The Perils of Job Hunting – Lima Sehgal
Romeo, Romeo, wherefort art Thou o Romeo?
I’m sure I’m misquoting Shakespeare. I could never quote him verbatim. I just do not know.
I think job seekers in India labor under a similar cloud…
I am beginning to suspect that there are an increasing number of jobseekers who have no ghost of an idea on the way job hunting works.
This idea of applying blind on the internet is getting scary. Our website for this magazine has a mobile number, which I used to keep with me. My nights were busy. Missed calls between 12.00 midnight to 2.00 AM from jobseekers politely enquiring if we were a placement firm; missed calls commencing from 5.00 AM onwards and complaints galore about us not responding to a resume sent. If I was actually a placement firm or a company, I wonder what would happen to them?
The recruitment business still remains a people business. The Placement firms continue to play a crucial role in the identification and assessment of job seekers. It would not be of any advantage to treat them as a piece of machinery. Or a call centre. Or just an Email ID.
People skills are an integral part of job hunting. Yet, we are beginning to overlook it. The old fashioned techniques of job hunting remain – intelligent interaction with human beings – be it companies or placement firms, along with the basics of human courtesy.
My worst nightmare is real. A call that says – “I got your number on the net, but who are you?” The reply to that is obvious – I am the one who does not know you, or even wants to!
Perhaps it obvious that Jobseekers are divided into the haves and have-nots, primarily on the basis of their people skills. But what worries me is that nobody has any facts on the percentages.
Finding a job is not about sending a resume. Nor about messy communications.
But the worst we can do to ourselves is to do and not know what we do.
Copyright © 2009, Jobnet magazine , issue 172
Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine.
Posted under Articles by Lima Sehgal
This post was written by admin on June 1, 2010
