Are You Making Some Of These Job Hunting Bloopers?

It’s extremely difficult for a fresher to find a job in today’s economic scenario. However, candidates can do better in the job market provided they avoid the following blunders.

1. Failure to have a career plan: It’s important that you identify your strengths while in college and start planning your career well in advance.
2. Applying for multiple job categories: Instead of applying for multiple jobs, you should focus on the most prospective job category that best suits you and design your resume accordingly.
3. Relying too much on classifieds: While classifieds do provide quite a lot of information on vacancies, you should also look for other sources like personal contacts to get the best deal.
4. Going for irrelevant job portals: Instead of registering with a large number of irrelevant portals, focus on a few of the well-performing job portals.
5. Not updating your profiles: Remember that recruiters always prefer resumes that are the most up to date, so it’s important that you update them at regular intervals.
6. Not updating the references: References play a crucial role in impressing the employers. You should look for better references as you change the jobs and always inform the references about your job status. This would avoid the confusion when the references are contacted.
7. Failing to prepare for an interview: You should prepare well in advance before you face the recruiter. Preparing for an interview will make a big difference.

Take a note of these seven blunders people usually make while applying for a job and let you not repeat them!

Mobile Recruitment - An Introduction to Next-Gen Recruiting Innovation

Mobile recruiting is the process of connecting recruiters with prospective candidates through mobile phones. With the popularity of mobile phones rising as an “all-in-one gadget,” the scope of mobile recruitment is much higher than expected. No doubt, mobile recruitment is here to stay. Advanced mobile technologies such as 3G will improve the efficiency of these services. Recruiters are now able to communicate with candidates as in real time through mobile phones.

The following are the different options available for mobile recruiters:

Bulk SMS

Recruiters integrate the Bulk SMS feature in their recruitment campaign. Whenever a new opportunity emerges, an SMS is sent to eligible candidates. These features are available in prominent career portals as well where they allow registered employers to send free SMS to candidates. Interested candidates may revert to the SMS in whatever means they prefer. Job portals also give an option to candidates to access job details by sending free SMS using the keywords of their jobs of interest.

Social Networks

Social networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter offer immense opportunities to get connected with people. These social networking platforms are increasingly leveraged by recruiters. Recruiters can update their status online and send the latest recruitment news to interested community members in their mobile phones.

3G Technology

Like in any other field, 3G technology can be leveraged to boost the recruiting experience. Candidates can use their mobile phones to video-chat with employers, upload video resumes or audio clips, and more. The communication become effective as it is done through a handy and always-on mobile device. 

Advantages of Mobile Recruiting

Mobile Recruiting is Faster than Traditional Methods

Mobile phones are the best way to offer instant communication with the target audience. They are faster than traditional communications like emails. While emails also deliver the message instantly, they have limitations in being read instantly. A viewer can see the email only if he/she logs in to the email. On the other hand, a message through a mobile phone reaches just in front of the eyes of the user, so most of them are likely to be read instantly.

Mobile Recruiting is Highly Cost Effective

With several job portals offering free SMS services to candidates and recruiters, mobile recruitment is becoming the cheapest service option for recruiters. They can search candidates and send messages using the available mobile database. They get instant response from the interested candidates, enabling them to make quick decisions on recruitment. With the advancement in mobile technologies, recruiters are even able to do the screening process through mobile chat, video resumes, and text resumes. All of these reduce the cost of recruitment.

Mobile Recruiting is Confidential

Mobile phones enable candidates to communicate with prospective employers even at the presence of their current employers. Messages sent through personal mobiles are not accessible to employers, so it remains confidential throughout. Mobile recruiting is highly beneficial to senior candidates looking for better opportunities while working with an employer. If their mobile phones are connected to Internet, they can instantly send their resumes and other details as and when required without being noticed by their current employer.

Three Ways to Get a Job

Let’s face it, the competition is getting tougher by the day. Just a few years ago we hand a handful of B schools that provided job opportunities for some select students. But today, there are number of B Schools that are guaranteeing job opportunities for many more. Where does this place students who have not had the opportunity to study in a business school? Well, for them their luck and their creativity will guide them through getting the best jobs in the industry.


You may have probably already heard about the phenomenon that we call video resumes. People are widely using these and promoting themselves through platforms like YouTube and Koozba to create an image for themselves. If you are swimming in a sea that is filled with sharks you have to learn how to swim faster or you have to find a way to manoeuvre them so as to come out victorious and unharmed. You can do this by identifying your potential and leveraging it by way of video resumes to make a difference, to create a niche for yourself and stand out amongst a crowd.


If you do want the best jobs that are in the market, you have to first market yourself. You have to make the audience believe that you are the best, that you are different and that you are going to be worth their while. 3 ways in which you can work towards getting a job are as follows:


Promote Yourself: Do not be ashamed of posting videos on YouTube, everybody is doing it. However do not post videos of your dog, cat and baby nephew, you have to use this platform to its full potential. Make a video resume of yourself that highlights your strengths, your weaknesses and your talents. Focus on areas that hold special relevance to the industry you may be interested in. Ask your friends to help you out with making a video resume that you can upload on YouTube. And once it is on YouTube you can successfully add the link to your paper CV to ensure that prospective recruiters can get more than a sneak peak at your attitude.


Post & Get Noticed: Once you have a video resume on Koozba or any other platform, you should get on to promoting the fact that you are there. Use the mediums of social network sites to create awareness about your talents and shamelessly promote the fact that you have talent. Out of sight is indeed out of mind and a video resume will always have a greater impact than a plain vanilla resume, no wonder television commercials are more popular with advertisers than print and radio.


Be Creative: Last but not least, you have to be creative. Make sure the video you post has been rendered in a creative fashion. Do not just sit on a stool and ramble on about your educational background and achievements. Don’t just talk about why you think you are perfect for the job. Perceive your video resume as a short film and make a film about yourself. The process is interesting and will force you to get your creative juices flowing. Prospective employers will give you points for creativity if they like what they see.

Video Resumes Adoption on the Rise

(This article is the third part of a series that analyzes the world’s view on video resumes.)

According to a Wall Street Journal article “Wooing Job Recruiters with Video Resumes” companies are increasingly offering multimedia capabilities that go way beyond the old one-page paper résumé. 

Citing a 2008 survey conducted by staffing firm Robert Half International Inc., the article says video component helps to present a clearer picture of a candidate, especially if it's a role that requires people skills.

In India, video resumes are in the initial stages of adoption. However, considering the rapid adoption of broadband technologies, popularity of video resumes is estimated to shoot up in the coming years.

Several leading companies in India have already adopted video technology to augment their recruitment process. Indian IT major Wipro has implemented an IP video technology from Nortel to filter prospective candidates from the large pool of job applicants.

A company that recruits about 15-20 thousand employees a year, Wipro was faced with the challenge of reducing turnaround time of its recruitment cycle. Being a prominent IT recruiter, Wipro also confronted the issue of fake resumes.

A case study from Biztech2.com done on Wipro’s implementation of video phones for recruitment shows that the company was able to face these challenges effectively using the video recruitment infrastructure.

A video resume is especially beneficial for big companies like Wipro where a big panel of interviewers need to decide on one candidate. A single video clip can save their valuable time attending the recruitment session. A video can be accessed anywhere anytime, and they can discuss the candidature with other members of the panel effortlessly. All these features make video resumes a good option, especially for jobs in BPO or Sales or Media.

Video resume adoption in India is challenged by lack of professionalism. Few years back, a popular job portal in India introduced video resumes in its Web site; however, it did not get the desired popularity because there were no efforts from the company to support the candidates on creating and uploading the video in a professional manner.

The need of the hour is a professional video resume service that can motivate job seekers, especially the fresh candidates, to adopt such innovative ideas to sell their personality to prospective employers. 

The other challenge lies in the difficulty of accessing a video and the bandwidth costs associated with such a service. Most employers feel it’s an additional burden on them as those heavy files waste a lot of time and bandwidth of their business.

Professional video resume services like Koozba.com can offer a cost-effective solution to these dilemmas. The service offered by companies like Koozba.com gives professional guidance to candidates for preparing video resumes and help them get connected to prospective employers through effective networking on their job portal.

As recruiters are able to view the video resumes in Koozba’s portal, they don’t have to download any video on their server. The videos available in these job portals follow the standard video format and are made compact so that they are easily retrieved whenever required. These services charge a nominal fee from the employers – much lower than the cost incurred by getting them on their own business site.

Weighing the Two Sides of Video Resumes

This article is the second part of a series that analyzes the world’s view on video resumes.

Like any other technology that prevails in our society, video resumes too have a flip side. However, by weighing the advantages and disadvantages of video resumes, most recruiters and job seekers feel that their advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

No doubt, video resumes are becoming highly appealing to the community of recruiters and job seekers. It is also spreading to other related areas like college admissions.

The fact is evident from a recent article published at the Web site of college admission consultant “College of Your Dreams.” Author of this article finds that video resumes are increasingly becoming popular in college admission processes.

“In the future, I believe video resumes should become more widespread,” the author said. In our society and economy, innovation has prevailed to be the key to success and an innovative mind cannot always be discovered through a resume, grades or even a written essay. Video gives applicants another medium to express their creativity and their uniqueness.”

It’s this uniqueness that most employers look for in a candidature, and they can easily get it through videos.

Though video resumes have become popular, they are not still mainstream, says Cheryl P., executive job search accelerator and president, Call to Career. Citing an article from Boston Globe, Cheryl says video resumes are especially helpful in fields like television, performing arts, sales, marketing, advertising, graphic or web design where the candidate can present the video portfolio of his/her accomplishments in the respective field.

Tom S, president & CTO at Qorvus Systems, Inc., has a different opinion, however. He thinks using a video to screen candidates may limit the recruiter’s visibility into a larger pool of qualified and potentially valuable candidates. However, he comments, if the video focuses mostly on past accomplishments rather than on applicant appearance and presentation skills, it can bring positive results.

There are people who believe the “looks can be deceiving,” but there are counter arguments that paper resumes too are not convincing to recruiters. People have a tendency to exaggerate facts in their paper resumes.

Those who think video resumes leave room for bias may be right partly. Maitri, a senior lecturer at GSB New Delhi, counters this view saying bias can creep in at any point during the interview process regardless of the form of the resume you used.

Comparing the advantages of video resumes with that of text resumes, Maitri says we should embrace the video technology as it also shows that the candidate is progressive and technologically advanced – a must in today’s competitive scenario.

Majority of employers feel that a video resume can be used as a supplement to text resume, but not a total replacement. Both can work together to improve the selection process and reduce the cost and time associated with recruitments.

Koozba.com, an online job portal, has revolutionized Indian recruitment scenario by introducing video resume services for fresh graduates. In addition to the video resume exchange, Koozba also provides a common platform to candidates and employers to network and identify potential opportunities in the industry.

Follow our next article in the series: “Video Resumes Adoption on the Rise”

 

What The World Says About Video Resumes

Video resumes originated as an informative supplement to a candidate’s text resume. However, today video resumes have become an integral part of candidate screening processes in most of the career fields.

There is no doubt that video resumes can bring significant benefits to a hiring institution or an employer. Worldwide, employers and HR experts have hailed the practice of using video resumes for recruitment purposes.

A survey conducted by HR Magazine as early in 2007 found that majority of companies are “very interested” in viewing the video profile of the candidates. One third of the survey participants also said video resumes would become a valuable tool in assessing the job applicants.

With the growing popularity of video applications on social networking communities like YouTube and Facebook, candidates are not able to resist the temptation of getting an “online persona” in the form of a professional video. The method has its benefits too. As the candidates gain “real visibility” among prospective employees, there are better chances of winning.

According to Desma O, a job placement specialist at Community Action Program, video resumes can work, but they are not effective for everyone. “If you have before and after photos, or can state career facts that are quantifiable and measurable, you have the best chance at success.”

Video resumes, according to experts, can supplement the text resume well. It gives an authentic presentation of the facts narrated in the resume. Video resumes can, to a great extent, present the personal traits of a candidate like communication skills, politeness, confidence and mannerisms.

Abdul R, a writer, thinker and motivational speaker at Bahrain, says video resumes can be an excellent format to showcase job experience as well as your polished communication skills if utilized properly.

“As long as you understand the company’s resume submission policies and ensure that your video is professional and posted in a venue a potential employer may frequent, it'll surely increase your chances,” Abdul says.

As Abdul said, it is important to prepare the video in a professional manner and get it posted on a potential site where it has a chance to get viewed. It’s not easy to get a video resumes lifted through highly crowded applications like YouTube and Facebook. A video resume service can be of great help in this regard.

Video resume services target potential candidates like graduates for whom the first appearance becomes crucial in a job interview. As they are fresh entrants in their dream career, they need to showcase their skills and achievements in an impressive manner. A professional video resume will, in effect, demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate in the field which he/she wants to pursue. This is a great advantage to both recruiters and candidates as it supports the facts mentioned in the text resume.

Koozba.com, a job portal dedicated for fresh graduates, offers video resume services to candidates. As a member of Koozba community, a candidate gets his/her professional video resume created and displayed to hundreds of recruiters from India and abroad.

  

Follow our next article in the series: “Weighing the Two Sides of Video Resumes ”

How Hiring Becomes Easy with Video Resumes

The concept of video resumes is not a new one, however it has become immensely popular nowadays given the number of mediums that are available to host one’s video resume. The first and most important thing you should know though is that your video resume is not a substitute for your physical paper resume. When you go to a prospective employer, they may not expect a video resume but what they will expect is a sheet of paper that highlights your qualifications, achievements, strengths and weaknesses. Your video resume is the icing on the cake.

HR managers all over the country have begun to understand the benefits of a video resume, making choices about the best candidate without going through rounds of interviews has indeed become a cake walk. There are a number of benefits attached to having a vide resume and a few of them are highlighted below:

Details: Your paper resume is a snap shot of your achievements till date. It will give a prospective employer a good idea of where you are coming from and what your goals are going forward. However the space is limited and you cannot afford to go beyond the norm and rattle on for pages if you want to make an impression. This is where the video resume comes in. In a brief and concise fashion you can explain your achievements, highlight experiences and detail your strengths and weaknesses. Reading out your resume on the video is not advisable. Make it interesting, make it creative.

Cut through the clutter: A lot of people have tried to cut through the clutter and make their paper resumes interesting by adding elements of design and various other alterations. However your resume is bound to create twice an impression if you have an impressive paper resume and a video resume to go through it. While going through a stack of resumes, if managers were to come across a CD that carries your video resume they will be intrigued to check out what lies on the disc. Make sure your video resumes are original and are not just you in front of the camera reading out your achievements.

These are the most basic and two most important reasons why you should use a video resume for your next interview. It makes hiring extremely easy because it provides the employers with a good idea of your communication skills, your confidence levels and your ability to sustain the attention of an audience.

Best Paying Jobs in India

India now boasts of some of the world’s best paying employers – thanks to the burgeoning economy and the country’s call against brain drain. India is emerging as the hottest destinations for some of the high paying jobs in management, information technology, accounting, healthcare, and travel & tourism industries. Here is a glimpse of some of the best paying jobs in India for graduates.

Engineering

Engineering graduates are one of the highest paid categories of fresh graduates in India. Industrial engineers, aerospace engineers and biomedical engineers are the top earners in India under this category. There is ever-growing demand for these categories of employees as the country is leaping towards a new era of technological and industrial revolution.

Graduates in Construction and Trade related jobs

Usually these positions are occupied by fresh management graduates, but depending on the availability and talent of the applicant, they are also filled by engineers and other degree holders. These jobs include various types of project handling and management or inspection. This category is likely to bring a faster career growth, especially in areas of infrastructure development and public safety systems development.

Energy Related Jobs

One of the most lucrative opportunities in the 21^st century India lies in the energy sector. The hue and cry for energy efficient technologies and solutions in all sectors across the country brings tremendous opportunities to graduates specialized in areas related to green technology. Great opportunities are in offing for scientists, miners and all types of technicians who are ready to work in highly challenging environments.

IT and Telecommunications

Careers in offing for IT graduates include system analysts, software/networking engineers and support specialists. Telecommunications engineers may find jobs on field or in house, in installation, maintenance, monitoring and business management.

Biotechnology and Bioinformatics

Bio-engineering is surpassing the estimates of career watchers. Important roles under this category include scientists, researchers and technicians who develop advanced medical technologies by combining medicine and innovations in technologies.

Manufacturing

Graduates interested to take up the roles as line managers, project managers or plant managers are likely to get better career opportunities in this sector. However, the demand for manufacturing jobs seems to decline as more industrial processes get automated these days.

Insurance Jobs

Offering a highly lucrative career opportunity for all graduates, the insurance sector emerges as one of the fastest growing employment sector in India. Important roles a graduate can look forward include insurance adjusters, underwriters, and auditors.

Government Jobs

The best paying jobs in government sector can be military and defence jobs. Compared to other high-paying jobs, government jobs such as civil service, military, air force and navy offer huge benefits and growth opportunities.

Business and Finance

Financial services require professionals such as accountants, financial advisors, analysts and loan officers. With huge competition happening in the private sector, this area offers tremendous growth opportunities for prospective candidates.

Warehouse and Logistics

Last but not the least, warehouse and logistics is in great demand today, as there is tremendous growth seen across various production facilities. Graduates from any discipline can find well-paying jobs as store manager, logistics manager, and supervisor.

One can find most of  these jobs in Koozba.com - India's first online Video Resume portal for fresh graduates. Log on and get going!

Do you really have it in you?

To know whether you are suitable for a job or you can come up to the expectations of your employers, it is necessary that you have a close examination of your skills.

First of all you have to list your work related experience and specific skills in the areas of communication, problem solving, critical thinking, professionalism and work ethic. Then, you have to note down your attitudes, goals and ambitions regarding your career.

A major concern among today’s employers is that fresh candidates are “not prepared” for their jobs. According to them, candidates are not able to articulate what they have and what they want. Experts say that if you are able to identify your specific skills and talents that you have acquired through internships and experiences in your workplace, which are required for your career, you are most likely to succeed in interviews and successive jobs.

It is necessary for candidates to understand what the employers expect from a new entry-level employee. Before facing an interview board, you should gain awareness about different workplace scenarios and the type of work that best suits you. Without the proper understanding of all these you would become a liability for the employer.

It’s time you start a self analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses in you. Such a self revelation will help you identify a career that is desirable to an employer and a work that satisfies your inner self.

Employers feel that the young generation does not live up to their workplace expectations. As a new entrant, you are likely to face several challenges in the workplace. You must be prepared to face these challenges with a positive mind and accept them as the stepping stones in your career.

The changing demographics trends bring unprecedented challenges to both employer and employee. While employees continue to raise their expectations on career benefits, employers expect high levels of quality and competitiveness in their recruits. This situation creates tremendous pressure at the work place.

To become employer desirable, you must recognize the talents in you. If you are ready to accept the workplace as a learning platform, you will be able to deliver the best in you.

Placement Trends on Campuses In India

Recent industry reports suggest that India is back on the track in terms of employee hiring and campus placements. A recent study undertaken by ASSOCHAM Research Bureau finds that campus placement trends are positive as compared to last year.

D.S. Rawat, secretary general, ASSOCHAM, says, “The job creation is happening at all levels including senior, middle & junior management and executives. Even in the engineering and management colleges the campus placement trends are positive as compared to the last year trends.”

Rigorous recruitments are on across campuses in India. Demand is high in all major industry areas including IT/ IT enabled services (ITES), manufacturing, textile, real estate, agriculture, infrastructure, aviation, and academics. However areas like Telecom, FMCG, Banking, and Logistics sectors shows slight decline in job creation.

Academics recorded the largest share of vacancies posted in metro cities in India. There is huge demand for teachers and professors in schools and universities. Professors in engineering and management are in huge demand in private institutes.

In terms of job creation IT sector outnumbered all others. Despite there is dip in EBIDTA margins companies are keen to recruit at all levels, indicating that economy is stabilizing in India. The majority of campus recruitments at four metro cities in India were in IT/ITES followed by IT/Hardware sector. A majority share of this comes from campus recruitments.

Every year India adds 10 million new jobs in different verticals. The sheer size of the recruitment industry means that organizations have to allot huge resources for recruiting, training, quality assessment and retaining of their employees. Despite these investments, in-house recruitment may not bring the desired results due to lack of right mapping of the candidates.

Campus recruitments have been the intelligent choice for all types of companies – SMEs and large enterprises – looking for talented candidates. This process not only reduces recruitment costs but also helps the companies identify the right candidate suitable for their placement needs.

Technology is playing a significant role in reducing the costs associated with campus recruitments. With the advent of social media and latest communications technologies, recruiters are able to pick the right candidates cost effectively, right from their desktop or laptop.

The latest buzz in campus recruitments is video resumes. Several leading manpower solution providers are offering video recruitment services to prospective employers to enhance campus recruitments. Koozba, the first and only video based job portal for fresh candidates, is one such organization, making placements a lot easier, both, for the students as well as the employers. They visit campuses and prepare the video resumes of each candidate. The video presentation is an important tool to evaluate the abilities of the candidates. Employers can take quick decisions on the selection and invite the candidates for final meetings, if required.

Campus placements are boon to candidates. More than ever, manpower is in huge demand, and talented candidates are at the center of recruitment sphere. If industry estimates are to be trusted, this trend will continue in the coming months, offering great hope for fresh graduates in the country.

“Companies are back in campus with a cautiously optimistic approach and the same pattern of growth is expected to continue for another next 6 months,” says Rawat of ASSOCHAM.

How Much Do References Matter In An Interview?

Job interviews are not focused on performance alone. They are also meant to gain additional information about the candidate’s personal and professional life. There are different ways the interviewers extract this information from the candidate. References are one of the most important tools that provide recruiters with the best review of the candidate.

References play an important role in a candidate’s resume. They provide valid information about the candidate’s work related qualities such as honesty, integrity, maturity, inventiveness, interpersonal skills and leadership qualities. A positive recommendation by your references, together with your performance in the interview, would help you earn the dream job without hurdles.

A reference is a powerful marketing tool that demonstrates the candidate’s professionalism and commitment to success. It adds a professional, organized and serious persona to your candidature. A resume with references gives you a chance to present yourself in the best possible manner. A well-spoken reference from a third person substantiates the claims you made in your resume.

Considering the importance of references in a resume, you should try to get the best references from the most relevant and powerful people in your educational institutes or the organizations you worked in the past.

Tip: To get good reference, you should maintain healthy relations with your colleagues, boss and everyone around you.  

Fresh Graduates and the 2010 Job Market in India

The year 2010 started on a strong positive note, indicating fresh investments, more growth and accelerated recruitment process among Indian companies. Indian job market showed strong signals of recovery, especially after the government announced the stimulus grant to industries in India. Following the government’s stimulus measures, as many as 500,000 jobs were generated in India in the beginning of the year, finds International Labor Organization (ILO). Surprisingly, a good share of these job opportunities target young and fresh graduates in India.

A quarterly survey conducted by international recruitment firm Antal on hiring and firing trends around the world has found that India has emerged as the largest recruiter in the world since September 2009. The Global Snapshot from Antal says 71 percent of Indian firms participated in the survey said they were currently hiring compared to around half in September.

Where are the Opportunities?

While Information Technology and related services (ITES) continue to offer new opportunities for fresh graduates, sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and communications also emerge as prospective markets for job seekers.

Easing credit conditions in the global market have indicated that investments are on their way to major companies in these sectors. Many companies view this as the best time to reinvest in projects that were either cancelled or put on hold due to recession. New investments would mean more growth, followed by new job opportunities – in entry-level, middle-level and leadership roles.

Entry-level jobs in front-line, sales and customer-facing roles outnumber other roles, according to market research agencies. There’s a huge demand for customer service agents in healthcare, hospitality, and telecommunications, not leaving behind the ever-growing demand in the BPO sector – both domestic and international.

N.S. Rajan of Ernst & Young (E&Y) India says, “While hiring will continue mostly to meet the replacement demand created as a result of the erstwhile hiring freeze, there are likely to be mixed trends in the level of hiring activity across sectors.”

Earlier this year, Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Assocham) announced that Indian economy would create 87.37 million new jobs by 2015- an estimated 15 million annual increase. This number, though looks overstated, includes jobs in the unorganized sectors as well. A more accurate estimate provided by leading industry researchers say India is likely to create approximately one million jobs in the year 2010-11.

Research from leading industry analysts finds that BFSI sector will bring approx 46,000 new jobs in India. Education, Training and Consultancy -all together are likely to create 83,000 new jobs while Energy Generation and Supply will create 15,000 new jobs. Healthcare will generate approximately 295,000 jobs while Hospitality & Travel will create 137,000 jobs. IT/ITES sector will produce about 97,000 jobs and Real Estate & Construction will bring about 136,000 new opportunities. Related researchers have also proven that Indian job market has been probably the fastest among the world market in terms of recovery. This scenario has boost the confidence level of employers.

Get ready! More jobs are on the way!

Start Networking Before You Graduate

In today’s highly competitive scenario, academics alone do not ensure good career opportunities for a candidate. To find the best opportunity, one must adopt a professional approach that works well in today’s job market. Professional networking is the best and the most effective means available today to achieve this.  

Professional networking is all about building and maintaining prospective relations in one’s field of interest. According to HR experts, networking should start right when a person enters the graduate level. It’s when the candidate decides the line of his/her future career.

Here are a few steps that can be adopted by students to build their social and career networks.

·  Build As Many Friends As You Can in Your Class
You and your classmates have several things in common, the most important of them being that all of you share a common career goal. While involving in your regular projects or other class activities, try to build good rapport with your classmates. This acquaintance will be mutually beneficial when you start looking for jobs. Friends are the best source for information on job listing. Good friends also support you in preparing for the interviews and tests.

·  Get Blessings and Connections from Professors
Getting a blessing from a Guru (teacher) is especially important in today’s competitive world. Try to be more close to your professors so that they would develop interest in helping you find a suitable career. Professors are the best source of information on a variety of career choices available today. They are also the best career guides for you because they have analyzed, evaluated and understood your strengths and weaknesses.

·  Join Internship Programs
Internship programs are the best way to get a first-hand experience on the job you dream of. These programs boost your confidence level and prepare you to face any challenges you may confront when you start your job hunt. Through internships, you also build good connections. Most universities offer internship programs, and many interns are appointed in leading firms immediately after they complete their internships. 

·  Be a Member of Professional Organizations
Today’s jobs demand a lot more than academics. The society recognizes the one who stands out in the crowd. For this, you need to be a little extrovert, communicative, optimistic and confident. By joining a number of professional organizations or an extra-curricular club in the campus, you can let others know what capabilities you have beyond academics. By joining professional organizations especially, you get an opportunity to connect with the industry leaders and expose your talents to them.

·  Attend Job Fairs and Networking Events
Job Fairs are essentially the easiest way to reach out to recruiters. Don’t miss any opportunity that comes to your campus or anywhere else in the form of a job fair or a professional networking event.

·  Join Professional Networking Sites
There are a number of job portals that also offer professional networking services. They help you to get connected with prospective employers and submit your candidature to them directly without any third-party intervention. This interaction is highly effective as it gives recruiters an opportunity to learn more about the candidate before the final selection is made. Koozba.com, India’s 1^stvideo resume job portal for fresh graduates, offers an excellent career network to young graduates and undergraduates to connect with prospective recruiters and get the best share of the jobs available in the market. 

Video Resumes: Does it make a difference?

Understanding a candidate is crucial in a recruitment process. People come from different geographical, cultural, psychological and educational backgrounds. Even the most sophisticated aptitude tests and psychological analysis may not bring out the person in his/her entirety. However, a video that demonstrates the communications ability, behavioral patterns and etiquettes can, to a great extent, help recruiters solve their dilemma regarding the soft skills of the applicants.

Video resumes are the cost-effective and convenient way of analyzing the candidates’ skills and persona. An employer can access the video resume anytime on his/her computer and analyze the candidate thoroughly. If required, they can show the video to career counselors and psychologists to get a second opinion about the candidate.

A personal interview, though a two-way interaction, is bound by limitations of time, space and individuality. In a personal interview, the members of the board decide the fate of the candidate on the spot, immediately after he/she leaves the room. If any difference in opinion arises among the members, there is hardly a way to re-evaluate the candidate or verify his/her caliber. In this regard, video resumes prove to be the most effective as

it gives the interviewers a chance to discuss the candidates in detail and playback their resumes again to clear the doubts.

A video resume is a powerful tool that can reveal a broad range of personal skills including leadership qualities, presentation skills, communications skills and mannerism. In certain cases, it can also be used to assess candidates’ creative abilities like acting, singing or dancing.

Video portfolios are also gaining popularity among professionals from different backgrounds. Candidates from management, legal, healthcare, travel & tourism, or education fields can make the best use of the video to present their skills directly on to the recruiter without any barrier. The short, crisp video of 2-3 minutes is sufficient to

contain the entire caliber of the candidate.

Video resume is also being used in the most conventional IT jobs available today. For IT professionals, video resume is the best tool to showcase not only their soft skills but also their technical skills like graphic design, animation or a specific programming skill. The impressive video clip is self explanatory, and it gives IT recruiters a clear picture of “what really the candidate is.”

No doubt, video resumes are transforming the recruitment scenario all over the world. To make the best use of this technology, one should first analyze the requirement of the industry and present the video in a tailor-made format. Professional video resume services can be of great help in this regard. Depending on the field of interest, the

candidate can create the videos to include the relevant attributes of their personality, professional experience, extra curricular activities, etc. An important highlight of the video resume is the visual impact it creates on the viewer. Flooded with the responses from prospective candidates, recruiters go through the paper resumes one by one, not showing interest in any particular one because they all look almost the same for them. If a video resume props up in front of them, it’s sure to hook their attention because it gives them what they want – a complete overview of the candidate.

It’s not just the novelty of video resume that creates the buzz about them in the job market, but it’s their usefulness as a cost-effective and powerful assessment tool that makes them popular today. When technology is helping us move forward, why should we still stick to old methodologies?