Akraya Pays It Forward by Opening Its Network to IT Job Seekers

April 10, 2009 - PRLog -- The balloons dancing in the wind with the company logo “Akraya” were meant to ensure that invited guests arriving to the company’s by invitation-only, Pay It Forward Networking Event would not miss the Akraya headquarters. Soon after 6pm, senior IT professionals in transition, hiring managers and representatives of some of the Valley’s most powerful companies started to arrive crowding the Akraya lobby where the event took place.

Akraya CEO, Amar Panchal and President, Sonu Ratra, co-founders of the 7 year old IT services company were excited to watch enthusiastic event attendees chatting and swapping business cards or trading industry contacts, resumes and good advice over the gourmet buffet spread. The event was a clear success.

The idea to host a one-of-a-kind networking event leveraging Akraya’s powerful network of connections first occurred to Sonu Ratra in early February after receiving an overwhelming number of referrals from clients and friends that have been hit with a layoff. Ratra decided that her company, Akraya will take action by doing what they do best: matching IT professionals with the hiring managers of leading companies. The event was dubbed “Pay It Forward Networking Event” to symbolize optimism and the spirit of service. The 60 attendees represented the crème of the Silicon Valley, including companies like eBay, Facebook, Paypal, Yahoo, NetApps, Verisign, Genentech, Cisco, Wells Fargo, VM Ware, Sun Microsystems, Blue Coat and Immersion.

“We were very pleasantly surprised by the positive response our event received not only from job seekers but also from representatives of large companies” said Akraya President, Sonu Ratra.  “Besides hiring managers, many people that currently hold jobs at large companies also showed up just to help. We hope that many of the new connections made at our event will turn into actual job interviews.”

Attendees of the event were touched by Akraya’s efforts of organizing the get-together. “I met many interesting people at Akraya’s Pay It Forward Event” said Ravi Narayanaswamy, Senior Program Manager at Sun Microsystems. “I truly appreciate all the hard work and thoughts put in this event by the Akraya team. They should have more of these in the future; I would be glad to be of any help.”

“At turbulent times like these, people need all the support they can get” added Jon-Paul Ales-Barnicoat, Director, Talent Acquisition & HR Operations. “It is so nice to see a company like Akraya making an effort to facilitate positive change in their community. I am definitely planning to attend any similar events in the future”

Besides the effort to bring people together, job seekers were also surprised by the efficiency of the matchmaking. “I have been to many networking events in the last couple weeks but this has been one of the best” said Dragan Milanovich, former Director, Engineering Services at PayPal. “The market is tougher than ever, so building my network by adding contacts at major companies has never been more important. I am grateful that Akraya brought us all together.”

“The Pay It Forward Event was a great opportunity to come out and mingle with my peers in similar situation” said Uttam Kumar, former Senior Manager, Product Operations at VeriSign. “The fact that I could also collect some important leads and expand my network with many useful contacts was really the icing on the cake.”

Akraya plans on hosting a similar larger scale Pay It Forward event in the next upcoming months.

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Akraya, Inc. is a leading provider of Information Technology, Engineering and Life sciences managed talent solutions and professional staffing. Akraya enables the success of strategic technology initiatives through its Management, Analysis, Architecture, Engineering and Support services. Akraya is a preferred partner to several Fortune 500 companies and exciting startups. Akraya is a certified Minority Owned (NCSDC) as well as a Woman Owned (WBENC) enterprise. Akraya is also a Certified Green Business.
For more information on Akraya, please visit www.akraya.com.