Job hunting Tips for fresh graduates

Sat Jul 04 13:21:00 IST 2009, by Abhishek Mehta

First decade of 21st century and we are already facing the depressed economy for the second time. Art or Engineering none of the degree fetches the dream job and the queues are getting longer. Hardest hit are the ones who just came out of college looking for their first genuine assignment. Dilemma is, should fresh graduates join higher studies, upgrade their skills, pick up just any job or lay low till the market conditions improve?

In this post theocratic world individuals are free to choose their own path without the help of any Oracle. But before that I want to throw some light on new ways for job hunting, new arenas where fresh graduates should try to employ themselves and some tips for most important instrument of job search called resume. Does not matter what your domain of expertise is; these ways can be tried by everyone. Let me begin with my first tip, which you and I use almost every day.

Tips 1/4: Employ Social networking

Social networking is well penetrated and most widely used phenomenon on the web after emailing and Googling. Do not shy away from searching jobs on social networks and putting reference to your online profile in your resume. Linkedin allows career-oriented individuals to post a formal job-centered profile. For Job hunting one might prefer Linkedin to Orkut, hi5, Facebook, Myspace. Select the social network with more professional relevance rather than pictorial. Give importance to such professional networks and never undermine the importance of local and community networks.

Human resource consultancies nowadays run their own recruitment groups on the social/professional networking sites. Joining such groups is not a bad idea at all. You will be informed about the latest vacancies in the group via postings and will be contacted for new positions in your Linkedin account itself. Not all the job vacancies land up on recruitment portals, lots of them are getting exhausted on professional networks.

Once professional networking account is setup one can request his professors, Industrial trainers and old employers for their reviews on his professional capabilities. With recommendations on your profile and lots of good guys in your network, your new employer may not have to hire inspection firm to do a background check, if he/she knows anyone in your professional network even 2-3 level down.

Read more about Latest job hunting Mantras:...more

Tips 2/4: Freelancing is the way ahead

Keep your experience ball rolling and freelancing is the ticket for that. You do not have to run around office to office looking for freelancing assignment in your domain. Internet is full job freelancing assignments from coding to designing to testing to writing and office assistance. Bid for a job, do it right and get paid for it. Money is just good enough but good reviews, newer assignments and experience of dealing with the customers directly is going to make your skill-set sharper. This is what fills up the gap between a fresh graduate and someone with experience. There are so many online freelancing websites, I have named few here: oDesk, rentacoder, limeexchange and many more, use Google to help yourself  find more of such sites in your desired domain.

Tips 3/4: Crowdsourcing bandwagon

This is an alternative option, if you are facing problems in bidding for the freelancing assignments due to your lack of experience on cost estimation and recommendations. Join crowdsourcing bandwagon for gaining experience. Wikipedia defines Crowdsourcing as:

Crowdsourcing is a neologism (new word, not in common use) for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call.**

Imagine someone is in need of new web design for his website and wants to make sure that he freelance this task to many guys but pays only for the design which he likes. This is another form of freelancing with a twist. Here you can do any job, which is posted, but you will be paid only if it is selected. An open call is made on crowdsourcing market place for members of the community to finish the task and terms and conditions are laid upfront. A fresh graduate should consider this as an experience earning quest or a contest. This gives a fresher an opportunity to pitch his skills against the other experienced guys. If he wins that proves his abilities and every loss is only going to make him stronger. But the main point is that experience is gained and a fresher has understood the needs of the customers. Crowdsourcing marketplaces vary from coding, naming a process, testing, designing, ideating, R&D and many more areas. For crowdsourcing platforms in your domain just search for them on the web "Top Crowdsourcing sites". To know about other forms of crowdsourcing in general..... more

Tips 4/4: Keep your resume real:

Writing a resume is an Art but this art is very localized and should I say nationalized too. Resume expectation in Germany is different from the one in USA and the one in India but there are few points, which fresh graduates should always consider - does not matter wherever they are:

Avoid using funny email address. Email address is reflection of who you are and your identity so, better leave it that way. It should not become reflection of your hobbies, behavior and attitude. Funniest email address from a fresher, which I came across, was "looking-for-job@something.com"

Use a formal colored photograph (preferably of graduation) on your resume, it reminds everyone of his or her good old days. Make your resume in reasonably advanced document format do not use the last night released Microsoft office version. The guy sorting the resumes might not have it on his computer.

If you are going for your interview for first time or for a big job, it is ok to be confused. Use the social networks again for knowing about your interviewer. More details you found about him/her more at ease you would be.

Reference:
** Wikipedia on Crowdsourcing

Posted at 01:21PM Jul 04, 2009 by ABhi in Trends  |  Comments[2]