5 Things for Grads To Remember While Applying For Their Very First Jobs.

So you've recently graduated. Plans to study further are a bit far away, because you simply cannot look at another book or give another internal! Good choice. I happen to like work ex more than PGs & MBAs. 

Freshers, pls get out your notepads. [Hah, you thought you were done taking notes? College was just practice. :) ]

My Take on these points:

1> Unpreparedness:
Somehow the gap in relevance of learning material in our schools & colleges & the learnings required at the actual work place haven't yet been bridged effectively [I may choose to leave Finance & IT out of this, as the technical learnings at the college & Masters levels are what's usually required at the workplace]. So in conclusion, you may have just graduated, but you're already behind in terms of what is actually required of you at your new workplace. So it would atleast be wise to prepare yourself completely on some aspects like
i] Company history & LOBs (Lines of Businesses)
ii] Background of people working at the company [Linkedin mostly has 60 to 75% of working professionals today in India I'm assuming, so mostly you will successfully find atleast 3-4 people from the company you're interviewing with, check their job profiles as they've mentioned it on their profiles, their academic backgrounds, etc. It might help you speak more with more relevance & nothing pleases a prospective employer more than you 'Being on the same page as them'
iii] The complete Job description of the job you are applying for. Duh.
iv] Possibly the profiles of people interviewing you if you know who is. 

2> Be the Professional:
If I were interviewing you & you handed me your cv, & I notice your email address is jumpingmonkey@yahoo.in or siddharthroxx@gmail.com or sweetangelpriyanka@hotmail.com or basically any email that would make me question your credibility or seriousness, I would red flag it for sure. Minus 10 points. Try making email addresses for these purposes that are more or less your name.your last name@gmail/outlook/hotmail/yahoo.com type emails. Whatever you choose, pls do not make me imagine you jumping from tree to tree while I'm trying to be serious in interviewing you. :)

3> Expectation Setting:
Ah. My favourite. Yes, you graduated. Yes, you have big dreams. And you know what, I'm sure you'll achieve them & make India/Your parents/Us proud. But dude. You need to not expect the hiring company to serve you all that right away on a golden platter. It takes time, carefully planned & scripted careers, well positioned academics, hopefully no breaks or bad job jumps, etc to get you growing & at a decent pay package. I cannot give you enough examples of how many candidates I've interviewed who have left brilliant opportunities because of inflated expectations & chose rather to take up glamourous sounding jobs with slightly higher salaries that eventually closed down or didn't suit their actual career path, or chose to rather sit at home! Pl let the employer decide what you're worth at the start atleast, you will catch up soon.

4> Attitude:
This post I've just lifted from my previous blog post, because I can't stress on it enough.
The difference between a candidate who gets selected & who gets rejected isn't ever the same. See, it always depends on who is hiring, and what you represent, & most importantly how you represent. For me, I know within the first 5-10 minutes of an interview whether this candidate will get selected or rejected by my client companies. Its not very complicated. Most times, the winning attribute is a winning attitude. Many applicant's breeze into my office thinking the world of themselves & leave with rejection & bruised egos. Some of the best candidates I've come across were the most humble, realistic, accommodating & with complete knowledge of their pluses & minuses. What I do of course, is to help them project it right. But its got to be there for me to even think of helping you. Can't make castles out of thin air now, can we? So, keeping the right attitude, very important.
 
5> Internships are valuable:
Most graduates or fresh Post Graduates tend to get intimidated of the entire hiring process and corporate work environments...things they haven't been exposed to previously as they were only studying. Interning experience in your college vacations can be such a boost to a person's profile that it may help them get jobs which graduate/PG freshers don't usually get, plus you fit right in! 
P.S [Pls do not contact me for internships, I only hire for full time employees for my clients.] :) 

I am now taking calls/emails for career counselling, career scripting & other allied job advice since I've been getting atleast 8 to 10 enquiries a day. Pls email me to find out charges & fees for the same.

My Best as always, & Good luck on your job hunt!

Neha Asthana
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheNehaAsthana
Email: careerconnect.neha@gmail.com
Mumbai | India