Don’t falter on your internship

Internships are jumping boards that launch you into your career. They can be inconceivable acquaintances of practical learning. But if you do not take them seriously and fail to display an inclination to learn, your name and standing will take a nosedive.

How do interns falter? How can they fare well? These questions and their answers are knowingly or unknowingly acknowledged by all, yet people falter. Some major blunders committed by them and methods to preclude them are:

·   Violating dress norms: If you think that you can dress as you like, a wrong message will go out that you have a casual approach. Hence it is necessary that you observe how your seniors dress up at work and use your prudence to emulate them. If there is a dress code, you should not violate it. Remember that the clothes that you wear are an extension of your personality.

·   Mingling excessively with buddies: You may like to mingle and move around with your buddies. But concurrently you should also make efforts to be acquainted with other staff - those who are elder and more experienced than you. In doing so, you will always stand to gain because you can fall back on them in times of need. Senior employees will help you hook up with prospective openings and also serve as good references.

·   Disregarding office traditions:  Office traditions are unseen powers that manifest the manner in which things function there. You can learn about them by evaluating the conduct of others. For example, if everybody is punctual, there is no reason why you should be late. Following office traditions help you in being assessed as a person who can play responsible roles in a professional environment.

·   Being garrulous rather than thoughtful:  You may feel that you know a lot, but prudence demands that before you open your mouth, you should be know the maximum about the company and how things function there. This way you will be able to make worthwhile contributions and get to be appreciated.

·   Adopting a laid-back approach: A workplace may appear to be relaxed, but the working environment there could well be stricter than a college. Out of college therefore, you should adjust yourself. The flippant attitude of collegians should be shed; use of slang, exclamations and gestures that are typical of students should be a thing of the past.

·   Ridiculing mundane assignments: Imagine this – your responsibilities also include checking that all lights are switched off before you leave the workplace. The task may appear menial, but if you take it on with devotion, you will be assigned important jobs in due course. As an intern, you have to establish your credibility and if you do humdrum tasks well, you will be recognized.

·   Disregarding issues not concerning you: Turning a blind eye to assignments where you are not directly involved them will deprive you of valuable information about how things move in the organization. You should keep your ears and eyes open to what is happening around you, even in fields where you have no role to play.

·   Not acknowledging help: There will be occasions when others – fellow interns and employees will come to your help. You should recognize this and make it a point to express your gratefulness to them. Remember that anybody who is valued by you will be always ready to extend a helping hand.  

·   Refraining from seeking opinion: It is likely that your line manager does not interact much with you and also not be offer any view or advice Well, he could be a silent observer. You should take initiative and ask him how he feels about you and your work. You should be open to suggestions, criticism and counseling because such a disposition will strengthen your foundation.

·   Failing to maintain contact: Once you complete your internship, you should not put it out of your mind. You must leave on a positive note and continue to maintain contact with everybody you have been associated with. An occasional communication exchanging pleasantries is a good way to stay in touch.

You should remember that you will never be able to succeed in your life and career by being happy brooding your past because that amounts to being lackadaisical. You can succeed only by learning to shoulder your future responsibilities. And internships offer you an opportunity to learn doing that.

Why is your job hunt not materializing?

They are lucky people who get a job on their maiden application or after their very first interview. Most people experience unsuccessful job search; and the reason for it is that one of their many job search skills may be feeble. You need to know precisely which skill is that.

             If you scrutinize all your job search skills, you can make them robust and strong. Basically, they comprise three crucial connections and if you ponder over each one of them judiciously, a strong composite whole will follow. These so-called links are:

Resume: Your resume also includes the covering letter. If it fails to elicit notice and consideration and you do not get any call letter, it is perhaps what needs your attention. The resume and call letter should induce the person at the other end to rate you high and impel your recruitment. Any resume, if it has to be good, should facilitate the following:

·   Market your transferable expertise.

·   Render support to skills that have bottom-line effects and attainments.

·   Easy comprehension of assertions and facts put across.

·   Preclude the possibility of branding you fit for the job and career that you are presently in.

·   Concentrate on a singly career aim.

Distribution: You can be the most qualified person for a job and have the best of a resume, but even then you may not get a call letter. Your resume should circulate around as many people as possible; to that extent the outcome of your resume is contingent on this and is therefore, all a game of figures. If, ab initio, your resume is effectual, there is likelihood that all resumes that you dispatch will fetch you call letters; and you will sail through all interviews. The question is how many people should view your resume? Well, you can increase their numbers manifold by:

·   Subscribing to agencies that target your particular stream or profession. 

·   Posting your resume on several job portals like naukri.com, monsterindia.com and timesjobs.com for wider circulation and receipt of information on job openings.

·   Being upbeat and aim to storm all potential employers with your resume.

·   Making use of your contact base to circulate your resume; the contact base should always be in an expanding mode.

Interview: Your resume could be excellent and you get letters for interviews. But if you do not get selected, it is evident that your interview skills are poor. If you have to probe into them, you should query yourself on:

·   Whether you have adequate knowledge about the company that is interviewing you.  

·   The state of your preparation for the interview and if you are acquainted with the questions that the interviewer generally asks.

·   Aspects that you will need to seek clarifications about so that you are clear about various issues related to job per se.

·   Your capability to bare any possible trepidation that may preclude your getting the job.

·   Your ability to close an interview on a favourable and friendly note?

Consideration of the above details will help you discern your inadequacies and limitations. Having done so, you may take appropriate action to do away with them and emerge well-set and confident for the next opportunity coming your way. Some recommended actions are:

·   If it is your resume that is pulling you down, you may consider getting it drafted by a professional so that all relevant facts are included in it

·   If your resume is not getting a wide circulation, then perhaps you may get in touch with a career coach who can show the way for a more effective job search and help you to put together a drive to increase your resume exposure.

·   If you infer that your ability to face an interview is lacking, there will not be any dearth of call letters. But if you join an interview coaching centre, you will be able to improve upon them. 

Remember that your job hunt is like a chain; and a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. If you reinforce strengthen each one of them, your efforts will not go waste. If you identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions, the wait for a job will indeed be very short.

All set for a career change?

Are you finished with your present job? Is it time for a career change? If your answer is yes, then somewhere deep within yourself, submission of your resignation would be on the cards. But doing so on impulse is not really advisable.

You ought to be querying yourself so that you are better geared up to boost your prospects to achieve success in your new career. Here are some questions that you should be asking yourself:

·   What is that is prompting me to change? You have realized that your present job is not your cup of tea, but does that mean that you should change to an all-together new career? Actually, you need to evaluate the raison d'être of your discontentment and see if your problems can be overcome without leaving your present job. Will a change of set-up be of help? You may well conclude that your current work does not go with you and that it does not afford you opportunity and time to give wings to your passions. You will have to decide on a suitable line of action. .

·   What is that drives you? You need to be looking inwards to have a detailed insight of what inspires you. Unless you are clear of what serves to motivate you, you will never be able to perform anywhere, leave aside succeeding in your endeavours. Go down your memory lane to where you started from. You may realize that it was not really a bad decision then, but somewhere later, you went astray. You need to ensure that all grey areas related to your new career are transformed into shades of black and white.

·   How can I affect a change? You cannot jump off an aircraft and take your lessons in parachuting during descent. Quite a few people do so and suffer in the bargain. Aspects that warrant consideration are advancing towards the change that you seek, downsides en route, midterm corrections that may be necessary and lessons that you ought to be learning.  

·   What is the appropriate time for a change? Your decision to switch over has to be deliberate and well-evolved otherwise you will lose out on your vim mid-way and stagnate. You need to have a pragmatic image of yourself and your environment; it should not be that your impelling reasons are simply superficial. Related to the issue is also your current financial status to be able to sustain yourself in the eventuality of a period of unemployment that may follow. If you feel that the change can be done later, make a time schedule and take action as per it to attain what you seek to attain.

·   What will be my new career path? People have a tendency to give vent to their disenchantment by changing jobs and careers at the drop of a hat. Subsequently, they realize that they bypassed one problem to land up in a more terrible one. So, if you feel that changing a career is necessary, then you should be focusing yourself on it rather than escaping from your present one. Factors like better remuneration or prospects may be pertinent, however if job dissatisfaction happens to be the sole prompting reason, you will never be able to stay fixed on your goals and objectives. And hence you ought to know what stimulates you.

·   How can I remain focused? The best of Olympians have coaches who advise, supervise and ensure that you stick to a regimen.  Likewise, if you have a mentor, you will continue to be unbending with regard to your resolve. Periodic interaction with him will help you stay focused, besides offering you support and encouragement. Your mentor could well be a member of your family, a friend or even a trusted colleague.

Points highlighted above should not be misinterpreted as sacrosanct measures that will surely help you move towards your objectives. They are guidelines only to help you optimize your prospects and inherent attributes. It is you and you alone who has to take out the first step; and once you do, you will realize that your efforts in arriving at responses to the above questions were truly meaningful.

Why are you jobless?

Have you been unemployed for some time and have failed to get any job offer? Are you dejected and have been cursing yourself and the world for this affliction? Remember that there are thousands of people like you. In fact, unemployment is like a headache - unpleasant and exhausting but sans any explanation of its cause. Just as you need to get up and go to a doctor to become fit, getting a job also requires efforts.

The fact that you are unemployed manifests lack of an outcome commensurate with your efforts. Therefore, it will not be presumptuous to state that any continuation of similar endeavour will not guarantee a positive result. Perhaps you need to be more venturesome and enterprising; indulging in something new is advisable. A bold outlook coupled with a propensity to take risks is what will possibly pay dividends.

There could be a horde of reasons why jobs have been eluding you.  It is likely that you are not exerting yourself adequately or you have great expectations. The major reasons can be determined by asking yourself the following questions; remember your answers will make you recognize your shortcomings and facilitate corrective action:  

·   Do you wait for others to revert to you? You should understand that nobody will ever dole out a job to you. You may have taken pains to draft your resume and applied for several jobs and then have been hoping like hell that you will get a call or email in response. If you have forwarded an application and have not got any response within a reasonable time after the deadline for its submission, you need to get into a chasing mode. You should make periodic enquiries and track each and every prospect and opening; this will reflect your eagerness, zeal and doggedness. It is only when you are informed of a negative decision that you should put it out of your mind. You simply cannot afford to keep passing time in anticipation that a call letter is on its way.

·   Do you feel that the job hunt pertains to only you? Your center of attention should not be restricted to you alone or on your expertise and knowledge, understanding and familiarity. Most people embark upon their job hunt based on this premise and fail in their endeavours. You should alter your mindset and concentrate on the organization that you aspire to join. Their identity, status, requirements and objectives should be of greater interest to you so that you can prepare yourself for the interview and negotiations that follow it.

·   Do you have a mind-set problem? Whatever you think and do manifests your outlook – constructive or off-putting. If you harbour a negative mindset, take it that you may not get the job you have applied for and that the result of your interview will not be favourable. Unemployment invariably leads to certain amount of glumness, but it is important that you take things positively. This can best be done by taking all actions that are necessary and ensuring that you do not get demoralized. Remember that zest and zeal are transmittable; and that they create a stronger impact vis-à-vis negativity in any form.

·   Do you have fixations? A lack of flexibility will adversely affect your job hunt and so will an absence of a bold outlook. Your curriculum vitae should indicate that you keep abreast with various modern-day facets; adding links to social networking sites will help you convey just that. If you feel that you are not well-informed or well-versed with latest applications, undergoing a course to enlarge your knowledge base will stand you in good stead. Besides being conveyed a message indicating your lithe approach, your prospective employer will get to know about your dedication to do well in life.

A person who is willing to work but is unable to find any is perhaps the most heartbreaking vista that kismet’s inequality displays in this world. And nobody can understand joblessness better than a jobless. If you go to bed as a jobless person, the moment you wake up the following day, you should be on a job to find it.