Do you know your challenges? - Blog post 5

If you have been reading my blog posts from the beginning you will have noticed that I am writing a series of blog to help students identify the challenges based on the purposes/goals they may have in life. The posts also include my personal experiences.

Today I am here to focus on challenges of another goal.

Goal 2 - Get hired by a multi-national company.

Most of the students prefer to work soon after graduating. In my very first blog I mentioned that there are nearly 1.9 million engineers graduating every year across India. Along with these students are arts and science/business management students who graduate every year. I am sure you can imagine the competition you are/will be facing.

One of the many reasons why I moved abroad was because I did not find myself competent enough to face the huge competition in India. Where ever I went, I would find my friends, cousins, father’s colleagues’ sons/daughters being placed in multi-national companies. They would look down on me if I mentioned that I was still looking for a job. I felt as though if I was to stay in India the only way I could earn respect in the society was to find myself a job in a multinational company. The sheer pressure of the society forced me out of my country.

Unemployment is a huge issue in India. There are many factors why unemployment is on the rise. While there are many factors (economic factors, population etc.) which are out of our control, there are many which are well under our control (soft skills, technical skills etc.) that can help us get ahead in the competition to be successfully employed.

Only a handful of students succeed getting placed in MNCs through the campus placement drives. Remaining students are let to try their own luck that end up running from pillar to post to get hired.

The very first challenge students’ face in an attempt to get hired is to have their CVs shortlisted to be even called for an interview.

Companies receive scores of CVs every day. Do you think they scan every CV they receive?Certainly not!

In order to be successfully called for an interview, make sure your CV is not a standard one that will be lost in the pile of similar CVs submitted by other graduates.

Spend good time writing your CV. Remember that this is the very first step towards you getting hired. Do not simply copy from your friends/internet and change the name on the CV. This is not going to help.

Learn to be original and creative from day one.

On your CV, rather than highlighting your personal statements focus more on your career objectives. Focus on 3-4 of your unique selling points that will make the recruiter want to meet you. Make sure you highlight your key skills relevant to the job you are applying so that when recruiters use keywords to search CVs online they can see yours. Do not focus on how much you have done but on how well you have done. Make sure your CV is not too long.

Finally, have your CV proof read by as many people as you can and get their honest feedback. Reflect those feedbacks on your CV.

Your CV has the first privilege to meet your prospective employer. You are under your CVs mercy to get shortlisted for an interview call. Therefore, do not mess it up.

Will you attempt to write your own CV and have it successfully shortlisted for an interview call?

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