By Dipashree Khanna
I would like to start by sharing my personal experience here. When I was passing out, I knew I wanted to get financially independent. And trust me at that time, I am talking of nearly 2 decades back (gosh, I feel old ☹); getting a 9-5 job was the safest option to achieve this. And like an obedient good bacha, I completed my MBA with the hope that before I even pass out, I will have a job in hand. Little did I know how far away from reality all this would be!
I passed out from a non-premier school and was only the 2nd batch for my course at the time. This meant not many companies came to our campuses and hence, the bubble burst. After completing my masters, I waited for more than 2 months before landing my first job. On my mother’s suggestion, I walked in very literally and dropped my resume at various companies – mostly at the reception desk. Rarely did I find companies that allowed me a chance to get interviewed. And finally, I landed my first job in the corporate world.
In those days there was no social media, no job sites, and mobile phones were still too new and not everyone had one, so opportunities were limited. And yet, we managed to find jobs and hopefully made a reasonable career for ourselves, or so I would like to believe. :-p
The world has changed tremendously in these 2 decades with access to the worldwide web making it easier than ever to connect and find opportunities at the click of a button. The Internet is full of articles and videos that will help you better than relying on anyone to tell you how you can find a job for yourself. So how can I tell you anything that would benefit you? This is why I decided to share some of what I expect when I am looking to hire a fresh student passing out of college.
First Things First:
- Communicate with reasonable clarity about what you would like to do. This does not in any way mean you have the exact job details etc.. but it’s more about broadly knowing the direction you want to pursue depending on your area of interest.
- Keep track of various opportunities in your area of interest and apply.
- Attitude Matters: As someone who is a fresh pass out, it is your attitude that will make or break the interview for you. Your willingness to learn and openness to get your hands dirty with any project that comes your way.
For most organizations, due to lack of past experiences to assess the fitment and skills – it is the attitude which we are looking at when hiring students from campuses.
Do you have clarity of thought and fire in your belly?
Now, you would rightly ask how we can even assess something as subjective as an attitude, but trust me, it is very easy especially for us who are in the business of evaluating people all the time.
If you have an aspirational or a dream company to work with, then keep pursuing them, try and stay in touch with the hiring teams. Additionally, there are companies where recruiters are always ensuring their database is up to date & track potential candidates, so surely you will get a breakthrough at some point.
Other than these:
- Keep Networking and connecting with people – alumni networks, hiring teams, career fairs, etc. to find potential jobs.
- Work on your interviewing skills. One of the biggest areas of work is that students get extremely nervous during their interviews and even though they know everything, they are just not able to speak up. Work on this aspect – practice with someone you know, write down your responses, etc.
Let me share with you an inside trick – as an interviewee, you decide the course of the interview and not the other way around. So as much as you would feel otherwise, it is you who can control the direction in which you want to get the questions directed to by talking about the projects or areas you are most comfortable with. Interviewer will inadvertently move in that direction.
Another thing would be to ensure you have a few areas which you have identified as a learning opportunity for yourself, because all of us are work in progress.
Lastly
Always remember, you are more than the 2 pieces of paper which we call a resume, so never lose heart if you do not get something immediately or to your liking. Like my colleague says, if there is a job, there is a candidate for it. It’s only a matter of time before you find a job which is made for you.