How to Bag that job!

This was an article in “Mumbai Mirror” of Times of India

In today’s competitive world, finding a job that is suitable to your needs is not very easy. Even if such a job should come along, there is no guarantee that you’re the only person applying for the post. To ensure you don’t miss out on the perfect opportunity, you need to present yourself to the prospective employer in a way that would impress them enough to employ you, instead of any of the other applicants.

According to V Venkat, Director for Rank & File (job consultants) Fort, The search for the ideal job should necessarily start with clarity of personal and professional objectives and goals.

The objectives have to be achievable and should be based on a critical introspection of ones own qualities, qualifications, expertise and employability.

THE RESUME

The first point of contact with a potential employer is the resume; a complete and well-structured resume will elicit a positive response as long as the position applied for is consistent with your qualifications and experience. After you send your resume and get the much-awaited interview, that’s when the actual communication begins.

According to Venkat, the contents of a good resume should essentially reflect the skill sets and the expertise the candidate brings to the table. The features of a good resume include:

• A covering letter with the relevant skills and experience highlighted would help to focus the evaluators attention to the candidates specific worth to the company
• Concise and non-repetitive: Similar job responsibilities in present and past companies should be clubbed together
• There should be structured and chronological sequencing of information
• The resume should be non-cluttered, pleasing to read and allowing for easy access to required information. Fonts and sizes should be consistent
• Complete information relating to date of birth, education, tenure in each company and gaps in experience should be specified
• Highlight key skills which are essential to the job requirements
• Present salary and expected salary (preferable but not essential, as giving an unjustifiable or unreasonable figure could possibly disqualify the candidate) and notice period should be mentioned
• Personal information relating to height, weight and caste are unnecessary in the resume.

PRE INTERVIEW

Before you go for the interview it is imperative that you gather as much information about the company where you wish to work. Good preparation in terms of understanding the potential employers business and the job requirements is most essential. For example, one candidate being considered for a senior managerial position in sales, which required setting up a franchisee network, actually took the initiative of meeting some of the company’s existing franchisees before his interview to enable him to understand the business. He got the job, says Venkat. So, if you apply to a company, ensure you know what is required of you and how the company operates.

THE INTERVIEW

The obvious and oft-repeated advice for an interview is to be relaxed, dress well and express positive (but not arrogant) body language. Two copies of the resume, salary details and testimonials (if specifically asked for) plus a notepad are mandatory, advises Venkat.

It is also important to know your resume well as candidates have been known to falter and utter inconsistent explanations during the interview. Presence of mind, self confidence and honesty could sometimes help one out of a potentially bad or hopeless situation. However, trying to lie or blustering your way out will most certainly ensure your disqualification.

However well prepared you might be, there is always a chance that during an interview you might fumble. So weigh your pros and cons before the meeting. Potential landmines that often surface during an interview are frequent job hops, reasons for seeking a change from present employment, inability to justify information provided in the resume, salary expectation inconsistent with experience and performance during the interview, name dropping and references. Carefully cover each of these topics and think about how you’re going to handle such questions before the interview, says Venkat.

POST INTERVIEW

After an interview, whether or not you get the job, keep in touch with the person who interviewed you and always keep things amicable. If you leave a good impression, there is always a chance you might be called back.

According to Sarita Sharma, deputy general manager, Eureka Forbes, Medical Fraternity Channel, There are three important things that one should do when looking for a job. Firstly, express yourself in a very positive manner and always add creative inputs to the conversation while at an interview. Individuals must do enough homework about the job before applying. Secondly, approach the employer with an

Attitude that shows you are flexible and open to learning. Lastly, many people only look at the monetary advantage of work. However, before applying for a job, you need to make sure it suits your intellectual requirements as well, or you might want to leave as soon as you join, wasting both your employers time and yours.

 

– An article by Sophia French

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Why employees leave organisations?

Every company normally faces one common problem of high employee turnout atio. People are leaving the company for better pay, better profile or simply for just one reason’ pak gaya ‘. This article might just throw some light on the matter……

Early this year, Arun, an old friend who is a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer. He had heard a lot about the CEO of this company, charismatic man often quoted in the business press for his visionary attitude. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food. Twice Arun was sent abroad for training. “My learning curve is the sharpest it’s ever been,” he said soon after he joined. “It’s a real high working with such cutting edge technology.” Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Arun walked out of the job. He has no other offer in hand but he said he couldn’t take it anymore. Nor, apparently, could several other people in his department who have also quit recently.

The CEO is distressed about the high employee turnover. He’s distressed about the money he’s spent in training them. He’s distressed because he can’t figure out what happened. Why did this talented employee leave despite a top salary? Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called First Break All The Rules.

It came up with this surprising finding:

If you’re losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he’s the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition. “People leave managers not companies,” write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. “So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people – in the form of better pay, better perks and better training – when, in the end, turnover is mostly manager issue.” If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers. Are they driving people away? Beyond a point, an employee’s primary need has less to do with money, and more to do with how he’s treated and how valued he feels. Much of this depends directly on the immediate manager. And yet, bad bosses seem to happen to good people everywhere.. A Fortune magazine survey some years ago found that nearly 75 per cent of employees have suffered at the hands of difficult superiors. You can leave one job to find – you guessed it, another wolf in a pin-stripe suit in the next one. Of all the workplace stressors, a bad boss is possibly the worst, directly impacting the emotional health and productivity of employees. HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find public humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted.. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he starts looking for another job. When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information.

Dev says: “If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don’t have your heart and soul in the job.” Different managers can stress out employees in different ways – by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit – often over seemingly trivial issue. It isn’t the 100th blow that knocks a good man down. It’s the 99 that went before. And while it’s true that people leave jobs for all kinds of reasons- for better opportunities or for circumstantial reasons, many who leave would have stayed – had it not been for one man constantly telling them, as Arun’s boss did: “You are dispensable. I can find dozens like you.” While it seems like there are plenty of other fish especially in today’s waters, consider for a moment the cost of losing a talented employee.There’s the cost of finding a replacement. The cost of training the replacement. The cost of not having someone to do the job in the meantime. The loss of clients and contacts the person had with the industry. The loss of morale in co-workers. The loss of trade secrets this person may now share with others. Plus, of course, the loss of the company’s reputation. Every person who leaves a corporation then becomes its ambassador, for better or for worse. We all know of large IT companies that people would love to join and large television companies few want to go near. In both cases, former employees have left to tell their tales.

“Any company trying to compete must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee,” Jack Welch of GE once said. Much of a company’s value lies “between the ears of its employees”. If it’s bleeding talent, it’s bleeding value. Unfortunately, many senior executives busy travelling the world, signing new deals and developing a vision for the company, have little idea of what may be going on at home.That deep within an organization that otherwise does all the right things, one man could be driving its best people away.

– As said by Azim Premji

Personality Test

I took this Personality Test and this is the result I got!

Extroverted (E) 56.25% Introverted (I) 43.75%
Sensing (S) 52.78% Intuitive (N) 47.22%
Feeling (F) 57.58% Thinking (T) 42.42%
Perceiving (P) 53.57% Judging (J) 46.43%

Your type is: ESFP

ESFP – “Entertainer”. Radiates attractive warmth and optimism. Smooth, witty, charming, clever. Fun to be with. Very generous. 8.5% of the total population.

WOOOHOOOO!!

Changes and Human Mind

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind.

To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse.

To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better.

To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

Thought for the day

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
“If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for each of you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other’s cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

So, don’t let the cups only drive you… enjoy the coffee (instead) also….

Failure is not when we fall down; it is when you don’t get up again.

I love you Sis

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can’t get rid of. You know whatever you do, they’ll still be there.

To the outside world we all grow old, but not to my sister. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family grief and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

Love is missing someone whenever you’re apart, but somehow feeling warm inside because you’re close in heart. Though I we have been far apart from each other since quite a long time, my love for her never diminished. Infact, we have grown much closer and we enjoy each others company a lot more. There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not give some comfort to me.

Every time I pick up the phone and talk to her, I never will have known how time has flown by. The smile lingers on my face even after we have finished talking. Everything seems so good all of a sudden.

Sis, I fall short of words to tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me. Thank you for everything.

Wish all your dreams come true and you stay happy for ever.