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No two interviews are the same, so you can’t plan exactly how the interview will go, but it is important to have a Interview Strategy. It is imperative that you face the interview as a selling meeting; meaning building personal chemistry and establishing an open dialogue for free information exchange.

Tells Nokia…… why  interview clear aapne na kia?

Anil Mahajan

Back to Mr. Disaster

Lemme continue with Mr. Disaster attending a mock interview session with me.

Now, I am sick of this man & shoot a question to him. “You left company XYZ in January 1984 & joined company ABC in October 1985. What were you doing all these months? The man, who was no longer slouching, starts tapping his foot more furiously. This is fidgeting. It is criminal to indulge in fidgeting like playing with your hair, clicking pen tops, tapping feet or unconsciously touching parts of the body. Nobody likes others indulging in fidgeting & rejection in the interview is guaranteed 100%.

I have been trying in vain to make eye contact with him for the last 25 minutes. You must build chemistry with the interviewer by looking the interviewer in the eye. You don’t want to stare, as this shows aggression. Occasionally, and nonchalantly, glance at the interviewer’s hand as he is speaking. By constantly looking around the room while you are talking, you convey a lack of confidence or discomfort with what is being discussed.

The bugger is nervously giving incoherent reply to my question on the gap in service again without eye contact. Check your CV for possible gaps! Make sure you know how you are going to explain time gaps on your CV. Write down and practice possible questions! Writing them down and practicing them with someone will make it easier to remember when you get to the interview.

Mr. Disaster is nervous? Neither being nervous nor being incoherent helps. Both these unwanted traits drive the final nail into the coffin. Take a deep breath and remember you’ve already passed the first test, generally a screening of your resume by either a placement consultant or HRD fellas or by both. You better know they’re interested or they wouldn’t be taking the time to interview you. Therefore, go into the interview knowing you’ve already got them on the hook. Be confident, yet not boastful.

I think space constraints signal me to sign off now.

No two interviews are the same, so you can’t plan exactly how the interview will go, but it is important to have a Interview Strategy. It is imperative that you face the interview as a selling meeting; meaning building personal chemistry and establishing an open dialogue for free information exchange.

Success is not necessarily what you say, but how you say it.

By Anil Mahajan, MBA PGDIT (IIFT)

He has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Courtesy Jobnet Magazine issue 108

Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the Author

Posted under Job Interviews

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

Jobs like marriage is about finding the right match, but finding the match right match is not all there is to marriage.

There are various perceptions about finding jobs.

Lima Sehgal

Those who believe that finding the right job is about formula find that the neighbour who has the greener grass in his backyard is not likely to share the formula with them.

Those who believe that miracles rule successful jobhunting also find that the guy next door is better blessed.

For those who see the hand of karma, are least stressed. The wait and watch style in jobhunting is relaxing as long as it does not become too long.

For most of us jobhunting is a dubious cocktail.

Perhaps what is shared by most jobseekers is the fact that jobs have to be caught and got. Most of us are armed with lists of where to go and whom to ask which get taken out and dusted free of the cobwebs of the mind, on a need basis. Added to which are a few new things which others are using.

After all, what is the fuss when all one wants is the next best job.

Easier said than done, but jobs like marriage is about finding the right match, but finding the match right match is not all there is to marriage.

Going beyond methodology implies that one discards tried and tested methodologies, or logical courses, in favour of creating something new. We favour following the herd, then trying to beat it by being the first at getting to greener pastures. Since everyone else has the same idea, we get hurt in the stampede.

Competing for jobs definitely means using a strategy that no one else has.

Copyright © 2011, Jobnet magazine, issue 189

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

Considering the job market conditions today, there is an urgent need for jobseekers to address the issue of improving their visibility.

Over the past decade mass -mailing resumes has become a way of life. As a marketing strategy it has low merit in showcasing any candidate. But as a concept it holds the promise of the ultimate shortcut in job hunting. Few can resist the seduction.

The vacancy volume has hit a new low. The squeeze on jobseekers has made the competition levels escalate. Not only has the pie become smaller, one does not get to sometimes even smell the piece.

The first line of attack to the problem is to stop job-hunting by proxy. We have to dig our hands into this messy business without the comfort of resume mass mailing. Today’s job market conditions calls for aggressive marketing. Like climbing on the rooftop and yelling – Here I am, as good as good can get.

Perhaps it is also time to throw that old mindset out of the window. The one about finding jobs, which says if you search hard enough, it will be found. Not only do we need to research the nuances specific to our industry but also identify the placement firms specializing in our field of work.

We may talk of global job shortages but that is no invitation to follow the herd.

ISSUE 169 Jobnet magazine

Copyright © 2009, Jobnet magazine
Republication or dissemination of the contents of this article are expressly prohibited without the written consent of the publishers of Jobnet magazine 

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Posted under Articles by Lima Sehgal

By-passing the Gatekeepers

In today’s scenario, most of the recruitment jobs for the open positions in corporates are outsourced. Pre-screening, for example, is done by headhunters & placement consultants. These placement consultants therefore form the First Ring of the gate keepers & need to be dealt with effectively.

Once you are cleared by the placement consultants, you stand a chance of meeting the Gate Keepers of the inner circle i.e., company HRD folk. Only then can you hope to get through to the man who actually might hire you!

With an ineffective resume, your fate resembles that of Abhimanyu. You could bombard into the ring of placement consultants but could not get out of it —ALIVE. Your resume gets buried into the files of all the placement consultants. The Industry Kurukshetra here has jobmarket Chakravyu comprising of Placement Consultants guarding the turf in the outer ring & HRD fellas guarding the precious turf as the warriors of inner concentric ring. Abhimanyu, or your resume personified, has to be totally Flawless, Energetic, Valiant & Appealing to by-pass these warriors. Abhimanyu, while in his mother’s womb, had learnt from his father Arjuna on how to effectively pierce both the rings. Extensive study of articles on resume or your Professional Resume Writer may help you in making your Resume so attractive & luring in the eyes of both the kinds of Gate Keepers that these warriors actually welcome you for meeting the precious turf comprising of Hiring Heads. You need to develop strong interview techniques to win the fortress or an Offer letter. Career Doctors or good articles on the interview techniques can give you sufficient winning strategies. The JobMarket Chakravyu is impregnable for resumes of ordinary types. Piercing the Concentric circle-I to reach the Concentric circle-II & piercing the Concentric Circle-II to meet the precious Hiring Heads & eventually coming out with an offer or appointment letter is no joke. There are ways and means of developing the resume keeping the psycho-graphic & other factors that govern the working patterns and beliefs of both the kinds of Gate Keepers.

Bypassing the Outer ring comprising of Placement Consultants:
So, simply blasting a poorly written resume doesn’t cut ice with placement consultants. The tribe of placement consultants has developed a keen scanning eye & can easily & fatally bury your resume in his files forever.

The reasons could be many.
Maybe you have no talking personal letter addressed to him. Maybe you never spoke to him. But mainly it is because your resume is badly made & doesn’t give him the feel of a winning professional.

He is certainly not interested in proposing a professional with a losing streak(s) (amply present in your poorly written resume) to his client company. Even if you have never spoken to him, your resume speaks. And a poorly written resume talks death of the professional. Even if you have been speaking to him & cultivating him for years.

This placement consultant gatekeeper has over the years fine-tuned his senses. He is a pucca businessman & he doesn’t relish bidding on an ordinary horse or a donkey.

Your resume should appeal to a placement consultant. It should unleash substantial creative juices flow in this businessman & he should start seeing your resume as a thick wad of money or a cheque to be earned from his client company. This is a psychographic situation to be created by your all powerful & ascending resume being presented as a marketing tool rather than as a stale compendium of history. Your appropriately made resume must put most of the placement consultants in a competition to get you immediate job change.

Bypassing the inner ring comprising of corporate HRD folks
is equally important & involves much more than putting together a resume in a layout and format that is pleasing to the eye. Effective resume writing alone can help you by-pass both kinds of Gate Keepers & it  involves art, science, and a large helping of technology.

Many HRD Gate Keepers trash functional resumes as soon as they see them. Use a chronological resume format. If you apply for jobs online or through e-mail, paper quality and scannability are unimportant. Content, structure, format, and Strategy are much more important. Gate Keepers and hiring Heads view functional resumes with suspicion. Authors of resume writing books, and unsophisticated resume writers who subscribe to their views, often advocate functional resumes for three reasons: it is a simple solution to a complex problem, the advocates do not know better, and they do not have to live with the consequences. If you assume that most people who make hiring decisions are of above-average intelligence, it stands to reason that they would recognize an overused method of hiding information. If you know how the human eye travels, and understand Gate Keepers psychology, you can hide negative information in plain sight.

HRD Gate Keepers are very fussy about the resume but at the same time they tend to accept the recommendations of the placement consultant. So, if your resume is approved by the placement consultant, most of the job is done & the Inner ring of HRD warriors crumbles to a large extent. It can disappear completely, if the mindset of a HRD Gate Keeper is kept in mind while designing the resume.

And lo! You get a date with the Hiring Head. Here the resume needs certain attributes & you need certain interview techniques to enable you to win the Offer / Appointment Letter Jackpot which we will discuss in the forthcoming issue. Maybe Abhimanyu now needs a charioteer of the likes of SriKrishna to reveal the Srimad Bagwad Gita for winning the interview war.

Courtesy: Jobnet Magazine

Written By: Anil Mahajan MBA PGDIT (IIFT) has made pioneering contributions in the field of Resume Writing and Resume Management.

Posted under Job Hunting Tips