Vacancies were all around, but there was hardly any vacant space to stand on Thursday at Patna College — the venue of job fair.

From 10am to 5pm, around 36 companies were on a hiring spree at the maiden job fair on the university campus. At the end of the day, as many as 484 stude- nts lapped up jobs. Several others qualified for the final round of recruitment process of firms.

The overall response to the job fair jointly organised by Patna University and state labour resources department was overwhelming.

From undergrads to postgraduates, and from MBA students to budding doctors, aspirants huddled on the Patna College campus right from the morning.

S.S. Tripathi, assistant director, employment, department of labour resources, said more than 27,464 applications were submitted at stalls of different companies, including Wipro BPO, Atlantis Medicare Pvt. Ltd, Aviva Life, Reliance Life and Reliance Capital. “Wipro BPO alone received more than 4,200 applications for 450 posts of technical support associates. Final-year graduate/postgraduate students of any discipline could apply for them.”

The company would conduct a written test on language and computer proficiency. The shortlisted candidates would have to go through telephonic interviews — the last hurdle on the job course.

Few firms recruited students on the spot based on their educational qualification and their performance in interviews conducted by senior officials.

Reliance Life, a part of Reliance Industries, recruited five students as sales managers. They were offered pay package of Rs 20,000 per month.

The offer letters were handed to the selected candidates at the job fair by labour resources minister Janardan Singh Sigriwal and Patna University vice-chancellor (VC) Shambhu Nath Singh.

Distributing the offer letters, Sigriwal said a job fair when firms were in cost-cutting mode would be of great help to students.

Rahul, an MCom student of Patna University and one among the five recruited by Reliance Life, said: “It is dream come true for me. Till Wednesday night, I was sceptical whether I would get a job or not. But a visit to the job fair changed the entire scenario and now I am an employee of Reliance Life.”

Similar was the feeling of Rupam Priti and Puja Priti, recruited by Hawkman Technologies in Patna as counsellors. They were offered Rs 11,000 per month.

Puja Priti, a graduation student of Patna Science College, said: “It is a great feeling to get a job while studying.”

Colonel Dr A.K. Singh, the chairman of Ruban Group of Hospitals, said: “We are participating in a job fair for the first time. We hired eight candidates, including two MBBS doctors with a pay package of above Rs 25,000.”

Singh said the biggest advantage of participating in the fair was getting candidates from different spheres on one platform.

The Patna University VC said the participation of students of other universities proved the success of the fair.