup/index.php

And get more information related to the event at Jehan Ara's blog:
http://jehanara.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/good-news-for-startups-in-islamabad-si-8-on-april-4/

BrightSpyre.com Powers job boards technology at Techcrunch and Venturebeat

2008-03-04T13:26:00.009+05:00

The BrightSpyre (www.BrightSpyre.com) partnered job board “Personforce” is now the official job board for TechCrunch and Venturebeat - two of the biggest blogs covering web 2.0 startups out of silicon valley. To put this in perspective, what Wall Street Journal is for businesses and publicly traded companies, TechCrunch is for startups and successful enterprises in the information technology domain worldwide. This success for Personforce is in the footsteps of college recruitment domain, where it is already the top choice for colleges including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Berkley among others.

With the success of Personforce, the footprint of BrightSpyre is now truly global and it continues to be the largest job portal in the country. BrightSpyre success can be further assessed by the phenomenal growth rate that it has achieved in Pakistan which includes almost half a million unique job seekers from over 130 towns and cities of Pakistan. The system has received and processed over 1.5 million applications for jobs in the country. BrightSpyre job hunt and management system is currently used by leading companies not only in Pakistan but globally including in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, South Asia and Far East to recruit and manage the best talent.

BrightSpyre.com is the largest job portal in Pakistan with a leadership position in online recruitment for last 6 years; is a wholly own brand of Cogilent Solutions, an ISO 9001-2000 certified company. It has been operating successfully since 2002 in Pakistan.

The news is covered in Pashanews.org and PSEB official website.

For more information please contact,

Usman Bangash
Manager Business Development
Contact: +92 51 2871173
email: sales@brightspyre.com
http://www.BrightSpyre.com

A Catalyst Providing Multiple Opportunities

2008-03-03T18:55:00.014+05:00

BrightSpyre the largest job portal in Pakistan has provided career opportunities to 10,000+ candidates in Pakistan and abroad. BrightSpyre.com users are sharing their success stories now. Here is one of the success story of a candidate hired through BrightSpyre.

Hina Akhtar
Communication Specialist
The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF)
Job Link:Communication Specialist

I was working in a multinational company for some years within the field of Communication and Community Development, and although I was content with working for a well reputed company, I started feeling an urge to explore my opportunities in the job market. I wanted a role through which I could further refine my professional as well as personal development, but I had no idea where to look. This urge made me start looking for a platform or catalyst which would enable me to view optional organizations and work scope and give me the sense of job competition and updated requirements within my field of expertise.

I started surfing on the net and viewing the job vacancies, when I came across the website of BrightSpyre. I read about their online hiring system which made me submit my CV online. The BrightSpyre site became a regular hit on my daily surfing and I was amazed to see the vast list of job opportunities, which were all collected under one “roof”. One day I saw the vacancy of a Communication Specialist. I read the comprehensive work details, which contained a role which was in line with my current experience as well as providing more learning and exposure within the field of Communication. I immediately applied for the job without any expectations of a response, but to my great surprise, it was only a matter of a few days before I received a call from the BrightSpyre team. I was very impressed to see the professional way through which BrightSpyre dealt with the potential candidates for a job, and I was kept in constant loop of the interview development. I was lucky to get the job and although it has only been a month since I joined my new job, I feel I made the right decision of joining them as the exposure and learning I am getting here is a great basis for my future career development. I personally believe that one should never stop learning and constantly challenge one self for improvements. We should always pursue opportunities in life, which contribute to our continuous and sustainable career development. My interaction with BrightSpyre and their professionalism has developed a great trust in me that life is full of opportunities – you just need to grab them using the right platform and support.

I recommend everyone to register themselves on the BrightSpyre site and trust this professional team to help you grab the opportunity of your life time.

Best of luck to you all!

Hina Akhtar

BrightSpyre Participation at Startup Insiders

2008-02-04T19:22:00.001+05:00

BrightSpyre participated in Start up insider on Thursday 31^st of January, 2008 which was organized by PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) and Green & White. This event was successfully hosted and well managed by LMKR Islamabad with the attendance of more than 100 peoples. The main purpose of this discussion was to encourage the innovative ideas from young professionals from different walks of life and advise them as how to be a successful entrepreneur, which involves the practice of starting a new business in response to identifying certain opportunities.

From BrightSpyre this event was attended by:

Atif Mumtaz
Faisal Chohan
Usman Bangash
Aftab Alam
Muhammad Abid Azam

During the event Atif Mumtaz & Faisal Chohan also discussed about their experience of starting with an idea and converting it to a successful reality, as BrightSpyre elevated throughout the years after launched in 2002, which now rates as Pakistan’s largest and most prestigious job portal. They also gave few very useful advises to young audience as what should be their approach toward entrepreneurship and how to move things forward from an early innovation phase to a fully practical implementation.

Event in Pictures

Join us at Startup Insider Session

2008-01-26T11:09:00.000+05:00

PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) and Green & White are organizing Startup Insider Sessions all over Pakistan. The aim and purpose of these sessions is connecting successful businesses with brilliant young people who would like to pursue a career in entrepreneurship. As Green & White puts it on their own blogsite “A lot of bright, energetic and passionate entrepreneurs have great ideas but want to figure out how to take their brilliant idea and convert it into a business”.

These sessions are being held once a month in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Already the sessions in Karachi and Lahore were well attended. We hope to see a similar turnout at Islamabad session as well.

BrightSpyre (Cogilent Solutions) is also one of the companies that has been invited at the inaugural session in Islamabad. We will be represented by the co-founders of the company namely, Mr. Faisal Chohan and Atif Mumtaz who will talk about the journey that the company took from an idea to reality. The complete panel list includes:

Ovais Ashraf, CEO, Trivor Software / Trango
Atif Mumtaz & Faisal Chohan, CEO Cogilent Solution / BrightSpyre
Faizan Buzdar - CEO, Scrybe Corp.
Osama Hashmi, CEO, CDF Software
Zahid Mirza, Netsol Technologies
Saeed Qadri, CEO, Voxel Communications
Faisal Qureshi, CEO, Kolachi Advanced Technologies
Jehan Ara, President, PASHA

Time: 6 – 9 pm
Date: January 31, 2008
Location: LMKR Office, 3rd Floor, Evacuee Trust Complex, Aga Khan Road, F-5, Islamabad, Pakistan

Details of the event can be found on Green & White blogsite.

Another Success Story - Qamber Ali

2008-01-18T19:35:00.000+05:00

The vision of BrightSpyre is to provide sustainable employment opportunities for people in the Pakistan, who face certain employment challenges while seeking for a job, whether they are fresh or experienced professionals. Read another success story of BrightSpyre in higher level management.

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I have been very pleased with the standard of services BrightSpyre have provided during the process of hiring with highly professional and skilled team. Though I belong to the technical field and its very hard to find out such career oriented jobs in most of the available job portals in Pakistan, but BrightSpyre has done a great entrepreneurial effort in terms of providing me a platform to get my field related and career enhancing position. Now I am part of Zoomio International as "Director of Development".

One of the most impressive thing that I came across was BrightSpyre constant communication and keeping me in loop from the initial phase of interview till the final selection. I would say that BrightSpyre is one of the best place to find middle management to higher level positions among all Pakistan job portals. Also I would like recommend BrightSpyre to anyone looking for a job in technology sector and also in other areas.

Its really Appreciated and thanks again for the great service !!

Qamber Ali
Director of Development
Zoomio International-Islamabad
Job Link: Development Manager

Feedback from Qandil Ali

2008-01-11T20:36:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre Testimonials:
We have received great appreciation from many of you and realize that others would also like to see and hear that people really do get hired and that BrightSpyre is part of that success. We will include few success stories in our BrightSpyre Testimonial Section.

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I have done my bachelors in Computer Sciences from Comsats Islamabad in year 2006 and soon after my graduation i started looking for a job in order to start my professional career. Though i have registered myself with several job portals and received hundreds of job alerts too but i was never considered for a single interview or shortlisted. Than i registered BrightSpyre after the recommendation of my friend which later prove a right decision and now i am a happy Employee at Cybernet and working there as " Corporate Support Engineer"

I would like to mention here that without the assistance of BrightSpyre it would not have been so easy to find a dream job where you can enhance your abilities and skills. So I congratulate BrightSpyre team for helping me out in finding a job and making it a success for me.

My heartiest & Warmest wishes to BrightSpyre team, especially HR department.

Keep doing the good work!

Qandil Ali
Corporate Support Engineer
Cybernet Islamabad

BrightSpyre signs MoU with Microsoft

2008-01-03T22:59:00.000+05:00

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between BrightSpyre and Microsoft on Wednesday 19th December, 2007 represented by CTO Ahmed Jawad (BrightSpyre) and Country Head Ahmed Kamal (Microsoft). After the continuous negotiations from two parties through which they have successfully identified certain potential collaboration projects and to establish the framework for developing these concepts further together with a road map that will hopefully lead to agreement on the appropriate means for their delivery and implementation.

“This agreement marks as a huge step forward for us while collaborating with Microsoft on these projects and we are very excited to get this opportunity to bring new values and trends in the market” said BrightSpyre CTO Mr. Ahmed Jawad.

In addition both have agreed to do partnership in Microsoft student to business program by engaging with selected and reputable universities to co-manage career guidance events by leveraging the presence of Microsoft Student Partners on campuses.

BrightSpyre and Microsoft will also be in partnership on MSDNAA and IT Academy partnership pilot at local universities. BrightSpyre will be organizing career counselling and career guidance events as joint venture with Microsoft in different universities of Pakistan which will result in huge impact in bringing awareness and exposure among students and universities.

BrightSpyre is still Pakistan's best place and preferred website to find jobs in Pakistan. It is wholly owned and operated by Cogilent Solutions, an ISO-9001-2000 certified company.

Interview with Ahmad Malik

2007-12-31T13:22:00.000+05:00

As part of career counseling and advice, BrightSpyre will now be regularly featuring interviews of successful Pakistanis who have made it big nationally or internationally. We hope that these interviews turn out to be inspiration for young Pakistanis and also help them in advancing their careers.

Ahmad Malik's Profile: Mr. Malik has been working for CIBER (A US$1 Billion dollar American company in Denver Colorado, USA) for the past eleven years as Director of IS Applications. As part of his job, he has lead numerous projects to implement, maintain and enhance Enterprise Applications (ERP, CRM, and Portals) used by CIBER to run its business. He completed his bachelor's degree in computer science from FAST Institute of Computer Science in 1994 (now called FAST National University), and an MBA in management from University of Colorado at Denver.

Q) You were in one of the first batches to graduate out of FAST Lahore. How was that experience?

FAST helped me discover myself. I was very glad to be educated in the field that I was planning to get into since my first visit to the computer exhibition at American Center in Islamabad a couple of years earlier (in the late 1980s). At FAST, we worked with very limited resources and to this date that experience helped me find optimal IT solutions for my customers based on the available resources.

Q) You have studied here in Pakistan and also in the USA. What is the major difference in the education that you have found?

As I answer this question, keep in mind that it has been 14 years since I graduated (from FAST in 1994) and just like anything else education has improved and vast resources are available to learn from i.e. internet, email, etc. In the US, we are required to perform extensive research to write papers or evaluate case studies. Team exercises are encouraged since it helps in the real life. Critical thinking, risk taking, and learning from mistakes is encouraged.

Q) What skills did you gain at FAST that helped you make the transition to the US institutions with ease?

FAST gave me a lot of confidence which helped me market myself to get admissions in the US institutions. Additionally, some courses that we took were advanced level as compared to Bachelor's courses in the USA. FAST helped me secure internship at IBM and job at Oratech which also helped me during my time in the US Universities.

Q) Is there anything that you would like to see improve among Pakistani graduates?

I am a strong advocate of having betters soft skills. Technical skills are very important and if soft skills are absent, technical skills are of no use. I recommend improving the following soft skills:

1. Resourcefulness

2. Organizational Skills

3. Problem Solving Ability

4. Customer Oriented

5. Honesty and Integrity

6. Thirst for Knowledge

7. Communication Skills

8. Good Attitude

9. Longevity

10. Goal Oriented

11. Hard Worker

12. Enthusiasm

13. Performance Trend

14. Fast Learner

15. Team Player

In the past I have delivered presentations in FAST with a title "Successful traits that make you valuable in the IT industry". Details can be found at FAST Alumni website.

Q) What is one of the major differences in work that you found between the USA and Pakistan?

I have worked only one year at Oratech before coming to the US and I was fortunate to find that the right management team that helped me gain more knowledge and insight to the working of IT industry. They pushed my comfort zones which was very good. There was a time I consulted for a few months in another organization in Pakistan. I found that people are technically very capable but they need to improve their soft skills.

Q) Do you miss your family back home? How often do you travel back?

Of course I miss them and they miss my family :-) I visit my parents at least every other year. They visit me when I can't.

Q) Given a choice, would you prefer working in Pakistan over the USA?

One can find passion to work at any place and make a difference. If I get a chance to bring the skills to grow a company in Pakistan, I would be glad to come back.

Q) You have transitioned well from a technical person to an executive. How did you manage that transition?

I would not consider myself an executive yet. However, it is one of my goals to be a part of the executive team to help the organization meet its business goals. IT can help every department in an organization to improve efficiency and productivity.

As far as the transition is concerned, these two simple approaches helped me in my career:

Managing downwards (employees) or sideways (peers): Share/Transfer knowledge. This freed me up to learn new skills and take on new challenges.
Managing upwards: free your boss's time. Take on some of his/her responsibilities. You will learn new things and at the same time prepare yourself for the next job.

These two simple approaches helped me to transition from a programmer to business analyst to project manager to program manager to IT Director. And I hope that this will help me to transition from VP IT to CIO to COO to CEO.

Q) Books are something that you love to read. What are some of your favorites?

Some of my favorites include:

7 habits of the highly effective people by Stephen Covey
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The five dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni

Q) What magazines and periodicals do you read on a regular basis:

CIO
Information Week
Harvard Business Review

Q) What are the top two/three sites that you visit regularly:

www.cio.com
www.informationweek.com
www.gantthead.com

I also subscribe to the email newsletters from these sites

Q) Can Pakistani IT curriculum be improved in any way?

It has been a while since I have looked at IT curriculum in Pakistan to suggest improvement. However, I would stress the importance of having students work at least one semester as a part of their degree. As always, I would like that the soft-skill improvement plan be incorporated in every course. Simple things as making random team can help the students prepare for the real-life 'random' teams.

Q) What is one thing that you look into when you hire a fresh graduate?

I evaluate candidates based on the soft-skills listed above. Additionally, I follow the following statement by Dee Hock (founder of VISA internationals):

"Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities"

Q) What is it that you would like to see more in Pakistani graduates when they get out of school?

One thing: Improve your soft skills.

BrightSpyre Launches MySpyre.pk

2007-12-19T14:56:00.002+05:00

Pakistan's fastest growing email service

On the joyous occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, BrightSpyre launches yet another value-added service for its loyal users. Starting today, all BrightSpyre members can enjoy"MySpyre" (http://www.myspyre.pk/) which is a comprehensive e-mail service with lots of features and extra services.

Its free, easy and simple to use
Get 6000 MB of free email Space
Email accounts are safe, private and secure
Complete Spam and Virus Protection
Contacts, Calender, Chat and other tools

This is another milestone achieved by BrightSpyre and it continues to be the largest job portal in Pakistan. BrightSpyre now has striking figures of of 4 Million hits per month and a resume bank of 400,000+ from all over Pakistan and abroad with 450+ companies on the board (http://www.brightspyre.com/).

Testimonial - Ejaz Ahmed

2007-12-09T23:30:00.000+05:00

Being a professional student of ACCA I was conscious about a career oriented and rewarding job in strong standing organization. Comparatively smaller job market and direct hiring from top four CA firms made me even more scared about a decent job. Luckily I got registered myself with BrightSpyre and forgot as I was not much hopeful. But I was surprised to got first interview call for a post of "Internal Audit" in of a reputable cement company of Pakistan. All procedure of interview till the offer letter was competed within 15 days and now i am glad to be a part of professional team because of Brightspyre.

God Bless BrightSpyre Team!

Ejaz Ahmed
Islamabad

400,000 and Counting

2007-11-16T21:03:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre continues to grow at an unprecedented pace and has achieved yet another milestone in its short history since its launch in Pakistan in 2002. This past year (the first ten months of 2007), it signed up well over 100,000 unique new job seekers who have flocked to BrightSpyre to find better jobs. Thus, swelling the unique job seeker community on BrightSpyre to 400,000.

“This is the third year in a row, that BrightSpyre has registered over 100,000 unique new users in one calendar year.” boasts Usman Bangash, Manager Sales and Marketing. “It goes onto show that BrightSpyre is still the first choice job portal for all job seekers and employers alike.”

BrightSpyre, owned and operated by Cogilent Solutions, is also credited with initiating and creating the professional online recruitment business in Pakistan.

“Before BrightSpyre, organizations used to rely on newspapers and references”, says Ahmad Jawad, CTO of BrightSpyre. “We not only changed the market, but created a whole new segment within the recruitment sector with our web portal.”

In the past three years, over 1 million jobs applications were submitted through BrightSpyre for various jobs in Pakistan.

"If every resume consists of at least two pages, then BrightSpyre has saved over 2 million pieces of paper by giving users an electronic alternative to apply for jobs and not waste paper over and over again. Thus helping create a "greener" Pakistan." explains Usman Bangash.

BrightSpyre is still the only jobs portal in Pakistan that is ISO-9001-2000 certified and has recruited certified CISSP (Certified Internet Security Professionals) to protect the privacy of its users.

These facts and statistics once again prove that BrightSpyre is still the leading jobs portal in Pakistan.

BrightSpyre participates in ITCN Asia 2007

2007-08-13T18:49:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre participated in this year’s ITCN Asia (Aug 9 -11, 2007) held at the Expo Center in Karachi. The event has grown into the largest IT, Telecom & Media extravaganza of Pakistan. This year ITCN Asia was attended by the region's most influential business professionals, entrepreneurs and policy makers.

BrightSpyre was at the forefront of the event by promoting its services to job seekers as well as potential employers in Pakistan. Please do check out the event in pictures at the BrightSpyre stall at ITCN Asia.

PSEB Joins Hands with BrightSpyre in Launching IT Job Board

2007-08-10T17:42:00.000+05:00

On August 9 2007, BrightSpyre in collaboration with PSEB launched Pakistan's first Job Board focused on the IT Industry talent pool.

http://pseb.jobboard.com.pk

“Talent acquisition is the first step in talent management.” Yusuf Husain, Managing Director said at the launching ceremony.

“PSEB and Brightspyre have joined hands together to help the IT industry by upgrading their talent acquisition to international standards besides providing help to the foreign companies in acquiring talent pool directly from Pakistan.” Added the Managing Director at the launching ceremony of the portal at ITCN Asia in Karachi.

PAHSA-BrightSpyre Career Fair Lucky Draw Winners

2007-07-31T13:59:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre announces the winners of the lucky draw held at the PASHA-BrightSpyre Career Fair in Rawalpindi this July. The winners for prizes are :

Mr. Waqas Asif
Ms. Nosheen Zaidi
Mr. Ahsan Masood
Ms. Nighat Iram
Mr. Tanvir Ahmad

For more information about the lucky draw please feel free to contact BrightSpyre office. The career fair was a tremendous success BrightSpyre aims to regularly hold such events nationwide.

PASHA-BrightSpyre host a successful Career Fair

2007-07-09T17:03:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre-PASHA hosted an extremely successful and well managed career fair at Rawalpindi. "This is the first time, there has been such a large career fair for job seekers in the city of Rawalpindi", mentioned, Faisal Chohan, from BrightSpyre. Over 3,000 job seekers filtered throughout the day to meet with prospective employers that included companies like Si3, Wateen Telecom, Buraq Telecom, Orgoo, Cisco, Green and White and many others.

There were numerous sessions arranged specifically for young graduates. This included, career advice in various fields including, Resume building, Software engineering, Telecom sector, BPO-Call center and many others.

There was also a separate section where job seekers could get one-on-one career advice through councilors provided by Green & White (www.greenwhite.org).Overall, the event was tremendously successful. BrightSpyre also received hundreds of visitors throughout the day at their booth. At the same time, they interviewed and provided guidance to a lot of potential job seekers.

"The candidates that we interviewed were not only for our own internal hiring, but also for our customers who had requested to seek out good candidates for them." mentioned, Ahmad Jawad, from BrightSpyre.

BrightSpyre is especially thankful to Jehan Ara (PASHA), MAJU Students (Mohammad Ali Jinnah University) and Osama Hashmi's Green and White (www.greenandwhite.org) for making this event extremely successful.

For more information, please click on the links below.

PASHA-BrightSpyre Career Fair In Rawalpindi/Islamabad

2007-06-27T14:11:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre-PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) Career Fair is now scheduled to be held on July 8, 2007.

Time and Date: July 8, 2007 (10:00am - 8:00pm)
Location: Pearl Continental Hotel, Rawalpindi

A large number of companies and over 3,500 jobs seekers have already registered to attend. This makes it one of the largest such event in Rawalpindi area.

BrightSpyre will be holding career counseling and on the spot interviews for potential job seekers at the event. This is one of a kind event in Islamabad/Rawalpindi region to assist professionals get better jobs.

Please click here for more information about this event.

BrightSpyre Partners with Microsoft in Pakistan Developer Conference

2007-06-13T06:31:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre is once again at the forefront when it comes to professional development in Pakistan. This year BrightSpyre is one of the strategic partners with Microsoft in promoting this event in Pakistan. The aim of Pakistan Developer Conference 2007 is to provide a comprehensive technological developments including recently released and upcoming Microsoft development and platform technologies.

There will be numerous focused sessions during the conference that for Windows Vista, Office 2007, Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005, BizTalk Server 2006 and many other leading Microsoft Technologies.

It is expected that over 3,000 professionals from all over Pakistan will attend this conference on June 19 and 20 at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. This will be a great opportunity to meet and network with who's who of the industry and Microsoft team. BrightSpyre highly recommends its users to attend the event in either of the three cities.

PASHA-BRIGHTSPYRE Collaborate on THE CAREER EXPO

2007-06-10T17:55:00.000+05:00

PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) has been instrumental in organizing capacity building events in Pakistan since 2004. This year, PASHA is holding three mega Career Expos in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. These events are focused on fresh graduates and young professionals to assist them in their careers. They will learn more about the kind of careers that are available to them across the spectrum of ICT and will also become aware of the growth and maturity of the sector they are either joining or are already a part of.

The Career Expo shall focus on the following:

Job Matchmaking through company booths.
Presentations on different career tracks including Software Engineering, BPO/Call Centers, Telecom, New Media & Animation, System Integration, Networking and Finance
Interactive Workshops

Expert Panels
Career Counsellings

The event in Islamabad is co-organized by BrightSpyre (www.BrightSpyre.com) in collaboration with PASHA (www.pasha.org). It will take place at the Convention Center on June 23, 2007.

Please click here for more information about this event.

BrightSpyre Protected by Certified Security Professional

2007-06-02T19:17:00.000+05:00

BrightSpyre's now boasts a unique talent in Pakistan. Ahmad Jawad, CTO, BrightSpyre is now one of the unique group of 25 Pakistanis who are CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional) certified Professionals. This exam is managed and undertaken by (ISC)². It is the world's leading authority on information system security. Currently there are around 48,000 certified such professionals around the world. It is a further recognition of the fact that BrightSpyre continues to hire the best talent and continues to maintain a very high standard when it comes to handling data of its prestigious clients.

The role of any CISSP in an organization is:

Strategic overview of Information Security needs.
Develop/maintain an Information Security Program.
Provide advice regarding new information Security technologies.
Assurance of compliance with regulations.

Under Jawad, BrightSpyre is working deligently to further improve the standard of security and reliability of the largest Job Portal of Pakistan.

"At any given day, there can be as many as 35,000 unique visitors to our web portal. This number is likely to increase to 100,000 daily visitors by the end of 2007." explains Ahmad Jawad.

"This exponential growth requires radical changes in the way the whole Portal is setup. Security of the system needs to be carefully evaluated whenever there are changes in the software or hardware setup of any application. This certification enabled me to further polish my skills and gave me access to a privileged club of Security professionals worldwide. I will bring all that information to BrightSpyre and set a new standard of service." With such ambitions and goals, Jawad hopes to bring about a major change in how security is perceived in Pakistan.

BrightSpyre is owned and operated by Cogilent Solutions which is headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Interview; Some useful Suggestions

2007-05-14T19:59:00.000+05:00

Giving an interview can be made an exciting experience and a source of learning if one has prepared well. There are things that every job seeker must learn and prepare for, before appearing for an interview, simply because no one can predict the nature of questions expected in an interview. The rule of thumb is to prepare and practice well.

What would be the first thing that an interviewer notices after the physical appearance of a candidate?

The answer is The Body Language.

The body language includes the way we stand,walk, talk and sit, position our hands and the way we communicate. The employers in this world of cut throat competition need leaders, the decision makers who can make the market based decisions but the people with the vision and foresight to handle any crisis as best as possible, as well. An open and frank demeanor with confident personality shows the positive side of the job seeker.

When answering the questions please make sure that the answers are brief and to the point, but communicated properly and sincerely. Answer should be only to what is being asked.

Irrelevant details and personal matters must not be discussed. Lengthy answers and personal matters are not what an interviewer is looking for. The emphasis on strengths is more important than disclosing the personal problems.

Your knowledge of the company, product line and services must be complete and up to date. Not knowing about the company and related details show casual and disinterested attitude. A little homework about the company, its inception, background, products and services and work environment can prove to be very helpful in the actual interview.

You can ask relevant questions though. The interview is a good time to know the details like what would be the initial responsibilities of the new employee, what kind of training would be available, what are the performance evaluation methods adopted in the company, what could be problematic areas of this job and what is the kind of team a new employee would be working with.

The initial assessment of a job seeker if positive, results in the discussion of salary and the benefits included with the salary, but it is never a good idea to state your expected salary first. It would be better

to wait for the offer of salary from the employer. The salary is usually based on the market trends and according to the qualifications and skills necessary for the post. More chances for you to get the prevailing salary if you fulfill the necessary criteria for the job.

Your Guide Towards a Successful Career

2007-05-05T19:58:00.000+05:00

Step 2:

Appearance for the Interview

Getting an interview call is an achievement, because that indicates the resume you sent, left the right impression on the employer who now wants to see you in person.

This is the opportunity you were waiting for, the time to present your self in person, the time to prove what you wrote in your resume, the time to face the challenge.

Right now you have equal chances of getting selected as any other candidate who applied for the same position as you did.

What is the right step to take at this stage; Dress Up appropriately for the interview.

Dressing up is one area where you can earn extra points over others easily. A Little effort to look into the culture and work environment of the company would certainly help you to choose what color to wear on the interview occasion.

For Men

The corporate culture asks for formal wear. Dark Colored suit, suitably matched neck tie, polished shoes and an over all clean, professional look is all you require. Bright colors, ill fitted suit, loose necktie will do you no good. If you have already seen the office environment and you know how people dress up for the work, try to use the information to your benefit. The more you try to blend into the company culture, the more easy it would be ultimately, for you to adjust in the new work environment.

For Women

The corporate culture for women does not define much. Most of this part of the initial preparation is left to you to decide. Please remember that what goes for men, goes for women as well. Make sure that the choice of colors is appropriate for a formal occasion. Make up and jewelry should be minimal and should help in enhancing your over all image. Being over dressed up for an interview is never a good idea.

Some General Tips

Take a clean, crisp copy of your CV with you. It is always a good idea to have a copy of your resume in case you need it, besides, it is something to hold in your hands.

Wear a watch, wearing a watch has certain benefits. A watch is an accessory that enhances the over all appearance positively. It helps giving the impression of a person who values time.

Be on time. Remember, being ten minutes early for an interview is better than being five minutes late.

Keep track of the time and leave early if the distance requires so. Being early not only gives you time to relax and catch your breath but would also show a committed and professional approach.

Resume: The First Step

2007-04-20T19:57:00.000+05:00

Step 1:

The Pakistan’s job market is expanding. With the growth in economy, and incentives from the government, more and more Multinational Companies are venturing into Pakistan’s market. With the economic growth rate of 6.6 per cent this year, the chances are, there will be more entrants into our product and service industry and each new entry, will in turn provide a chance to our talented job seekers to get employed.

Every enterprise wants people who have the potential to become an asset. They look for people who can take initiative, who can take the business forward while taking calculated risks and managing multiple tasks, the individuals who have the vision and a strong grasp over issues related to companies and their busines

There are very few universities in Pakistan that provide career counseling to their students. Most of the job seekers learn the preparatory steps necessary in the job search when they actually start looking for a job after completing their education. For Pakistani youth, getting a job at the right time is considered the single biggest factor contributing to their financial and personal growth.

There are certain things that every job seeker needs to have and present appropriately to get noticed by the prospective employer.

The first step to take is to make a professional Resume.

Resume is your first introduction. A professionally made, well formatted , clear and concise resume gives you a definite edge over some of the not so well made resumes. The first look that a resume receives from the employer decides the course of direction for the employer and the job seeker.

Do not forget to mention the important dates, and try not to leave gaps between the dates. Remember the dates you provide in the resume and support them with the relevant documents.

Mention your skills, strengths and achievements, besides your qualification and experience. Let the employer know what you can contribute towards the collective organizational growth.

Your contact information must be accurate and up to date. Give the phone number and e mail address that can be used to reach you. Much of the initial correspondence now a days ,takes place through e mail. When you apply for a job, check you e mail regularly for any updates from the company you applied to.

Something important to remember; be completely honest about the information you provide in your resume. Lack of honesty is more harmful than lack of experience when you make your resume. Do not mention something in your resume that can not be supported through documents or can not be verified through people. Any discrepancy found in your resume, at the time of interview, at worse, will render the whole exercise futile.

The reward for a well made, attention grabbing resume is, a call for an interview.