This is amusing but also true for many people in their 20's. Our societal and educational system facilitates job placements at a campus level (be it engineering, law, or even liberal arts) - the onus is on the institution to keep its prestige up by landing a top firm for plum placements on campus.
Students need to crack a test or two, 'talk' their way through the interview, and have it made for life.
Speaking for myself, both my first and second job was via my college placement cell.
At my first job, 14 trainees were asked to rank their preference for open roles that ranged from audit, HR, marketing, risk management, payments, product.
We gave our top 3 preferences randomly. I got the one that I had (foolishly, in retrospect) ranked lowest. It was to be (at that time) the sole Product Manager for the second largest merchant acquiring bank in India. I went onto love the job and be mentored by great people that led me to finally think of higher education.
At my second job, I applied for a market research/digital-heavy role but was randomly allotted a traditional brand marketing role, called 'business innovator'. It was a mismatch to what my career interests were and I had to look for another role.
Yet. I did not know how to. The structure of our education system and campus hiring makes us so complacent, so dependent, so sure of our backgrounds, we don't know how to apply, what to look for, and the entire process of applying to a new job leaves an early career professional befuddled!
This article is not about writing a perfect CV or nailing your application. For that, head over to my three-part series on CV writing here.
This article is about the intellectual and emotional pursuit of a new job when you have been systemically cajoled into believing a narrative that differs from market realities.
Looking for your first non-campus job can be an uphill battle especially if you are someone who's never worked prior to their MBA.
Typically, you would go through a cycle where you would struggle at each of the below inflection points:
- Preparing your CV - covered above already
- Understanding where to apply - organization, role, channels
- Responding to an application
- Negotiating
- Starting afresh
All of these are important, but this article focuses on the second so here goes:
Shortlisting where you want to apply:
Most early career professionals tend to obsess over at ends of the spectrum - either they want a 'prestige job' at FAANG or they want to slum it out at a startup in the hope of making it big. Obviously, the middle of the curve, is an easier place to be. There is also the concern many have about jumping industries or profiles.
This is a very, very tough one. Essentially, you are removing economies of scale from the placement process and doing this for yourself.
If you are a specialist, this is easier in some ways, eg: a CA can decide if they want to take the Big 4 route or work at a company (mid-sized or conglomerate) and this will simplify their search.
There is no one-size fits all approach that works here.
What you should do is make a list of what criteria you are going to use as a yardstick for filtering out where not to apply. This is so that your effort are focused and you don't compromise on your long-term vision for short-term goals.
This could be:
- Size of the organization: You could choose scale of operations or team size as a filter. There are technology companies that have 30 people with millions of dollars in revenue. There are also traditional industries that teach you how to work in complex, large-scale situations (think distribution at an FMCG company or logistics at e-commerce). Choose what your career needs right now. Apply accordingly. If your career needs something (mid-sized organization with managerial responsibility), don't fall into the trap of something else (individual contributor at a prestigious MNC). A lot of people have broad presumptions on sectors and industries. Don't operate on them. Really, really understand what is the variation and quantify it! So that you can measure. For instance, marketing at an FMCD company versus a marketing role at an FMCG company versus a marketing role at an e-commerce website. If your primary value addition is digital marketing, you may end up being more valuable at a traditional company than an online one due to the differentiation, though you may (misleading as it may be) think that the e-commerce one is the right bet for you.
- Channels of application: This is the easiest. Apply the way that gets your CV into the hiring manager's inbox or on their table, fastest. Most people misinterpret this to mean that they should spam random employees on LinkedIn for a referral that will never see the light of the day. Build relationships over time where the other person has a clear idea of your competency or respond to direct tweets, posts, updates of people looking to hire. You can also leverage consultants, alumni and people with a closer degree of separation to the hiring team. Traditional job applications still matter but they stack the odds against you. Try to use customized applications through customized channels to get to the decision-maker!
- Role: Most people think of roles in very rigid terms. For one, job descriptions are never updated even for great roles put out by recruiters. For another, jobs are dynamic and greatly impacted by leadership, team and resourcing dynamics. The job description for a company that has a 2 crore marketing budget and another that has a 200 crore marketing budget is the same. (Note, the former might not be a bad thing). Yet, your role may switch from media management to content-led, community marketing efforts for the former. Even if a role doesn't sound interesting, if it ticks the boxes of your set of expectations, apply, go to the interview and then try to figure out. Saying you don't want to do something basis your incomplete understanding, may be a big miss. Roles also evolve (I had applied for a general communications role at my current job but was offered a digital specialist due to my past experience as a freelancer in this domain).
So, to cut a long story short.
Do not apply everywhere. Little effort across various applications is futile. Put big effort across few applications.
Unless desperate due to layoffs, financial difficulties - optimize for the long run in your applications and do not be swayed by the short-run.
Make a list of what matters to you. Use that not to choose, but to reject where to apply.
Don't presume you know it all. Hiring is the blackest box of black boxes. Be open, flexible and try to discover what the real role and positioning of the job role is beyond what is uploaded on the job portal.
Take people along and use their guidance to have the shortest route to landing an interview.
Hope this post helped you out. Watch out for the 4th article in the Headstart series on 28th February. Share these posts and leave feedback, requests and suggestions in the comments below!
Connect with me on LinkedIn here.
Disclaimers: All views expressed are personal. All information copyright with the author. Protected under Creative Commons.
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