How a UPES alumnus is helping people find jobs

Suyash Jain, an alumnus of UPES with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, along with his colleague Rajat Agarwal, has launched a unique social initiative to help people to find employment during COVID-19

COVID-19 has altered the way we live and work and almost every industry is feeling the heat. Lay-offs, pay cuts and furloughs have impacted many lives drastically. Still, companies in sectors such as e-commerce, pharma, food, online education, gaming, etc., are looking to hire people. In order to tap into these opportunities and help job seekers, Suyash Jain and Rajat Aggarwal, a duo working in a B2B e-commerce company called Bijnis, came up with the concept of ‘COVID-19 Free Job Forum’. Their idea is being highly appreciated by both the jobseekers and the recruiters. Suyash Jain, an alumnus of UPES School of Business, shares his journey from being a BBA student to a social entrepreneur.

How does this forum help the job seekers?

COVID-19 Free Job Forum is an online job database to connect those seeking employment to potential employers. This year on April 27, I read a news article that said: ‘A B2B company lays off 3,000 contract workers’ mainly consisting of delivery executives and field sales team. The news shook me hard as in our business we were facing challenges in hiring a field sales team due to shortage of talent on job portals. So, realising the gap between the job seekers and job providers, I, along with my friend Rajat, decided to take this plunge to bridge the gap.

It has not been an easy journey; the candidates doubted our authenticity, ability to provide desirable jobs and the ultimate goal of the initiative. We worked hard to build our credibility, sent emails to hirers and job seekers using our original identities, shared our LinkedIn profiles and personal e-mail ids. We also created a company page on LinkedIn to act as a bridge between employers and candidates and provide useful resources, job-related information and links to other pages having job opportunities.

We already have a live database of 8,500+ applications divided across domains, salary, and job location. This database is shared live with 400+ HR personnel from companies that are currently hiring. Data security of job-seekers remains our topmost priority; response sheets are only available on request. We do stringent checks of the hiring status of employers before giving access to any e-mail ids. The entire service is free for both recruiters and job seekers.

 What inspired you to embark upon an entrepreneurial expedition at such a young age?

I have been an average student who never participated in any competitions in school and had hardly any interest in sports and studies. I would credit my experiences at UPES School of Business during my BBA in Retail Management (2015-2018) for sowing the seeds of entrepreneurship in my mind. It all began when I got a chance to participate in a marketing competition with my friend Kritika Navetia. We were able to sell an idea and won the first prize! Thereafter we participated in various management competitions and won several prizes for UPES. The most memorable achievement, out of all our victories, was winning the prize for the Best Business Plan in IIT Kanpur E-Submit 2016 and 2017. During i5 Summit at IIM Indore, our business plan attracted the attention of Edelweiss, a leading investment and financial services company.

I did my internship in a start-up, where I learned about building businesses from scratch. Being keen on acquiring as much knowledge I could, I did several virtual internships as a content writer, sales executive, digital marketer and social media marketer. While at UPES, I also started ‘EVyopar Club’, the first retail club of the college, with the help of my professors. The club used to conduct and promote activities related to the retail industry.

In the third year, I was selected as a Student Placement Representative and here I picked up my lessons in industry liaising, skill development and spotting the right talent for the right job.

All my professors encouraged me and extended their best support in making these wins possible and infusing me with the vision to make things happen not only for myself, but for people around me as well.

What would be your advice to youngsters?

Business education is all about nurturing young minds with business acumen, life skills like teamwork, problem solving ability and a sense of responsibility towards the society. I would like to express my gratitude to UPES and my professors for inculcating all the desirable traits in me and helping me become a better version of myself.

I would advise all my juniors to participate in business plan competitions, debates and research projects under faculty mentorship. Internships are a great platform to learn and grow, so students must give their best effort to their internship projects. The experiences at UPES gave me the skill and confidence to take up challenges and make big strides in learning.