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Tips and Tricks for a Job Seeker
Posted On December 9, 2003 by Priyadarshan Roy filed under Miscellaneous
During the times of job hunt, there is all likelihood that he or she keeps on doing things that are of no use and get lost. A few careful steps could keep you in the right track. Here are some tips and tricks for all job seekers
The tough times seem to be over for the IT industry. With the Indian economy booming and the slow-down in Americas and Europe slowing down, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. This may be the right time for many who lost their jobs during the slow down to aggressively start hunting for a job. There stands a good chance even for those freshers who finished education during the last two years and are waiting for the right break. HR managers who switched off their phones for job seekers are willing to listen. If you were clinging on to your jobs, for past few years because another one was not there, you can think of taking the risk.
Here we present some of the tips and some of the tricks, which a job seeker needs to know before they get into the hunt.
1. Get your resume updated and written properly
Some of the old fundas still apply! A good clear and concise resume is important. For an IT professional, it is important to mention the name of the best projects which he or she has executed with details on each as precise as possible. Remember, the length of resume must be as small as possible.
There a few more tricks which you need to know. Have multiple customized resumes. This is important because the job market is highly segmented and subtle changes in resume help you to position yourself for a job. For example, you have worked both in J2EE and Windows environment, and you feel you are comfortable in both areas. Suppose 25% of projects you worked are on J2EE and rest on Windows, and the company where you are applying is looking for J2EE professionals, mention the J2EE project highlighting your role there first, and mention the .Net projects after the J2EE experience.
This could help you get short-listed immediately.
2. Have realistic goals: An important part of personal development is acknowledgement of certain restrictions. Not everyone can realise their childhood sporting dreams or become a successful multi-millionaire. Whilst it is important to aim high and continue to seek improvement, it is necessary also to be realistic in the goals you set yourself. If you do not have the appropriate qualifications or experience for a job you would like, it is unlikely that you will be given the post and thus you must be prepared to be disappointed. Equally, you should know the prevailing market rates for salaries for different jobs and not expect to receive something significantly higher.
Do not measure yourself against other people's criteria. You should set your goals according to your personal priorities. A certain job may look attractive from the outside, but may appear very different to those actually doing it. Alternatively, benefits in one area (e.g. salary) may be offset by sacrifices elsewhere (e.g. working hours or time away from home).
Plan your career according to your experience and qualifications. The best example is that most of the embedded development companies do not prefer to hire MCA graduates. So if you are an MCA degree holder, it is better to choose application side from a safer career point of view. General preference is for electronics engineers.
In addition, do not feel frustrated because the guy sitting next to you in your class landed job at Intel or Infosys, and you are struggling with a start-up. Perhaps, a year of experience with a start-up will help you to learn more than what you would have learnt at a bigger place.
3. Never take rejection seriously
Don't take rejection personally. Learn from your interviews, avoid repeating any mistake you may have made and listen to the feedback you receive from different parties. Above all, keep trying and use the experience to prepare for each subsequent application. At the end of the day, you can only accept one job at a time. The key objective is to ensure that the job you take is the right one for you.
4. Accept redundancy as a reality
Redundancy or loss of a job is no more a criteria for considering whether a candidate is a misfit or not! In United States almost all IT companies shed jobs in the past two years. 91% of enterprise companies had lay-offs in excess of 10%, says Wired magazine. HR Managers globally are off the view that he being unemployable does not affect a person’s employability any more. Half the jobs which were lost during the downtime, was not because the workers were poor at their job, but because of other reasons such as mergers or acquisitions, poor sales, 9/11 trauma among others.
What an HR Manager or a recruiter is looking for is what you did during the time when you were redundant. Did you spend time improving yourself as a professional, or just sulked away time at home, blaming your luck, ex-bosses and the company in general. A positive mindset would have definitely seen you get involved in other activities. One could think of areas such as education, working as a part-time consultant with a smaller company etc., as stuff, which a developer can do during the tough times.
5. Start Networking
If you are seriously looking out for a job, it is important to start networking. This necessarily does not involve you building a network of contacts, both business and personal. You can just start calling old friends in college, or your ex-colleagues in other companies. It is likely that they also studied in professional colleges and have contacts.
Through them you can get the buzz of the industry, who is hiring, and who is firing. Every organization, start searching within and then within their contacts when a job opening occurs. This is actually a window of opportunity that you should never miss. Once a company is not able to fill the position, they will advertise. Then there will be many contenders for the same job.
If you manage to uncover a vacant position or a new position before a company thinks of advertising the position there may be very few candidates or just one.
Go for the kill! You will be saving your future employer advertising costs.
Your success in networking will depend on your ability to communicate and interact with other people. If you find it difficult to communicate or to get on with other people easily, then you will find networking a real struggle. If on the other hand you are very outgoing and enjoy meeting new people and possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills, you will take to networking very quickly.
6. Start posting your resume and start surfing the web
These days Times of India’s Indiatimes website is advertising Boss Proof Resume Centre on the net. Nobody wants their peers and bosses to know that they are looking for a job.
You can start visiting the jobs sites too. Start off and start applying for jobs advertised there. Start making a list of companies, which may hire you and start applying with those companies after checking their websites.
The tough times seem to be over for the IT industry. With the Indian economy booming and the slow-down in Americas and Europe slowing down, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. This may be the right time for many who lost their jobs during the slow down to aggressively start hunting for a job. There stands a good chance even for those freshers who finished education during the last two years and are waiting for the right break. HR managers who switched off their phones for job seekers are willing to listen. If you were clinging on to your jobs, for past few years because another one was not there, you can think of taking the risk.
Here we present some of the tips and some of the tricks, which a job seeker needs to know before they get into the hunt.
1. Get your resume updated and written properly
Some of the old fundas still apply! A good clear and concise resume is important. For an IT professional, it is important to mention the name of the best projects which he or she has executed with details on each as precise as possible. Remember, the length of resume must be as small as possible.
There a few more tricks which you need to know. Have multiple customized resumes. This is important because the job market is highly segmented and subtle changes in resume help you to position yourself for a job. For example, you have worked both in J2EE and Windows environment, and you feel you are comfortable in both areas. Suppose 25% of projects you worked are on J2EE and rest on Windows, and the company where you are applying is looking for J2EE professionals, mention the J2EE project highlighting your role there first, and mention the .Net projects after the J2EE experience.
This could help you get short-listed immediately.
2. Have realistic goals: An important part of personal development is acknowledgement of certain restrictions. Not everyone can realise their childhood sporting dreams or become a successful multi-millionaire. Whilst it is important to aim high and continue to seek improvement, it is necessary also to be realistic in the goals you set yourself. If you do not have the appropriate qualifications or experience for a job you would like, it is unlikely that you will be given the post and thus you must be prepared to be disappointed. Equally, you should know the prevailing market rates for salaries for different jobs and not expect to receive something significantly higher.
Do not measure yourself against other people's criteria. You should set your goals according to your personal priorities. A certain job may look attractive from the outside, but may appear very different to those actually doing it. Alternatively, benefits in one area (e.g. salary) may be offset by sacrifices elsewhere (e.g. working hours or time away from home).
Plan your career according to your experience and qualifications. The best example is that most of the embedded development companies do not prefer to hire MCA graduates. So if you are an MCA degree holder, it is better to choose application side from a safer career point of view. General preference is for electronics engineers.
In addition, do not feel frustrated because the guy sitting next to you in your class landed job at Intel or Infosys, and you are struggling with a start-up. Perhaps, a year of experience with a start-up will help you to learn more than what you would have learnt at a bigger place.
3. Never take rejection seriously
Don't take rejection personally. Learn from your interviews, avoid repeating any mistake you may have made and listen to the feedback you receive from different parties. Above all, keep trying and use the experience to prepare for each subsequent application. At the end of the day, you can only accept one job at a time. The key objective is to ensure that the job you take is the right one for you.
4. Accept redundancy as a reality
Redundancy or loss of a job is no more a criteria for considering whether a candidate is a misfit or not! In United States almost all IT companies shed jobs in the past two years. 91% of enterprise companies had lay-offs in excess of 10%, says Wired magazine. HR Managers globally are off the view that he being unemployable does not affect a person’s employability any more. Half the jobs which were lost during the downtime, was not because the workers were poor at their job, but because of other reasons such as mergers or acquisitions, poor sales, 9/11 trauma among others.
What an HR Manager or a recruiter is looking for is what you did during the time when you were redundant. Did you spend time improving yourself as a professional, or just sulked away time at home, blaming your luck, ex-bosses and the company in general. A positive mindset would have definitely seen you get involved in other activities. One could think of areas such as education, working as a part-time consultant with a smaller company etc., as stuff, which a developer can do during the tough times.
5. Start Networking
If you are seriously looking out for a job, it is important to start networking. This necessarily does not involve you building a network of contacts, both business and personal. You can just start calling old friends in college, or your ex-colleagues in other companies. It is likely that they also studied in professional colleges and have contacts.
Through them you can get the buzz of the industry, who is hiring, and who is firing. Every organization, start searching within and then within their contacts when a job opening occurs. This is actually a window of opportunity that you should never miss. Once a company is not able to fill the position, they will advertise. Then there will be many contenders for the same job.
If you manage to uncover a vacant position or a new position before a company thinks of advertising the position there may be very few candidates or just one.
Go for the kill! You will be saving your future employer advertising costs.
Your success in networking will depend on your ability to communicate and interact with other people. If you find it difficult to communicate or to get on with other people easily, then you will find networking a real struggle. If on the other hand you are very outgoing and enjoy meeting new people and possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills, you will take to networking very quickly.
6. Start posting your resume and start surfing the web
These days Times of India’s Indiatimes website is advertising Boss Proof Resume Centre on the net. Nobody wants their peers and bosses to know that they are looking for a job.
You can start visiting the jobs sites too. Start off and start applying for jobs advertised there. Start making a list of companies, which may hire you and start applying with those companies after checking their websites.