Job Hunting

Job hunting.

Lately, what I see, is this has become a large problem; people are troubled with this. They have started thinking that they are not skilled enough to crack an interview, however, the fact iscracking an interview requires no skill at all. All it requires is matching the demand and supply.

Let us discuss this in detail. Like I had written in my previous blog, education has become a purely commercial entity and people are not looking at a course based on their skills. People are simply choosing a course based on the average salary quoted by the college in their marketing material.

Hence it is clear that skill matching is not happening on either side. Neither is the college evaluating the student for the course nor is the student evaluating the college. This practice only has given birth to the problem of job hunting. Before we actually get into a course we must evaluate that whether we will be able to fit into the role that this course shapes me in or not.

Let us understand this with the help of an example of a student - let us say, Ravi. Ravi cleared his schooling with an average number of marks, hence he did not secure a seat in a decent regular college. Now his father is unhappy with the fact that society and relatives would know that his son has not done well in exams, or, Ravi himself doesn’t want anyone to know that he couldn’t do well in exams. So what they do is they buy a seat in an Engineering college. As it is a bought seat, no assessment happened either way so the future is unpredictable. There are very strong chances that he may not be able to bag a decent offer - let alone any offer - unless, of course, he had relevant engineering skills.

Here, Ravi’s father had assumed that college will teach Ravi everything required to become an engineer, forgetting the fact the educational institutes can only hone the skills and not create the skills. In other words, they can only sharpen the knife and not create the knife. So, what the parents need to do is sit with their kids, understand their behavioural patterns - if need be, take an expert opinion - then expose the kid to multiple environments and then evaluate the patterns. It is only on this basis that a decision must be taken after consulting the kid. In no situation should a decision be taken in isolation either by parents or the child.It has to be a mutual decision.

I am sure a lot of you will be able to relate to it.

Then, coming to this - "what if all of aforementioned is sorted and still I am struggling to find a job?" Well, there could be numerous reasons. First - whether your CV is written yourself or is an edited one. This topic requires a lot of discussion, so will write another blog talking about CV writing in detail eventually. However, for now, what I would say is having the CV written yourself the key to the gear lock of your car. If that is unlocked, you get an opportunity of driving the car - only, obviously, if you find the key, which is how well you express your passion in the interview meeting. Another thing which is worth mentioning here is how to prospect a job on web portals. I see a lot of people applying for all open vacancies, which you must strictly refrain from, as that is the task of a spammer - which you are not. You must choose a job wisely and then apply for it and, if the number is available, call the recruiter and talk about your desire of applying for the role. 

Take an acknowledgment of the number one rule of resume submission - that you must strictly refrain from calling back too often. You should only do a follow-up call once a week at most, maybe, as this looks like a very mature and professional approach.

Also in today’s age, social media has gained a lot of importance, so most of the hiring managers do a bit of research about the candidate they receive the resume of. Hence, it is imperative that you create a professional social media profile and share the link to it on your resume for the hiring manager to see and get to know a bit about you.

I guess I have spoken enough here - however, this blog gives me few more topics to talk at
length about which I will cover over the next few blogs.

In case if you would like me to write about anything specific, please put it in the comments section - I will commit to write on it.

-Yogaesh Nanda
Executive of Emprego Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd.
http://tecservices.co.in