(This article was earlier published on Dawn’s Blogs: http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/27/how-to-get-hunted-down.html)
Here is the anti-climax. You don’t. You cannot possibly calculate your chances of being in category C, I learnt it the hard way. But thankgod for estimation. Here is how you ensure that you are doing at least as well as others, that you are aware what they are doing and that you are pushing the limits; putting yourself out there like a qualified (but desperate) individual screaming pick me, pick me, pick me…
Say no to isolation: Very early on in my post-graduation days, the only two people who had seen my resume was me and my first interviewer. I was shy: I felt I was not qualified enough, not experienced enough, not good enough. Ironically, I was not getting calls for interviews because my resume was just not visible enough, (in more ways than one).
So Share. Share with your career services office, your friends and your peers. Ask for advice, feedback and above all, criticism. Go on the internet, read professional blogs and join forums, see formats, styles, patterns. Evaluate your resume with respects to others you come across and be ready to change.
Think like a Marketeer. Sell yourself! No one has the time or the energy to read a long resume. What you write first will be seen first and in most cases will be the only thing seen or read so put your best on display.
a) The ‘objective’ in relation to what the employer is looking for. The objective in a resume just like cover letters is case-sensitive. Change them with respect to the job title and job description and maintain relevance. I was a Mathematics major looking for a Corporate Communications job and that is the first question I was asked: What the Hell was I doing interviewing for this job? If you don’t know how to answer that question, maybe there is something wrong here. Be prepared to justify your resume.
b) You are only as good as you look. Do not lie but do not be too honest either. Do not point them to your flaws. Let them figure your flaws out themselves. If you had a 2.2 GPA in university, please don’t write it unless they ask you for it.
Originality is the art of concealing your sources: Maybe with your qualification and experience, you feel that you are more category B; stop, take this thought and bury it somewhere deep. You may not be the next big genius with amazing ideas but do not let anyone else know that. You just have to show them that you are. All over the world, ideas today are derived, extrapolated and induced from other ideas. I do not mean cheating or presenting someone else’s ideas as your own or plagiarizing, I just mean whatever you do, know what you ‘ought’ to be doing, saying or writing and how you ‘ought’ to be presenting yourself. Why an employer picks your resume or hires you over another is not because you are different. It is because you ‘appear’ different and he should not know one from another.
“The Social Network” was not just a movie; it was a lesson which taught us all just how much can power the social networking sites which have invaded the online space today have! Join Linkedin! Talk to alumni, recruiting experts, internship colleagues, see what they are doing., make connections, join forums, see which companies are listed, which you might be interested in and how they are hiring. If nothing else, you will be in touch with the market situation and be aware of job demands, hiring patterns and hiring requirements.
And lastly,
Let others talk for you: If there is anything better than talking about yourself is having other more professional-sounding people talking about you. Ask for personalized references from credible sources who actually know you.
I wish getting a job was more of a quadratic equation with ‘real’ answers (pun intended) but it is not. Let us all find solace in the fact that the predators hunt until the preys are extinct. And we are not extinct, are we?
