Oh, its that time of the year, when the class is graduating & everyone starts to look out for a job... oh my gawd!!! The market is down! Companies are downsizing! Do I need specialised skills? What about my dreams & promises to my parents & friends? ... I bet each of us has gone through these states at some or the other point in life... hence, I am choosing this topic so that I can help atleast some people thru MS in optimizing their efforts in this seemingly unending endeavour!!!!
Where to go? Hog the Net: So you start with a website that claims its the best in the country & also has over tens of 0000’s of jobs for you (as if it were all for one person, so he could place his shoes on the table & start asking about perks, luxury car & paid vacations with family to Hawaii!!!) I do agree, there are a couple of good sites, but then the results differ from people to people. Here is a listing of a few popular ones that I found personally…
jobstreet.com
123jobs.com
jobsure.com
timesjobs.com (increasingly popular)
jobsahead.com
jobsdb.com
monster.com (most popular)
naukri.com (another most popular)
careerindia.com
careerkhazana.com
alltimejobs.com
cioljobs.com
Note: Site-based results vary greatly on a case-to-case basis, & its a fact that actual # of positions are around 55-60% of advertised ones. Plus, firms who hire from these sites cut down incoming cvs mercilessly, then hold people with maximum yrs (shown) exp, call them & take the most polished talker & avg-to-good acad from interviews!!! I know this as I have worked thru this dirt myself as well!!!! Hence, even though ur inbox shows 100 job offers every month, actual probability is 10-15% on a best case basis, ie 10-15 potential avg-good level jobs per mth.
Tools to help you present your skills: These sites also give you a host of tools that are user-friendly like templates to resume-creation, reminders for specific job searches (called as agents), various breadths & depths of searches, multiple resume storage & the expected articles for interviewing, resume-writing & cover –letter creation, & professional success etc etc (please eat a bunch of those articles from the site guys, like https://monster.com, https://quintcareers.com) IF YOU ARE DOING A MAJORITY OF SEARCH THROUGH NET, THEN MAKE FULL USE OF THESE TOOLS TO OPTIMISE & HIGHLIGHT YOUR SKILLSETS.
Placement cos - These are a relatively newer breed of people who sprung up after the boom sectors (read as IT, Media, Advtg, BPO & Consulting) became the darling of the nation! Usually housed in small flats or SOHO, the 1-5 person team will land their hands on your cv from these websites after a midnight coffee, or thru some place where you went for a sneak-in interview during lunch hours, & he will give you a phone-call when you are explaining to your company manager how important you are for the company & your loyalty towards it success!!! Aaahh! Why now, of all times!! SO, he will give you a call sometimes when you are chatting with a friend over a coffee, travelling in a filled bus, or enjoying that movie at your family get-together.
Note- Around 50% of these untimely friends of yours WILL have fantastic offers from that MNC-you-always-liked, but it also depends on: how much time to interview, is the posn in your main or a related field, total positions vis-a-vis total interviewed candidates, & (sorry, but I discovered unfortunately, to some extent also, where you hail from!). But, remember that these guys call up appx 10-12 candidates for 1 open position. HOWEVER, it is much better than the TOI ad-inspired crowds at your fave MNC, where the odds are a stiff 500-vs-5 positions!!! Hence, many people land a good-nice job thru these guys! One of my friends even carried a pack of business cards with him that he printed with company logo, only to be distributed to these guys for later offers, & he switched cos at the drop of a hat!!!!
Networking: It is very much over-emphasised word in the west that you have to get success thru networking in parties, informal get-togethers & bus-stop (kidding) etec etc…. But I doubt if it really works, as I never saw even 1 person who had multi-millionaire friends who could help me become the CxO of their companies. I bet most of you havent also… so this is mostly fluke & white smoke (as you may call) & mostly aimed at developing your selling skills & not at the actual prospects of you landing that million-$$$ job you reminisced of in college!!! ha ha ha :-)
Campus: Work along with your institute’s placement cell (nowadays lot of them have one, even though it may be without FT staff, in a shabby garage, or without many contacts) They will do the contacts for you before you have to market your cv out there. & it’s a lot more easier, & respectful. Companies tend to talk respectfully to institutes than to individual candidates, per se. Hence, use the services of this cell, send out your cv to them, co-ordinate & there are more chances of you getting a job in an MNC or blue-chip then if you try the break-my-heels route, buddy!!!
Unadvertised Positions: Did you know that in each company, there are around 5-10% unadvertised positions? These are the mid-senior ones that are to be filled if we-find-the-best-fit, or if-we-get-that-big-project, or simply open from longtime!! The key to these jobs is to get insider information from (if u have) close friends in the company, or if you are yourself in a position of power there, you will understand it. Note that these are very stable, & fabulous mid-senior executive level positions.
Battle-hardened Strategies:
- Do NOT over-do things & keep cv to max of 3-4 pages (& that includes experience also). Big cvs donot mean big skills or more knowledge.
- Highlight all that YOU did during the past places & not what the project or the company did.
- Using brand names of big firms is sign of the times, but keep it to minimum & tell them what achievements you made in that environment.
- Unless you are from bigshot institutes, or fan of MF husain (pls excuse me), dress on the conservative side
- Chappals, goggles, half-sleeved / crumpled shirts, unshaven beards are a strict- no no (later you will think everything went fine, why didn’t they call me)
- Make your mark slowly & become casual with them over time, not on day 1.
- For techy chaps, since its the ego-factor of interviewers to ask difficult stuff & screw candidates to show off their knowledge (though most of it never gets used), prepare thoroughly for the technical interview... Reach those unexpected, absurd FAQs to hit max scores)
- Get to know about the company from their site, like if they are hiring for a J2EE / MS technologies position, what exactly are they looking for in that position & prepare accordingly.
- It makes sense to tell the HR guy firsthand that you have worked mostly on component/technology X & not on the entire spectrum like X1, X2 till Xn.
- In technical interviews, be to-the-point, polite & DO NOT fake. If you don’t know something in depth, say that I have worked majorly on technology X only in the project. The trick here is to bring him to your strong area so you can field the most # of questions possible.
- Always write down the questions after interview, it may be useful in another one.
The best Strategy: Since net is so expansive & it cheap to put up a site, net search is here to stay, I would suggest the BEST option will be to use a combination of website-based jobs, placement companies & campus (f you are fresher, or about to graduate) & unadvertised ones (if you are experienced & in position of power & influence)…
Oh so you are off to shoot that cv again… best of luck, buddy!!!!