Want a new job? Head for 'the lounge'

BANGALORE: With the demand for IT professionals growing by the day, HR outfits are trying new ways of attracting good talent. Bangalore based IT recruitment company, TVA Infotech is introducing a novel way of tapping into the mid-level IT professional pool on April 16- lounge hiring.

At the "Aspire lounge" as the program is called, selected candidates can choose the company they are interested in, interview with the company- all in the relaxed five-star ambience and comfort of the Le Meridien Hotel in Bangalore. TVA Infotech assures confidentiality and privacy of the candidates.

The process works this way. IT professionals with 5-9 years of experience who want a career leap, register for the program by posting the resume on the TVA website. The candidates who match the required criteria are invited to the lounge. Around 125-150 candidates will be chosen for the lounge meet and each candidate can interview with two companies of his choice at the venue. Some of the companies that have tied up for the program include ABB, Accenture, CA, Juniper Networks and others.

Besides the Aspire Lounge, TVA Infotech has also come up with the Aspire Platinum, which is a level above Aspire Lounge. This exclusive- by-invitation- only hiring get-together is for senior professionals with over ten years of experience over cocktails and dinner. This will be launched next month.

Highlighting this unique way of attracting techies, CEO Gautam Sinha said, " The Aspire concept is based on "experiential hiring." Typically the hiring experience is not very good since it is stressful and involves waiting. Moreover, not enough information is available to candidates to make the career change decision. Aspire fills this gap." He also added that most mid-level managers are usually reluctant to put their resumes online. Based on the response to this experiment, Sinha hopes to arrange at least two such meets a month.

The experiential hiring idea has also been adopted by Bangalore based assessment company MeritTrac which opened a dedicated assessment center for HP's global delivery division in the city in December.

According to industry estimates, the IT industry is expected to have a manpower shortfall of between 60,000 -80,000 next year. Would such quirky HR exercises like the lounge hiring help in such a scenario?