Cebu City, Cebu — For two straight days, the booths occupied by overseas placement firm IPAMS and international maritime crewing service company Jebsen Maritime Inc. have been swamped by hundreds of applicants who trooped to the two-day Manila Bulletin Classifieds Job Fair at the SM City mall in Cebu which ended Wednesday, yesterday.
Fresh graduates and even those past their prime lined up the booths of those companies to inquire about overseas employment opportunities.
IPAMS recruits personnel for various land-based works overseas while Jebsen Maritime focuses on crewing for international cruise ships.
“If I’d be able to get a job overseas, I will be able to help my family and send my siblings to college,” said Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) graduate Vanessa Taborada, adding that the salary that will be able to get from a local job would only be enough to pay for her personal needs.
The thought of clinching high-paying jobs overseas pushed most of the applicants during said job fair, which is part of the Manila Bulletin’s 6th Classifieds Job Fair nationwide, to line up for companies that offer jobs abroad.
One applicant was engineering graduate Jose Rodriguez, 57, who used to work in Dubai for years until his contract expired last year. When he learned about Manila Bulletin’s job fair, Toledo City resident Rodriguez said he decided to come to Cebu to try his luck.
“Who knows, I might find another overseas jobs here. I have the skills and the experience. If these companies are looking for qualified workers, here I am,” Rodriguez said, while lining up at the booth of Monark Industries along with several fresh graduates who are also looking for a job abroad.
A personnel officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co urged Manila Bulletin to make the job fair an annual event in Cebu after noticing that most of those who applied where college graduates, professionals, and skilled workers.
The officer, who refused to be identified because she was not authorized to speak on behalf of JPMorgan, said Cebu needs more job fairs similar to what the national newspaper had just put together in the city.
She said that while there are job fairs initiated by local governments, the applicants of those job fairs do not usually meet the requirements of business process outsourcing (BPO) industries.
“I hope that the Manila Bulletin will be able to make this kind of job fair an annual event in Cebu,” she said.
Another exhibitor, UnitedHealth Group, which claims to be the most diversified health care company in the United States and a leader worldwide in helping people live healthier lives, is offering employment opportunities to nurses and graduates of medical courses who are finding it hard to land local jobs.
In the Philippines, the company offers jobs for people in the healthcare industry, or those who are graduates of medical allied services with experience in customer service works.
“We are offering people nursing jobs but they will not be doing bedside nursing,” said Jam dela Vega, Sr. Sourcing & Branding Manager.
She said there are a lot of people in the medical services field that are looking for a job or want to continue their health care practice but are not able to do so partly due to the lack of job opportunities in the country.

Source: Manila Bulletin - September 26, 2013