How to land in a dream Job.

 

 I am a great believer in "Project-based learning". 

Or what is popularly known as 70:20:10 learning.

Also labeled as "ALP - Action learning projects" or "Hands-on" Learning. 

The majority of learning comes from "Doing" or by "Dirtying one's hand". 

Here is an illustration. 

I was talking to an MBA 2nd year student. Almost all of her classmates are struggling to find a suitable job and blaming the whole environment for their struggles. But she landed a suitable job. The icing on the cake is - this is the kind of profile she was eager to join!

With curiosity, I probed - what she did in the last year!

1. Took up a course in Social Media Marketing at a not-so-well-known institute. 

2. Took up a google course in digital marketing.

3. Completed five internships. One full-time and the other "on-demand" shorter in the off period.

All in the area of social media/digital marketing. First, two bullet points are added to a knowledge bucket, while 3rd a skill bucket. (Three buckets are KSA -Knowledge, skills, attitude - backbone of competency) 

No wonder, her passion, and experience paid off.

It would have certainly made her shine in the fresher's resumes & interviews. 

I think a couple of things can ensure, that she can go places, and her career is on a fast track.

1) She shall consider the next couple of years as an "OJT" - on-the-job training and keep a learning attitude.

2) Read regularly, which can be as little as 15 to 20 minutes (1% of the day) daily on digital marketing. Even this little time will be equivalent to 5 to 6 books in a year. It's a power of habit and compound effect. 

3) Find a mentor in social media marketing and digital marketing. 20% of the 70:20:10 formula comes from a good mentor. 

This particular strategy is excellent for getting any job or even in career change efforts too. 

(Sometime back I wrote an answer on Quora for this and got sizeable views in HR community. Here is a brief...)

1. Every job has 3 to 5 core competencies. Identify the key competencies required for your target job. Any HR professional or faculty shall be able to help you with this. Informational interviews will also help. 

2. You can work systematically to develop these competencies. Take the help of mentors/teachers and design ALP - Action learning projects for "hands-on" practice of those competencies. 70% part of the work!

3. Find a mentor for that particular competency or project. Get his mentoring. 20% part of the work! 

4. Read books, and take classes for theory. Participate in discussion forums etc. This is a 10% part of the work!

5. Repeat the cycle for the next competency. 

Though there is no hard-n-fast rule or laws/theories there, you will be able to grasp one competency in 4 to 6 months of period (Mastering will take longer). Thus 3 competencies over a year-n-half or two. 

A period that overlaps your MBA journey. And you will have decent preparation for an intern or fresher interview. 

The presence of projects and keywords will make your resume sail through search strings and short-listing. 

Action learning will make you super-confident in the selection process, which mostly consists of interviews. 

Certain way to a dream job !

(I have worked with a few students and professionals and will be more than happy to help!)

[Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Job-1.jpg]

First steps in Consulting!

We few friends have decided to study Consulting. 

Though we all have gone through research training, and possess skills required for consulting. 

That training was more from an academic research perspective. 

Now we wish to revisit these concepts in consulting context. 

After speaking to colleagues in consulting, doing some basic googling, and looking at course outlines of a few courses, We have gathered some resources. This blog post is outcome of that. 

One of the first things one can do while studying a new topic/subject is to join a course available on the topic. 

We found one available on Coursera offered by faculty who worked as a consultant. It's a specialization (series of few courses).

Coursera Course on Consulting 

Seth Godin's course on freelancing for consultants is available on Udemy. 

Seth Godin on Udemy 

Specifically on presentations skills for consultants

Presentation Skills for Consultants 

Some books are available on the subject (collected from various course outlines). . 

The basic principles of effective consulting. 

The Advice Business 

Peter Block's following book is suggested by many. 

Flawless Consulting Book carries a field book or workbook too. 

FieldBook on Flawless consulting 

On structuring one's thought process - particularly for reports and presentations, Barbara Minto's book is highly recommended 

The Pyramid Principle 

A few more books are also suggested on consulting. 

And on top of it - a host of HBR cases and articles are available on the subject. 

Material is collected. Now time to read and study it. 

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Importance of re-writing speeches

Speech re-writing is very important condition for successful speech.

Toastmasters Competent communicator manual also emphasizes the drafting of the speech.


Andrew Dlugun ,a famous toast-master also emphasized this point in his multiple blog posts on speech writing.

Inspiring and motivating speaker , A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who won the hearts of millions of Indians by his visionary speeches had following comments in his recent publication Turning Points.  This also underlines the importance of draft versions of one's final speech. (Emphasis added)

... Preparation for the speech normally began well in advance. We would generate a theme, then would seek information from multiple departments and also try and get the international picture on the subject.  We would send a questionnaire to experts. Then we would collate the information. The speech would go into numerous drafts. It was not unusual for there to be ten or more drafts. The R-Day speech in 2004 ,for instance, had its theme on smiles on billion faces and went through ten drafts. The focus was on values. On 14th August 2005, the theme was energy independence. The speech went through fifteen drafts. One of the highest number of drafts was, of course, for my speech to the European Parliament on 25 April 2007. This went through thirty-one drafts.

No wonder that Kalam's speeches enjoys not only popularity but also coveted place in the heart of Indians. This really makes one to think on the efforts that we are investing in our own speeches.

Reference:
 1) Image : Wikimedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AbdulKalam.JPG
 2) Quotes : Turning Points, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam , 2012, Harper Collins, page 45, 

"7 Habits" : A Management Guru Stephen Covey - passed away.

Stephen Covey , The author of the best seller "7 Habits of highly effective people" passed away.

I hooked to  this book ,when I just passed out of engineering college. Since then I kept visiting this book , as well as the workbook and his website often. In my opinion if one is allowed to pick up only one self-help book , one should pick up "7 Habits" . No wonder it is best seller for many years and the author is regarded as a management guru for well known established firms.  Though he had other books to his credit, 7 habits is the best of them all.

7 Habits is wonderful book. The habits rests one on another, they are interlinked. The book has whole ecosystem of workbook, website, audiobooks and training courses based on it. So for every taste of learning style , there is serving resource.  So get "7 Habits" on your priority list this year for further development.


And ,may his soul rest in peace.



Ref: Image Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stephen_Covey_2010.jpg

Personal Branding : Some useful resources

Personal branding is when you take charge of your career.   It gels well with protean careers or boundary less careers. You want to take charge of your career.  Your commitment to career progress takes primacy than your commitment to the Organization.  Personal branding helps in standing out of the crowed. It helps individuals in showing how will he contribute value to the job in hand than his peers.  There are varieties of resources available on Personal branding and it is worth considering as option to advance one’s career. 

Web Resource:

•   TomPeters pioneer Article on Personal Branding 

• StevePavalina 's article on personal branding , he also maintains a interesting blog.
•  Bret Simmons – Archive for Personal Branding :
•  Dan Schawbel : StudentFocused blog, author also maintains a blog for general advice on    Personalbranding. 

• WilliamAruda’s Site

Books: 

•  Quick advice on Personal branding : Free online PDF to download : Visit .
•  Tom Peters : The Brand You   [ Amazon Link ]
• Keith Ferrazzi : Never Eat Alone [ Amazon Link ]
•  Dan Schawbel : Me 2.0 , Build a Powerful brand to achieve a career  Success [ Amazon Link :  ]
•  William Aruda : Career Distinction : Stand out by Building your brand  [ Amazon Link ]

        Image Resource:  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Main_careers.jpg 

How to sale yourself ?

The following speech I made for my toastmasters project-7.  Project was targeted at research skills and using the relevant data to drive , convince audience about your point of view.

Objectives of Project as mentioned in the toastmasters manual are :

• Collect information about your topic from numerous sources.
• Carefully support your points and opinions with specific facts, examples, and illustrations gathered through research. 

As I was working on use of Social media for personal branding for newcomers at my b-school. I decided to use the same subject for the research. And here is my speech.

Toast Masters good evening. 

So let’s talk how to sale  oneself in the market. 

Confused? Oh sorry, I am not talking about Slavery of 18-th century, but about the Job-market.  

This talk is about Personal branding.  Personal branding is all about standing out in the crowded, tough and difficult job market. It’s all about placing yourself in the better bargaining position. 

We know corporate brands like Apple, and we have product brands like i-phone, similarly there are personal brands. For example look at Amir Khan. (Talk on grape vine says he received  3 Cr/episode of Satyamev Jayate). See how carefully he had nurtured his persona, image and how he is cashing on it – in the job market of celebrities.  What you see there is Personal branding at work. 

But it’s not only celebrities; anyone can use personal branding.   Today’s talk is about two aspects of the personal branding.  One is why you need it and second how to use social media in promoting yourself. 

Even in the booming Indian growth story, Job market is really tough. Given our 1 Billion plus population, it is going to be that way always. One rough estimate says that for every job posted, sometime there will be as high as 45 applicants.  Naukari dot com, India’s most popular job site and 5^th most popular website has as high as 25 million users  (May be active/inactive) and another data points they have around 9 Million active users  and everyday 14,000 resumes are uploaded on Naukari.  Irrespective of the real figures, facts remains that Job Market is really crowded. 

You may think this is true for fresher’, but things are more difficult at top.  We have this typical pyramid structure in organizations. So as you go higher, number of job openings will reduce, further there will be more/tougher scrutiny of your profile.  One blog posting mentioned some top-notched firms’ rejects as high as 94% applications.  I know a friend of mine, a unit head – had taken a break and now searching for a job for almost one and half year. And he is no-where even near the selection process. 

Surely the picture is very challenging – as it is really difficult to even cross screening and reach the interview stage.But don’t be afraid, one way to increase your chances passing the screening process is Personal branding and using Social media. It’s all about self-image and self-promotion. 

For example FB – Face book has almost close to 47 Million users in India, 4% of total India’s population but 35% of total online population is on FB.  Another site Linked in has 13 Millions of Indians on line. It is 2^nd largest online popular site in India.  FB has more concentration of youngsters (18 to 24 group), but its sheer size compels your potential employer to look at your profile on FB.  That is not the case with Linked in – which is purely professional hang-out place.  Employers not only check your educational and workplace background. But use it judge your network, asses your references and understand feedback on you. 

So how do you really use them? 

First and most important thing is – use your good quality, professional head-shot as a profile picture. Not some funky avatar.  Research shows that visitors are more likely to dig at your profile if it has a photograph.  A step closer to your dream job. And if you want to leverage brand - use same photo on your FB, twitter, Google profile.  More face time is likely to lead them to hear you.  And get a call for Interview.

Leverage your strengths, by contributing to the groups, discussions. Follow the thinkers, leaders in your area of expertise. Join the professional groups/clubs.

If you are eying for a top job, you surely need expertise in the functional area and in your Industry. 

 The best way to showcase your expertise, your work, achievements and contributions in the area is to use Blog.  Well developed blog will have a good and importantly relevant readership. For instance you can show-case your communication skills by posting your Toastmaster achievements; you can keep writing about your strengths in presentation skills, you can keep writing, critic great presentations and public speeches of TED on your blog. And People will start recognizing you as a sincere follower in your area of expertise. They will follow you on twitter, connect with you on linked in and will be your friends on FB. This doesn’t happen over night.  It is the whole ecosystem that matters.  You need to keep working at it slowly, diligently.  Amir Khan hasn’t developed his brand in a day – nor can you do it.  

 So start at it early and Toastmasters you will reap the benefits of personal branding in the job Market.

Image Source :  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sale_Tags.jpg 

Disclaimer: The data or figures I have used in this speech is just figurative, though I have used online , web-based resources for collecting the figures, I have not verified the figures or claims. I simply used them to support the relevant parts of my speech.

Changing the sleeping Blog ..

Currently this blog has infrequent updates, And this is about to change.

Basically this blog is a reflective personal journal started as a learning tool. One can see that early topics were scattered all around. Because when I started blogging , I was "exploring" different areas. As time passed , I could narrow down this search to Organization Behavior (OB). Though the blog is titled hr-universe, it is about OB. In practice HR and OB don't have water tight compartments, but still they differ. (Surely in the academic world !).

HR has excellent presence on blogosphere ,but not so for OB. So aim is to connect with these few like minded bloggers. This is also attempt to understand puzzling behaviors at and outside the workplace, There are so many ways to look at behavior that stretches limit of our potential and limits our potential too. It's interesting.

Lastly as I am switching over to academic world from corporate , I guess both will be visible in these learning steps.

Stay tuned !

(Image source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/spursfan_ace/2328879637/ )

Toastmaster Speech 1 : The Ice Breaker

Thus my journey of developing speaking skills started . Though I used to participate in speech contests in school , I have never done it over long period . I wish to conquer speaking fear as well as acquire public speaking skills , which will help me in all walks of life.

Toastmasters prepared speech first project is "The ice breaker". Objectives of first project are

• Simply begin speaking in front of audience.
  
• Find out weakness in public speaking so as to improve them.
• Introduce yourself to Fellow club members.

I used "Six minutes" blog liberally to prepare for this .Though it has large number of example speech in text and video ,I found the section on "Speech preparation" most useful.

Fitting your story in maximum 6 minutes is pretty difficult task, mine is still going little above 6 minutes and I wonder ,how and where do I curtail it .But now I wish keep this as it is and let fellow toastmasters comment on it.

I centered my speech on how and why academic is my best career option Here goes my speech -

Lost in India ,Found in Japan.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters.

Introducing “yourself” looks very easy and simple , but now I realized that it is one of the most difficult thing to do. But for Toastmasters I gathered my courage ,did some soul searching and standing in front of you with my little story.

I born and brought up in typical lower middle class Indian family. My father was clerk in Government service, mother house-wife and I have a younger sister. We two ,ours two , short and sweet family. Life was not very harsh ,but it was neither comfortable and luxurious. My mother always hammered ,if you want to grow and come out of all hardships ,study hard. You eat ,drink and play ,yes play also that helps in study. Just be a better student.

As a student once I played the role of Teacher on “Teachers day” .We taught in other classes for one full day. That left a lasting impression on my body ,mind and soul. I used to teach my sister too ,who was junior to me by 6 years. It was more than helping in studies. I used to coach, teach and scold her too. Everyone enjoys bossing around brothers/sisters ,isn’t it ? .But it worked. word spread among her friends and I became a kind of “Community teacher” very early in my life. This continued till Junior college. And it helped me too. Helping others to learn , helped me to learn. I became a better at studies and got good grades.

Eventually I got admission to Engineering college. This was my regions most prestigious engineering college. I started working in IT and was posted to Chennai - a South Indian city.

Here too I used to counsel and help my juniors to become a better at work.Again helping others to grow ,helped me to grow. It fine tuned my skills And I became better at my work, got better opportunities. It helped me to land in the land of rising sun ,Japan. Starting from one part of India to Southern India to Japan , the career graph was up-rising ,rewarding .

But still “something” was missing .I had feeling that my potentials are not used fully.

To search this “Something” and expand my wings , I participated in JMEC - Japan Market Entry competition in 2006, (Again one of the inside secret - In the super-expensive Tokyo that was the only affordable learning option.) .I learn lot about market survey, financial and writing business plan. Further I enrolled for MBA and completed it. But that “Something” was still missing.

So I returned to JMEC director ,talked to her and volunteered, to mentor JMEC team. We competed with other 12 multinational high profile teams. As a Mentor ,I worked beyond expectations.I searched for ways to to help team learn better, faster .and yes again It worked !. We were winners in 2009.

I started reflecting , did you ? Have you got the pattern. Whether studying , working or volunteering , or in my home-state , another state or another country too. So in different time, space and roles I was best when I was counseling , coaching & mentoring too.,Essentially I was teaching in one of the three ways.

Yes that's it- teaching ,that's where my heart is. In India I lost my teaching heart to IT and found it in Japan. So I decided to switch my career to teaching , teaching in business school ,where I will be able to counsel, coach and mentor to aspiring minds. I am very very very happy and satisfied about my decision as it will help me to grow with growing minds.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - always inspiring

Jonathan Livingstone seagull - by Richard bach which echoes typical vedantic views ( I think ) about continuous learning and development so as to work towards excellence. And gives the message that perfection is not only life-long but passion beyond life.

Achieving your childhood Dream

This is one of the phenomenal and really inspiring lecture by Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch. Everyone who wish to achieve his/her dream must watch this .

Happiness at Work

Ravindra Prasad has written an article on employee happiness on rediff.
In my opinion "Plan your week on Sunday night or Monday morning" is the most important in this list. It is surely more than mundane "to do list".

Those who are aware of Coveys most popular work "7 habits of highly effective people", will recognize that weekly planning is much more than effective time management.

Week is the basic planning block for realizing your long term goals which stems from personal mission statement. A motivating mission statement ,is the one which runs as a central thread in all decision making and planning. Preparing smart goals that reflect mission statement is the first step in good and effective time management. Now breaking down these goals in small chunks of weekly target is just a matter of working with details.

Personal mission statement and weekly planning complements each-other and sure way to lead purpose driven and satisfying life. This is applicable to personal as well as work-life.
No doubt that "7 Habits" has become a one of the most important work of our lives.

In my humble opinion introducing 7 habits at work-place in teams and with individuals is one concrete step towards happy employees.