Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Keep your Eyes Open for new Opportunities.

Gone are the times when people used to choose a career and stick to it all life long, when job
stability, not the career growth prospects, used to be the only reason for choosing the career and
at those times government job used to be the highest priority and the only time people used to
leave their job was, retire from it. With changing times, one has to constantly
enhance the skill set, as the need of the hour may be to keep oneself still hot and sought after.

Let's take an example, with the advent of computers in India in early eighties, some people had
resistance in adopting it and accepting it as an integral part of their career. They feared the
technology will eliminate their job, but did not think of mastering the technology. They were
fighting against the strong wind of change, change for better, change for efficiency, change for
technology which would later be visible in every part of their life and those who accepted this
change, made the technology their strong arm and soon were in the fast lane.

So, it becomes important to have eyes, ears and mind open to see and listen and feel the opportunities
which are thrown open each day of our lives. Let our minds dream, dream into the future, dream what you
want, and the passion to achieve that becomes the technology. This is what is known as entrepreneurship.

One doesn't need to be a businessman to be entrepreneur. One finds hundreds of opportunity in every day's
activities. What it requires is little imaginiation and creativity. Those are the people who are
admired and are always on the fast track of career growth.

Interview Tips

  • Research thoroughly about the company you are going for an interview. Find out the business of the company, what are the skills they are looking for, how you can contribute to the company's growth, company's prospects, your growth prospects etc. etc. Use your network to find out about the company, talk to career consultants to find out, look out on the internet.
  • If company has a web presence, visit their web site and note down all the factors, which will help you arrive at a decision. Make a list of questions you may have come up. These can be asked and get answered at the time of interview.
  • Talk to friends/acquaintances in the company to find out the inner details.
  • Dress formally for the interview, but don't overdress. Dress what is appropriate in your climate.

  • Always reach 15-30 minutes earlier than the expected time. You can use effectively utilize that time to make observations about the company and its employees.
  • If possible, get the interview scheduled in the morning hours, the time when both you and the interviewers are still fresh.
  • About the questions asked, always reply to the point. Do not repeat the same thing and politely decline, in case you don't know the answers. No one is supposed to know everything.
  • Look straight in the eyes of the person while talking. This shows your confidence.

  • Always have your doubts cleared at the end of the interview. Ask all the questions you had made a list. This shows you are sincere and have done your homework before appearing for the interview.
  • Never ask for the salary figures/details in the interviews. Leave these questions for later.
  • If an expected salary figure is asked, politely tell that it should be commensurate with your skills and experience. If still pressed for figure, give your currently drawn salary and ask for an appropriate raise over it.
  • At the end of the interview, always thank the interviewers and shake their hands.
  • Last but not the least, whatever may be your requirement for the job, never show your desperation for it.

Top Ten Resume Building Suggestion.

1. Be targeted and personalized.
Now more than ever it is critical that you leverage your social and professional network. In your cover letter, be sure to mention any contacts you have within the organization or the names of professors or consultants who have referred you.

2. Clearly demonstrate your value.
If you are responding to a specific job advertisement, review the description of the role, responsibilities, and qualifications, and carefully craft your cover letter and your resume to highlight the salient points in your experience and skill set that speak to the needs of the employer. If you are applying blindly to a firm, be sure to do your research about what practice areas the firm specializes in and what projects "put them on the map." Once again, note where your experience intersects with theirs.

3. Ensure your cover letter and resume are error-free.
Architecture is an aesthetic profession in which attention is paid to the grand gesture, as well as to the smallest of details. Be rigorous in your editing and make sure to double and triple-check for grammatical and spelling mistakes.

4. Stay formal and businesslike in all correspondence.
Never just send an e-mail with an informal message like, "Here's my resume…". You would never believe how many people actually do this. Place the text of your cover letter into the body of the e-mail and attach your resume and work samples.

5. Define your role on projects and their scope and scale.
Be specific in your resume about your project involvements and your role as a team member. Give a brief description of the project, including name/location/scale, and the phases in which you contributed and deliverables you produced or to which you contributed.

6. Do not include personal hobbies.
It is more important to use the precious space on your resume to highlight awards, publications, software skills, and language proficiency. No one really cares that you ski; but they do want to know that you know REVIT and speak and write Chinese.

7. The tag "References Provided Upon Request" is unnecessary.
It's just another space waster. It goes without saying that you would provide references if a potential employer asked for them.

8. Keep graphics simple and clean.
Be aware of font size and spacing, making sure the text is easily legible. Take cues from your favorite design publications or branding consultancy websites. They are great resources for examples of clear and concise messaging.

9. Be strategic when using images.
When in doubt, less is more. Don't waste space on your resume with small thumbnail images in the margins. They are generally hard to read and are better placed in a larger format on a separate work sample page(s).

10. Use a black-and-white version of your resume when submitting it digitally.
Many architects are gifted with a strong graphic sensibility and are effective in using color as an eye-catching element in the design of their resumes, but most hiring managers will not spend the money to print resumes in color. Even in the age of e-mail, resumes get printed out and passed around, and a resume in a pale gray-scale can be annoyingly difficult to read.

Prepare your self for new Job?

"Ah! What an interesting Ad from my dream company! Let me send my resume" Click Click and Zoom!
Stop! Do not Shoot Off Your Ready-Made Resume, the One-for-all types, in response to Today's Ad in CareerAge. If you are serious about appointment, and not disappointment, then you need to work on each application of yours. The problem of "Heaping of resumes" is only aggravated in the current job scenario! The reader of responses will not have time for a proper in-depth scrutiny of all the responses he gets. He is looking for only specific stuff. If he always knows what he is looking for! If he does not get a glimpse of what he wants in first 10 to 15 seconds, he moves on to the next resume. Fair or not. Like it or not.
Resume selection process for selection of a resume, out of a whole lots of them, works in the following chain:
1) A resume that attracts attention & interest -> 2) Leads to scrutiny -> 3) If seems to meet requirements, selected for further action.
How do you attract attention? What can you do to catch the eye of the scrutinizer in the 15 seconds that he has for you? In such a situation how does one succeed? What if actually you were the right person, competent and fit for the advertised job; yet your resume gets rejected due to poor screening by the selector(s)? Relax. This article is supposed to tackle exactly these issues. The purpose here is to give out tips that will fetch you better results. To help you define chances of your own success!
To achieve the first of the above objectives, you have to put in efforts. The resume reviewer needs to be helped and guided to select your resume out of the heap. Tone, flavor and focus add value. Credentials are any way a bottom line. Focus helps the reader to select the right resume. You need to consciously bring forth those specific aspects out of your own years of experience, or of your academic and extracurricular achievements, if you are a fresher, that the advertiser is perhaps looking for in a "probably a suitable candidate" and paste at the top of your resume as a summary in four to six lines. He does not have time to go deeper, nor to read in between lines to find out if you may be the right person for his job. That way he might as well meet most candidates.
Step 1: Get your facts together.
As an applicant you must write the resume giving information about yourself only after you have prepared yourself well. First of all, therefore, it is advisable to keep your existing resume on the side and have a complete re-look at your whole career, afresh. It is useful to gather all information about yourself and jot down the various jobs you have done, the various responsibilities that you held, various achievements that you have achieved. Be it your in your jobs or in college or at school. This is not easy. But have patience. Your future depends on how well you are prepared.
To do the step1, it may be a good idea to sit down with a tape recorder and go back to your first ever job and talk through your career. Talk about learnings, pitfalls, mistakes, contributions and failures.
Assimilate this information and compartmentalize based on category of experience, skills, period or what ever, even if across jobs. Put it out as a draft. Refine and finalize.
Having penned the information, collate those portions of your resume that are relevant to the position being applied for. Estimate the time that you would have spent on such activities and specifically mention.
Put all these details in the cover letter and also in the main resume at the top frame under sub heading: Summary: It is one Para comprising of 4 to 6 lines and is the flavor of the resume. This should remove the need for the "Objective". I have seen most objectives are abstract wish statements of candidates that are generally irrelevant to the reviewer at the initial resume-screening stage barring rare critical positions. The summary is a good forum to mention awards and merits. The credibility needs to be established early on. It will help hold interest for the reader to go on.
Be precise and honest. I have seen many resumes that are well bloated and also flavored.
Flavoring of the resume to requirements leads to a selection for an interview call. But when it matures in to an interview, the sharp interviewer will eliminate you. If your actual work profile does not suit his requirement he is not going to hire you. Interviewing is a scientific process of information gathering. Many interviewers have mastered the skill of interviewing and a good interviewer will puncture holes in a resume-forte and will be able to see through the bloating however carefully one may have woven. While a resume may sound impressive, result of the interview may turn out to be just other wise. Time and time over again. More number of times you lose, you only add to your own frustration. One is playing a lose-lose game.
By summarizing your experiences carefully, you are helping the reviewer to look at the relevant portion of your work life and if it interests him, he decides to spend more time on you.
Step 2: Present your resume neatly
Formatting your resume is crucial. Format it so that a neat print on A-4 sized sheet can be taken. If you are printing a hard copy yourself, use good quality white bond paper.
There is no need to write "Resume" or "Curriculum VitaƩ" as the Header to your document. Putting your name in bold with font size 16 on top left hand corner should be sufficient. Keep the font size as 12 for the rest of the document. Use Arial or Times New Roman and Auto or Black color. Give your present address contact details, phone, mobile and e-mail. If permanent address is separate, mention it at the end of your document and not on the top.
While you should make all the headings bold using title case, the sub-headings should be normal-italic. Add spaces after a coma or a full stop and not before. Leave one space, max two spaces, after full stop. Avoid using exclamation marks (!) or question marks (?). Use Tab(s) after colon (:) and standardize one tab position for the whole document to present information neatly.
There should not be any spelling mistakes. These speak poorly of your candidature. Poor spellings and wrong sentences puts off the readers and gives them a reason to reject.
Do not waste efforts in dividing your resume by shaded heading text-boxes. While such formats look neat on your computer screens; the print outs may turn out to be horrible or garbled.
After the Name and contact details, mention your qualifications. It is useful to begin with the highest one first and then go backwards. It is important to mention the course, university / institution and the period of study. Percentage CGPA or any other ranking helps. Take an opportunity to highlight merits in class / college/ university, including scholarships, certifications etc if any.
In case if any course is part time or through correspondence, do mention it now rather than being discovered later.
Experience details
Cover the current job responsibilities first and go back wards. Best is to cover points area wise, major ones first. But cover all aspects that you have handled. Mention in brief only. Who knows that may be that's what the prospective employer is looking for? Be proud. There is no harm in saying, "I have done it", but state facts.
Skills, technologies computer savvyness needs clear mention
IT professionals should maintain one pattern for all projects through out the length of the resume: Mention duration from-to (specify period in months); give project name / Module; Technologies used: OS / Languages / Tools. It is useful to keep a separate section where you self-assess your competence on various technologies, especially the ones that you have used. For mentioning the Team size it is useful to take maximum size. Also do mention the location of the project.
Do not abbreviate or create your own acronyms. Mention key words in accepted standard form only, lest they get missed in electronic search.
I may like to warn here that Virus can kill your candidature. So make sure your machine is well updated on anti-virus definitions. Do mention your role / reporting relationship and add the specific achievement / contribution that you have made to the project / job. Mention about reviews and quality aspects. Customer appreciations about your work are best credentials. Don't miss mentioning them.
Don't do cut and paste job responsibility descriptions across the projects/jobs. Treat each one separately. Even if the job is similar, no two are exactly the same. Some things are different. Break monotony in writing and bring out the difference. Shortcuts by you will only encourage the reader also apply the same when he is reading. In the end, do mention your extra curricula achievements, hobbies, and interests, permanent address etc.
A well-selected resume will increase your success rate. For, once the reviewer has understood your candidature, he is calling you with an expectation to select and not to reject. There is a vacancy that he needs to close quickly. Having seen your honest resume, he knows fairly well what kind of work you may have done in your career. You may have the right experience that he may like to leverage upon. And precisely for that he will be ready to shell out more money, some thing that will only benefit you. He now wants to meet you and evaluate you. Your credentials will be verified. He is going to judge by what you say, how you say, what body language you exhibit, your analytical ability and agility. And most of all, attitude, pleasantness, eagerness, warmth and your fitment in to the organization culture guide his assessment of your capability of handling the job that he has pending, awaiting the filling of the vacancy. He questions himself, Are you the best person to handle the assignment?
Therefore, please understand that writing a good resume is essential for success. It is an art you can easily master. Seek professional help if you still do not have the skill or the patience with yourself.
Once having had a good detailed resume, self assess yourself against the specified requirements and participate in the recruitment process if you are well convinced that you can handle the advertised job with ease. Keep the Chaff away. Avoid unnecessary repetition. No one is interested in knowing how many students were in your class unless you were a ranker. If you have made his job easier even before joining, he would imagine what you would do if you actually worked for him.
Apply in good time. Do not wait till the last date of application submission. By that date, in a private organization, the recruitment may already be well beyond half way. Remember, the advertiser is keen to close the position the quickest. His business is suffering.
I remember in one interview, I was talking about my role and responsibilities as HR head of my last organization. When I stopped, the interviewer asked me, "What about Recruitment? Have you ever handled recruitment?"
I immediately realized that I missed an obvious thing. "Of course", I recovered and answered back, "I did that almost all the time! Recruitment to an HR person in IT is like food to the human body." I still wonder, how I missed mentioning an obvious thing.
Author
Rakesh Nayar
A HR Professional.

Monday, September 28, 2009

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