5 Things you should do in your first job

Campus placements, off-campus, fresher exams, references, walk-ins, by some means you land up in a job. (Mind you, I did not say dream job!!!) and now what??

Analytics say a size-able chunk of college pass-outs do not have a definition for a dream job and end up pursuing the job that comes their way. (Absolutely nothing demeaning about it though)

But, firsts are always the bests. You learn a lot and it is always an enduring memory that lasts for a life time.

In this post, I am highlighting 5 things that one should do in their first job:

1. Reasonable and Responsible: Be responsible and reasonable and that does not mean you bow, bend and never get up. Do not allow others to over shadow you, you are your own marketing manager when it comes to your career. Have the onus of the tasks assigned to you even if it demands a little stretching beyond the regular work timings. 

2.Quick Growth: I am sure many of you (read us) join our first work place with a burning desire to prove ourselves, to have a superlative projectile career. Don’t be too greedy. Growth follows you when you are dedicated, committed to your work goals. Don’t quit jobs in short duration anticipating sky rocketing careers. After all, you are your own competitor, both the win and the loss only matters to you. 

3.Meeting Mornings: Most often, it is observed that many do not tend to open up in meetings. You may have a whirlwind of thoughts to express but are reserved to express in meetings. All said and done about meetings, it is certainly a good place to exhibit your talent.

4.Use the opportunity: Most of you might not have figured out what you want to do in your life, when you take up your first job. Use your first job as an avenue to identify the tasks which are “enjoyable” and “not-so- enjoyable-but -doable” tasks. This will help you to build a niche and ascertain the areas which you would like to progress in your career.

5.Continuous Learning: Your first job is a place which offers you a continuous learning. You are exempted from the mistakes because you are a college fresher. Learn from every single day. The way to dress, the way to talk, way to write emails, way to address in meetings, these are all certain aspects beyond the work KRAs that are already assigned to you.

I started this post with an intention to guide people who are in their first job, but as I finish this, I feel some of these pointers certainly apply to people who are experienced as well. What do you think?

Shaheed Bhagat Singh

As my whatsapp beeped today morning, I saw this image of the person below popping up

Any guesses who this is??? This is the great legend Bhagat singh. A friend of mine forwarded this picture to me and quizzed me if I ever knew who it was. Thanks to my movie nerves, I had earlier seen the movies made on this great man Bhagat Singh and so I could instantly connect to it.

I remember I saw this movie about Bhagat Singh in my college days and trust me it was a great influence back then. After the movie, it interested many of us to know about such freedom fighters and I remember making a small document during our college times about some great freedom fighters.

Bhagat Singh was a brave son of Mother India, an influential revolutionary during the pre-independence days. Born to a Punjabi Sikh family, he preached anarchist and Marxist ideologies. Can you imagine the guts he had to being convicted of a murder and hanged at the age of 23????

Yes, at 23 today, we are not clear anything more than a watsapp or a facebook. Look at the love he had for his motherland and the conviction to bring the freedom. Incomparable, to say the least!!!

Now, why this post suddenly?? After Mr. Modi’s speech yesterday, I learnt that today is his birthday. I expected, somewhere in the news, social media this would certainly flash and I must say, I feel ashamed not to see anything relevant to this. Such a disgrace!!! My heart pained for a moment!!

The media which churns news out of Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy or Shahrukh Khan’s surrogacy did not deem it necessary to render the basic prayers for his soul. Let the change begin, forget about the media. If you are with me, please keep him in your prayers for 2 minutes and let this information not die with us. Let us make an effort to pass this on to our next generation.

Information about him on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh

Image and information source: Google

Linking it to Monday Musings at Writetribe.com and to Microblog Mondays

Write your right resume

Often I get questioned by many of my non-HR friends as to how a profile is screened.

I  have been in this recruitment industry for quite some time and have been a part of the emerging trends. Recruitment strategies changed from the traditional paper ads to walk-ins to web ads to social media.

We in the recruitment industry are always pushed for targets (Qualitative most times and quantitative at times) and so the time a recruiter spends on each resume is considerably diminishing. This pronounces the importance to have a resume that speaks in a crisp way.

In this post, I am highlighting the usual parameters a recruiter looks at while screening a profile:

• Look and feel: The first and foremost parameter any recruiter will look forward is for a neat and properly formatted resume. The CVs with different colors, fonts ,alignments are definitely not a candy to the eye. I personally don’t bother to look at the other details if a candidate cannot make his resume presentable.

• Education details: It would be good to mention the highest education qualification with the year of passing for the recruiter to have an understanding of your overall experience that can be expected.

• Employment in chronological order: The employment details are to be presented in chronological order starting from the latest. If there is a gap in between the employments, it could be highlighted as why the gap with reasons, may be like pursuing higher education, setting up own business etc
• Responsibilities: This is the most important part of the resume. A comprehensive detail of your current job, roles and responsibilities with an enhancement to the achievements would help us decide on the right candidate for the right job. The more specific details, the better. Like, for instance, instead of saying experience in automation testing, you rather present it as experience in scripting in selenium tool for running automated scripts.

• Authentic details:Try giving authentic details in the resume like the project names, client details (in case of IT), the markets handled ( in case of sales ), company specific tools which will help us to identify the authenticity of the resume

Overall, avoid giving irrelevant details and present the resume in a neat and crisp way. If this demands you to ignore your employment details in the beginning of your career which may be irrelevant, you may do that.

Personally, when I screen a resume, I look at the resume in the order of educational qualification, employment details, roles and responsibilities, specific achievements at current role, reasons for looking for a change and then the reasons for gap in employment ( if any) and the candidate’s aspirations. This will help me understand how he/she would fit the current role in our organization.

Hope this helps newbie recruiters to screen profiles and others to write their resumes.

We miss you dear…

A crumb of bread is all what you need

to make you happy dear!!!

A walk to the park

pat on the back, a rub on your ear

Is what you wait for us to hear!!!

You chase the squirrel, sniff the tree

Cats are scared, rats are no where!!

Your selfless wait, the innocent eyes

those fluffy ears, the sticky nose

You are more human than all of us for sure!!

With a heavy heart, eyes filled with tears

We immensely miss you

May your soul rest in peace dear

P.S : Our pet dog Tripsy passed away yesterday leaving all of us in tears. Miss you dear!!