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The treadmill effect is rampant in the job – seeking process in India

Lima Sehgal

Ever since the list of holidays has become longer than the list of working days, business has boiled down to taking pot-shots. Oops! I thought that was the prerogative only of Bush and Saddam.

Though everyone in the job market claims to be working harder than before, one admits that the treadmill effect is rampant. Lots of sweat, but reaching nowhere.

One of the reasons for it is that the job-hunting process has moved from hi-tech to primitive. The all-fangs-and-claw technology is the only one that has, over time, proved to be unfailingly accurate.

Competition for jobs has taken new dimensions. The glamour and gloss will not entice any more. No pussy-footing any more. And those who complain about learning new tricks have forgotten that they were the same old ones.

Publications, and especially job websites unable to cater to the hunger of the masses of job-seeking professionals are in danger of closing shutters. The placement firms are surviving only because the job-seeker has become wiser — than them. Luckily, head-hunting and networking is keeping both of them inter-twined.

A few months later, the shape of the job market along with it’s lifelines and information systems, will reveal an alien landscape.

Change is always a raw deal. Especially when it is too premature to pluck or cook. All we can do is wait for it to ripen.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 98

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine

Courtesy Jobnet’s Directory of Placement Firms

Posted under Articles by Lima Sehgal

With more organized information available on placement firms, job seekers in India are finding that spreading the nets wide with a personalized and assertive approach with placement firms is yielding a better catch than mass -mailing resumes.

Lima Sehgal

Clinging to the flotsam and jetsam doesn’t necessarily get you Kate Winslett. Or so the placement industry has realized.

Those in the recruitment business say that, though, the aftermath is not pretty, the job market crises does not call for a salvage operation but the makings of a new beginning.

The placement business has opened with a new vigor. To the job seeker’s delight, they have become more realistic in candidate handling. Vacancies are few, and the competition severe. This has resulted in an improvement in the processing speed. Be it the job seeker or employer or a placement firm, no one has time anymore to spin good impressions. Only results count.

With more organized information available on placement firms, job seekers are finding that spreading the nets wide is yielding a better catch. Once upon a time, the credibility of placement firms was judged by the volume of clients or vacancy offers- But not today. The good ones are those who know when to say no.

It is certainly warming up, but I think it is more than just the weather.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 97

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine

Courtesy Jobnet’s Directory of Placement Firms

Posted under Articles by Lima Sehgal

Though the volume of jobs looks like it’s on the rise, any seasoned jobseeker knows that it is only the averages that count.

Lima Sehgal

Currently, optimism in the job market is as fluctuating as the weather. And just as unpredictable.

The complaints are justified. We would like to pin a reason to trends or seasons — knowing that nothing qualifies. Any one out job-hunting still feels the squeeze.

Though the volume of jobs looks like it’s on the rise, any seasoned jobseeker knows that it is only the averages that count. It is the duplication of vacancies that is the problem. It’s causing a quickening of pulse amongst placement firms. But more smoke than fire.

Jobseeking professionals who circulate get to know the ropes. They are aware that the websites, publications and placement firms are wooing the same clients and are bound to come up with the same offers. The end result is that the pipedream of exclusivity cannot withstand the daylight of competition. Also, one realises that only the time-tested counts, and post mortems qualify more than rainbows.

Yes, the Indian professional is getting street-smart. Whatever the market conditions are, one always has the option to sow a few beans to get a magic beanstalk.

So, I think we can all look forward to an unpredictably happy new year!

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 96

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

Jobseekers in India are now demanding authentic services for real needs. There is more to the job search than mass mailing resumes by proxy or getting job alerts.

Lima Sehgal

Over the past two years, the Indian Professional has discarded many misconceptions about the job market. For better or for worse, the perspectives are clearer.

It is a big relief to know that the grass is no greener on the other side of the fence, and the competition out there is competing just as hard.

Reality, though unsavory, is preferable. It comes as a relief to know where one stands – even if one is not standing on one’s own two feet.

The guilt of not trying enough, or not knowing where to try became the gullibility on which service organizations mushroomed. There is a very fine line between giving help and giving jobs. Jobseekers need more than a formula that works only if all the ingredients are right. Anyone knows that it needs more than that to bake a cake.

But, now, there are diminishing takers for resume mass emailing services, for registration of resumes on websites, for training programs to motivate your soul, or for the ‘How to succeed in an interview’ toolkit.

Jobseekers are now demanding authentic services for real needs. Not just a packaging and props industry.

The Indian jobseeker has developed a unique self confidence, born not from the discovery of a niche or from the acquisition of job offers, but from an understanding of what really does not work.

This sixth sense has now become an instinct. Realizing that in the ocean, the predators are not the only competitors is sometimes the one single chance we give ourselves.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 90

Republication or dissemination of the conte90nts of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine

Posted under Articles by Lima Sehgal

Our job hunting methodologies have become primitive

Lima Sehgal

There has been no dent in the problem of how to pack in jobs for the multitudes of jobseekers of such diversity.

Such solutions are not about drops in the ocean, but more like collecting dewdrops in the afternoon.

Today, the job seeking professional no longer wants information on jobs – but jobs! The mushrooming job websites and career publications are catering to the advertisers rather than to the readers. Also, the advertising revenue sources being the same has resulted in the same job being packaged and repackaged and displayed everywhere.

It certainly looks good on the racks. But however good the supermarket looks, it is of no use if they don’t have your size.

The desperation level is evident in the ‘hit or miss’ technology used by jobseekers. Mass email your resume everywhere, and hope to hit a job match, and hope to miss your boss’s PC.

I think it’s time we leave the selling of hope to the Avon lady or to Amway.

Our job hunting methodologies have become primitive. The need of the hour is to strip this business of its traditional secrecy. We need employers to get more open about their vacancies. Placement consultants need to network more with each other, since their clients are no longer going exclusive. It would reduce the redundancy of effort, a major factor that is throttling the placement industry and resulting in a loss of confidence in them amongst job seekers.

In the fast lane, there are no shortcuts.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 88

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

The great email promise that lures us into the unknown ocean does not necessarily land us on the shoreline of a promised job.

Lima Sehgal

The internet is virtually the continent of the find and found, but as most Job seeking Columbus’ discover, where they land may not be a new continent, but a place of squatters who never move from Google maps.

Data repetition and obsolescence haunts us, but where else can we go?

There is also a real world out there, which is not on the internet. Like Placement Firms who may have never even tried to get an elbow into a website, Headhunters especially, who just rely on the find and get principle of operations. Top positions, for example, need that approach but it also applies to placement firms who keep their operations on their finger tips.

Wading thru the glitter and litter of keywords one finds that the terrain looks familiar and there is no sign of any greener pastures.

So what is attacking the Indian Jobseeker?

Primarily, there is an illusion that on the internet, what one sees one can get. One soon discovers that applying is a different ball game from the search operation. Any Email on the net is an invitation may look like a welcome invitation, but sending that email may probably not result in getting invited.

The more advanced jobseeker, is aware that in India such passivity does not work so in addition one gets aggressive with the email or telephone follow up.

The great email promise that lures us into the unknown ocean does not necessarily land us on the shoreline of a promised job.

So let’s figure out how to get a job rather than where to find one.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 190

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