Hardworking, dedicated and selfless, volunteers serving at the Expo 2010 Shanghai impressed visitors from all over the world - as well as their future employers.

About 2,000 positions from 200 enterprises will be offered to volunteers from the Expo at a job fair on Nov 3 in Yuanshen Sports Center Stadium, according to the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

Among 200,000 volunteers serving at the world fair, about 130,000 of them are college students, many of whom need to land a job after the event.

Some volunteers missed many career opportunities by serving at the Expo full time, so enterprises are offering positions as a way to repay their services during the six-month event, said Pan Min, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

About 50 foreign enterprises will offer positions at the Nov 3 job fair, according to Li Dong, spokesman with a human resource firm that is co-organizing the job fair.

Huang Min, a volunteer who worked in the Expo Garden for two weeks, said he is looking forward to the fair.

"Many positions are about sales and communications. I think I have practiced many skills required by these jobs during my service at the Expo," said Huang. "I think the experience has given us a competitive edge in job hunting."

Apart from this job fair, another career fair offering more than 1,000 positions is scheduled at the Shanghai Corporate Joint Pavilion inside the Expo Garden next month.

The fair will be open to all job hunters, but staff and volunteers serving at the Expo will be given priority, according to the Shanghai Corporate Joint Pavilion, organizer of the event.

Challenging jobs including financial managers, research and development directors are included in the positions offered. Applicants with Expo volunteer experience should submit a personal statement about serving at the Expo and references from pavilion directors in addition to an application form and resume.

Previously, the Private Enterprises Joint Pavilion launched a series of job fairs for graduate volunteers. Three fairs were held last month at which 10 enterprises offered 400 positions to 130 graduates, giving them an average of three positions each from which to choose.

"In a competitive job market like China's, such favorable job opportunities are simply beyond imagination," said Michael Xu, a graduate volunteer who received three offers at one of the job fairs.

(China Daily October 28, 2010)