Talented ? Can you portray yourself correctly ? If not, then forget

For years I've wondered at how many of my talented friends and acquaintances have suffered long  periods of unemployment. Despite having loads of relevant experience, good education, many of them have often suffered exceptionally long periods between jobs.

Observation 

1. CVs are too lengthy and detailed.  

The problem is in presentation. If the smart person tries to go into detail and list every experience, nook and cranny of his or her life, the recruiter is likely to get information overload and overlook relevant experience. Furthermore, long or crowded CVs may look like a person is trying too hard. It would be better to get to the point, highlight the relevant experience, skills in a logical format.

2. Limiting your responsibilities.

Once a job vacancy was forwarded to one my friends where I thought he will do his best--only to have him say, "I am not an expert in that area."

This conservative way of thinking seems to come right of some belief that one must always remain in a certain comfort zone, except what comes internally. That may seem natural, but it's not professional. It will get a person no where if he hopes to advance and leave a person jobless if he rejects every opportunity that is not a perfect match to his experience.

The lesson seems to be that if one wants a job, one needs to be willing to leave the comfort zone of past experience, at least to the extent of seeing where one's skills might be transferable.

3. Talated people tend to prefer expressing themselves in terms of results.

They try to speak more loudly with their performance than with their mouths. They have to learn how to express their accomplishments, talents and skills in succinct ways that speak directly to how they can help an employer. They cannot rest on the knowledge of having once done a great job somewhere else. Someone will wade through your lengthy resumes to marvel at what you did.

4. Presentation.

Many talented people bore by not emphasizing their skill sets or experience--that is, they don't know how to articulate it. They also don't know how to talk or write about their accomplishments in ways that hit all the buzzwords recruiters might be looking to hear (or that search engines might be prone to pickup).

At the end of the day, people looking for a job need to get smarter about how to present themselves!

POACHING / RAIDING

“Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm

Payroll Outsourcing and Payroll Processing

Hi all, I am back after quite a long time. Now a days, trend of payroll outsourcing is picking up very  fast. Payroll outsourcing means giving out payroll administration to third party having expertise in payroll processes. Generally companies outsource their payroll functions to cut costs, and to get better services. Agencies offer such services are generally equipped with In-house Payroll & Compliance Management Team with latest technology & software. Accounts professionals ensure smooth and error free monthly payroll cycle.

This concept is becoming popular in many companies as it saves money and time. It eases the the complicated activity as all statutory requirements and obligations on the employer are very well managed by outsourcing agency.

Is it time to move ?

Worth reading....... I had come across this article a few years back. Let me know what do you feel about it in today's time. Please understand that the article is based on the survey and nothing to do with my own career span.

A survey reported that professionals who regularly changed their jobs are more confident and financially secure than their counterparts.

This is what one had to say:

'I started my career in a company and worked in the same company for 10 years. During this period I developed very good relations with my seniors, HoD and also with admin dept. This created a sense of security in my mind and I started loving my company. During this period I came across many job opportunities from other companies and also from foreign lands. But the sense of security was so deep rooted in my mind that I never bothered to even attend a walk-in-interview. Forget about thinking of going abroad. I watched many of my colleagues resign and join other companies on a higher salary and a higher position. Some even went abroad and are settled there.

Meanwhile I also saw some young engineers almost 5 years junior to me joined my company with same pay as what I was earning. It was then I was disturbed and started looking for alternatives. I had good relations with my HOD and also with administration dept so I decided to put up my case against this 'injustice'. Everybody showed sympathy to me but nobody took any action, all that they would say were 'we will revise your scale in the next appraisal'. I had faith in my company so I waited for the appraisal and to my shock I was given only an average increment the same was given to the new chaps too. The same story repeated the following year. It was then I decided to quit.

But leaving was not so easy. I had many of sleepless nights before I actually resigned. I had built a shell of 'sense of security' around me and it was very difficult to break. Worse I had lost confidence that I would be

able to adjust and perform in a different environment. But later I found out it is not so difficult to get adjusted to the new environment. I am happy now that I earn better and have a good position.'

This is just an example. Many professionals had a similar experience.

IT CAN BE CONCLUDED THAT WORKING IN ANY COMPANY FOR TOO LONG 

HAVE FOLLOWING DISADVANTAGES:

1. You are taken for granted by the company.

2. You get used to working in an environment which is unique to that company this makes you less confident for taking up new opportunities.

3. Personal growth is hampered as there is very little new to learn after 5-7 years..

4. You become complacent reducing your own market value.

5. The only benefit it offers is so called 'security' (And that too is imaginary)

HERE ARE SOME BENEFITS OF CHANGING THE JOB 

1. You join the company satisfied with your needs ( pay and position ) and on your own terms.

2. Work in a different environment and learn to negotiate different problems and situations.

3. Often you get a chance to attend a new course/seminar thereby increasing your professional knowledge.

4. You are always conscious about your performance keeping your market value intact.

The professional companies do not operate on emotions. They are least bothered about your loyalty all they want is performance. You won't be awarded anything extraordinary for your loyalty. It is always performance that counts. If you are in a company serving for too long then the chances are you not one of the best performers because of the inevitable complacency.

Also such people presented with an opportunity of lifetime are incapable to grab it. It is impossible for these people to break their shell of 'security' and grab the new opportunity. The situation is worse for the people who have worked for more than 15 years in only one company. They can't even dream of quitting their job - it is like fish out of water.

What is Recruitment ? Types of Recruitment.

You may be wondering why I am talking about recruitment and its type, recruitment is recruitment, what else!  Definition of recruitment is just simple, it is a process of fulfilling job opening by attracting, screening, short listing, interviewing and selecting a candidate as per job requirement.  Though the definition is simple the process is in fact challenging. It starts with the identification of areas where usually department head feels the requirement of additional manpower to complete the work expeditiously and efficiently or when someone leaves the company for any reason whatsoever. He /she then comes up with the job opening in the department and informs HR to fulfill the requirement by providing them basic information like JD, Qualification, Experience etc. In many organizations, job requirements are fulfilled as per pre set policies against hiring. Compensation is either decided as per policy or it is decided in consultation with Department Head, HR and Management. TAT is often decided to finish the work within stipulated time period. Once job openings are generated, the process of recruitment starts, we will discuss about it in detail in next few days.

Types of recruitment are…

Direct Hiring / Core Staffing

Done by the organization itself to fulfill their own job openings whether permanent or contractual in nature as described above.

Placement / Executive Search –

Services of hiring agencies are sought by organization in fulfilling their job openings.

Placement word is usually used in the world of recruitment agencies who offer services of fulfilling job openings of their client as per the requirement and criteria set by them. Person sourced by the agency is selected and absorbed by the client company into their core employment is called placement.

Placement agency or say Recruitment firm normally charges around 8.33 % of gross annual compensation depending upon expertise and experience. It may go up if the chances of fulfilling the requirement is difficult. Agencies may charge much higher fees for recruitment of such personnel as per their skills in finding the suitable fitment against match. Usually replacement time period of 3 months is provided to the client (employer) to observe the candidate. In case of termination or resignation within 3 months , a replacement has to be provided to the client free of charge

Contract Staffing / Manpower Outsourcing –

Services of staffing companies are sought by the organization to fulfill job openings which are often temporary in nature and where the staff is placed on the payroll of staffing company i.e. third party payroll for carrying out work activities for that organization is called contract staffing or outsourcing of manpower.

A person is hired by staffing company to work with Client Company, mostly for limited period.  Staffing companies are so robust now a day that any successful player in this field can deliver tailor made staffing solution to many client companies as per their need. Here, principal employer has limited obligation of statutory requirements like PF, ESIC, Labour Licence etc. related to the staff outsourced through staffing companies.

Contingency Staffing –

Job openings which are project based, temporary or part time fulfilled by outsourcing through staffing company or by direct hiring or sought in the form of consultation of an individual who has expertise in the required field. These types of requirement are mostly contractual.

I have mentioned the types which are best known to me. I would like to have your comments and feedback to make this article comprehensive. I am eager to share my experience in Gulf Recruitment as I have spent more than half of my career span doing it.

Recruitment 360

Hi, this is my first post. Well, 360 degree term is used now a days in many corporates which indicates that the person is responsible not only for a particular activity but from head to tail of that activity. Here I will give an example of mine where I was handling 2 key accounts of major clients one was from Oil & Gas industry whereas other was from Telecom. The combined annual turnover of these clients was around Rs. 10 Cr. (USD 1.7 million) Here I was handling a team of recruiters, office coordinator, supporting payroll asst., supporting invoicing asst. and site coordinators for different locations. My responsibilities included all the activities related to staffing of these client which included sourcing, shortlisting, interviewing, issuing offers, joining, induction, deployment, coordination, grievance handling, processing timesheets, reimbursing claims, payroll, new recruitments, replacements, transfers from other SP, business development, client relationship, invoicing, collection…   is it over ?  No, additionally being a hard core recruiter I could not resist accepting challenges of taking new assignments of manpower requirements for other clients.  Binding all these activities required me to keep in touch with all related personnel working with me with close monitoring. Most of them were developed in such a way that they were also aware of the activities of other team members. It was so good that there was none down the line with knowledge in only one area but all. E,g. Our SPOC's (single point of contact) who were assigned the job of coordinating site activities for deputies became good source of building my resource databank (potential recruitees) due to their site contacts and I could immediately fulfill the resource requirements against replacement or fresh requirements. In office all my team members were aware of each others work and hence I faced less incidents of quality issues or delay in service delivery to the client or deputed personnel. In turn I earned their trust and belief that we could do the work in efficient manner and helped us pool more business from them.

The sole purpose of this article is to make you understand what I meant for the term recruitment 360. It was not only limited to sourcing, selection and closure but there’s a lot more to do. Guys, companies now a days expect employees to contribute towards adding value to the business. You just can’t shrug off saying you are limited to the work assigned to you, think beyond it, utilize your skills and try adding value to your work.  Don’t feel dejected even if your efforts are not taken seriously by your seniors, believe me your performance is always observed somehow. Why spoil good habits just because nobody is noticing. Enrich yourself with knowledge and skills. Pay attention on what your senior says, they have reached the level because of their expertise in the field. Bullying  and non competent bosses are faced by everyone in their life, those who have not faced are lucky.  But you will get atleast one good quality to adopt. Observe, estimate your work situation and if you feel that your progress became stagnant or your skills were not paid deserving compensation, bring it to the notice of your superiors, have discussion with them.

I used to hold one to one discussion session with my team members where we used to discuss each others behavior, work style, performance improvement, etc. It really helped me in many aspects.

Never forget, your wish to take initiative and accept challenges of taking additional responsibilities is always judged by your employer.

Entry to the world of blogging.

Hi,

This is my first ever entry to the world of blogging. Toady is second day of Diwali and first day of Hindu new year i.e. Kartik Shukla Paksha 1, I am an astute recruitment professional with around 18 years experience in the field of recruitment. Well, recruitment 360 degree. During this journey, I have come across various types of recruitment from blue collar to senior levels in different verticals.

At this time, working in the company which is leader in outsourcing technical manpower and contingency staffing to oil, gas, power, infrastructure, telecom sectors.

I got the inspiration to start this blog from Mr. Govind Negi who is the owner of very informative blog on HR hrsuccesstalk.blogspot.in.

I wish to share my views and knowledge with the world through this blog.

Thanks
Mahesh Repal