Dos and Donts of Getting Hired for the Best Job
We always wish our meetings, conversations, journey which were delightful, could have lasted a little longer. Paucity of time, space, money etc might have played the spoilsport, but had we had the choice we would have continued. Same goes with our interview of Mr. Abhay Kumar, which was very informative and useful for me as well to the readers of my blog. We had a lot to talk; I had a lot to ask and he had a lot to advice, but we couldn’t have packed everything in one interview, so, we broke it into two parts.
First part you can find here: http://reviewboard.in/Blog-Details.aspx?Blog=8-Points-You-Should-Keep-In-Mind-To-Get-Hired-And-Stay-Happy
In the first part of our interview, we talked about some of the points. In the second interview, we have picked up from where we had left. Let’s dive directly into it:
Mukul: There are lots of advices available on internet to how to get a dream job, which makes people dream about it. Does really any dream job exists or it is just a dream?
Abhay Kumar: Dream job???? How do you want me to define it?
Mukul: Whichever way you wish to…..
Abhay Kumar: Dream job is a very subjective word; it varies from person to person. For a person fresh out of college, anything which gives him the money and the time to spend may be his dream job. For a middle management level employee getting a senior level profile may be his dream job and so on so forth. So, it is very difficult to define a dream job; a dream for you may not be the dream for me or someone else.
So, I would rather advice people not to fall in the trap of these good sounding words. They should focus more on the jobs which fits into their long term career plan and also which allows them the money and time to carry out personal responsibilities.
Mukul: It automatically answers my second question. I believe that a dream job is something which adds value to your professional life in terms of money and growth and personal life in terms of basic quality time with your family.
Abhay Kumar: Yes, it’s all about progression. A job may be a dream job at the time of landing it but after joining if you are not conducting yourself well or if your immediate boss is not in sync with you, you might get into a very uncomfortable situation. Then you start cribbing and plan your exit. We have created lots of hype around it. I would say that any job which gives you financial, physical and mental comfort and continues to do so over sometime, is a dream job for you.
Mukul: You have been working in the field of manpower planning and recruitment for close to twenty years. What are the steps you would suggest to prospective candidates, from writing resume to facing interviews and negotiating salaries?
Abhay Kumar: One needs to have two set of targets; quantifiable and non-quantifiable for both short and long term. Coming back to question you have asked I would say that first one should have a very clear cut quantifiable short and long term target of money he want to earn, the house he wants to live in, the car he wants to drive, holidays he wants to take etc. Benchmarking is one of the key points of success, whether you are benchmarking against yourself or someone else. These quantifiable targets help you in measuring your success. Moreover, first four needs of hierarchy, as defined by Abraham Mashlow, i.e. Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging and Esteem are deeply connected with it.
Second, he should fit in his education, expertise, company, profile etc. into those long term and medium term targets. If someone doesn’t have these things properly drawn out on paper, then he will drift from one place to another for a few thousand rupees growth and will end up messing his career in the long run.
Now, you will have to bring in the five points which we discussed last time. All those five points needs to be addressed every time someone prepares himself for the next job. (Those five points are reproduced here for the reference of readers. Link of the previous interview is given in the beginning itself.)
“First and the most important point for a prospective employee is ‘Know your profile’. People actually spend least amount of time on their CV. They do not read it and very often they are not conversant because professional writer/external help is taken to prepare/write the CV. So, it is very important to read and understand one’s CV, the words written in it, the projection you are trying to make and the goal you want to achieve.
Second is ‘person should be prepared very well’. Before going for an interview, the candidate must know the company very well; the kind of business they are into, product or services they are providing, who are the competitors etc. This would prepare him/her for the questions which would be posed in the interview.
Third is ‘have a positive outlook’. Many a times it so happens that the interviewer cross checks you on various aspects of your personality by throwing challenges or situations; whether you are ready to work hard, are you ready to experiment, whether you are ready to take new challenges etc. Any kind of laidback or lethargic response would put you down in the eyes of a prospective employer. So your words and body language must communicate positive frame of mind and positive approach.
Fourth is ‘long term picture’. It is imperative that people have a very well defined goal or a long term picture in mind. Often people have a very idealistic picture of their career. They want to be at the top in no time. They don’t realize or often forget that there are many steps to a stair between the first step and top of the ladder and every step is a process in itself. And he/she has to go through every process to reach the top.
Fifth is ‘planned approach and open mind for salary negotiation’. Throwing any random number can’t get you hired. Before salary negotiation, it is very important to be realistic and be prepared with your expectation. You should have all the details of income which you are drawing from current employer. You should be aware of the market trend etc. You also need to keep in mind that you need to deliver in multiple times of what you are asking from your prospective employer.”
I have seen people throwing whimsical numbers as their expectation which are bound to be rejected. And even if, by any chance, any of these numbers gets accepted, it puts extra pressure on the candidate to perform and bring out revenue in many multiples of the salary being paid. So, it is always advisable to understand that what you are asking depends on what you are bringing to the table. It makes sense to checkout the market trend, industry trend to zero down on a realistic expectation.
Mukul: After getting selected for a new organization, leaving the earlier one becomes a challenge. What would be your advice to the candidates to handle this situation amicably and in friendly manner, without trying to get even with immediate superior? Could you lay down few rules for ‘Exit Interview’ which every candidate must follow?
Abhay Kumar: Employees leave any organization primarily for three reasons; growth in money terms, growth of the profile and continuous disagreement with the immediate superior. In all the scenarios, it becomes a bit difficult or sometimes very difficult to leave the current organization. So, it is very important to be transparent at the time of negotiating a joining time frame with the new organization. All the eventualities like serving the notice period or buying the notice period should be discussed in advance, so that everyone is on board.
As far as rule for ‘Exit Interview’ is concerned, there aren’t many except one, “don’t burn the bridges”. It has been witnessed often that outgoing employees, in the case of tiff with the immediate superior and which again is quite frequent, tries to run him down or create a bad impression. Whatever is the situation this kind of hit-back should be avoided at all cost. You never know when you will bump into him in the future. He may become your boss in the next organization or may be he might be friends with your new boss. Not only that, your new organization may like to take a feedback about you from your boss, colleagues or the organisation and your action may simply put them off and would end up in getting an unfavourable feedback. Further, if you want to come back at a future time for whatever reason may become impossible if you have burnt your bridges.
Mukul: Employees leave their present organization in a stressed environment most of the time and most of them end up taking the wrong decision. I have seen people burning their happiness and energy out due to the wrong decision they take. What would be your advice to such people?
Abhay Kumar: When you are in an organization, you are with competitors who are all striving to achieve success from the same pool. So, there is bound to be friction sometimes more than you can normally bear. But, that’s the situation everywhere. You can’t run away from each and every tough situation or you can’t have the best shot all the time. To play your best shot, you will have to wait and sometime, this wait may seem lengthy. You will have to bide your time and wait for your moment. It is easier said than done, but that’s the only way.
Mukul: New organization is always complete with new people, new environment and new rules. What would be your suggestions to new employees to handle the new situation?
Abhay Kumar: People are often short on three virtues; patience, ability to observe and ability to listen. In any new environment, these three virtues come as a very big help. When someone joins a new organization, he must know that he has joined a new space which belonged to others till sometime back. Everything will be new for him from his workstation to coffee machine to the cubicle, not to mention his colleagues and the boss. It requires a lot of getting use to.
So, my suggestion to everyone joining a new organization would be to wait, have patience and observe the people and the new environment, listen and understand everything, then open up. It will help them to avoid many unpleasant situations.
Note: Abhay Kumar can be reached at sales@teamrecruiters.in