Jun 16, 2005 03:16 PM
6714 Views
(Updated Jun 18, 2005 02:52 AM)
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!!!!
