The 4th Dimension

I was thinking the topic for my next post. Going through the usual forum posts at Zumbeel regarding job hunts I could not stop my self from smiling. After all I had found out something to write upon.

Sitting in this MSc of my company after exhaustive 14 hour activity my mind is going down memory lane. Just some months ago I was also going through the same uncertainty, extreme sense of despair and those canny moments of depression, ultimately leading to a negative mindset all together. Life could not have been much bad. It was 3 months since I have graduated and to land a job seems like reaching the moon. Scanning newspaper, dropping resumes on the website and going office to office to drop the CV simply looked waste of time, energy and resource. I used to wonder what will happen? Will I ever get a job? Is telecom really that saturated? And god knows what type of ifs, buts and coulds.

Then from absolutely nowhere sanity struck my mind. I took this situation as a challenge knowing the universal fact that the stars shine when it gets the darkest I started the hunt with a new resolve knowing not to never ever give up because the only person that can stop me is I alone and no one else. I prioritized things and tried to figure out that what I really wanted to achieve.

I was lucky to have found a mentor (name not mentioned on request) who really helped me focus and tried to help me find a direction. A lot of my career achievements I attribute to him, for the way he helped me in some of my craziest and ajeeb o ghareeb time.

Till to this date I wonder how luck usually plays around. From 5^th semester onwards I was fascinated by Mobilink and I always dreamt of starting my career with such a company. After completing my bachelors my very first interview was at one of the leading ISP (internet service provider) for their LDI operations. The team lead there took my first interview, followed by the manager. I cleared both the interviews and was offered a job. On 28^th December I was called for contract signing but due to the events that unfolded on 27^th December, the Malaysian management of that company went back to KL, thus my hiring was delayed indefinitely. I couldn’t believe it nor could I could have done anything in this regard.

It was second week of January when out of nowhere I got a call from the person who took my first interview at that ISP. He told me that he has switched to Mobilink WiMAX department (now known as Mobilink Infinity) and he wants me to be a part of his operations team here. I was literally shell shocked. Even in my wildest dreams I hadn’t imagined of such things to happen. So happily i gave the joining.

Bottom line is “you must knock on doors until your knuckles bleed.
Doors will slam in your face. You must pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and knock again. It’s the only way to achieve your goals in life.” (by anonymous).

Just weeks down the road a lot of fresh graduates will pass out with dreams and a lot of anticipation. Some will be lucky and will instantly get on board while others will have to go through a lot of tough time to land a job. Many guys will hear a lot about people getting hired on reference. I have already touched upon the types of references in my last post. Like any other thing reference is neither good nor bad, it the way it is used that lead people giving a judgment.

I would like to end by sharing the following:

“My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out. There are going to be times in your life when you’re going to have to stick your neck out. There will be challenges and instead of hiding in a shell, you have to go out and meet them” (by anonymous).

Until next time,

Haris

After entering the professional life I have realized how important role a good professional network can play in your career. Be it professional guidance, getting updates on industry trends or just about anything related to your career your network can do wonders for you.

Numerous discussions have been carried out on Zumbeel regarding the role of references in job hunts. It was unanimously accepted that people with good references usually find it easy to move around in the industry.

Here is a reality check:

Eighty percent of the jobs worldwide are filled through referrals and word of mouth (read networking).

So whether you like it or not your network is as important as your career itself. Generally people tend to have negative vibes as soon as they hear that ABC person has been hired on reference.

References are mainly of two types.

1) A genuinely deserving candidate is referred by someone for a recommendation; this type of reference is usually taken as positive, because the credibility of the referral as well as of reference is on the line. Rest assured that no one likes to loose credibility for some unjust recommendations.

2) A highly undeserving candidate not only lands an interview but also ends up grabbing the job because his chacha, mama, uncle etc are in a good position and tare able to influence the hiring.

The problem starts when usually references of the second type corrode the real importance of networking. It’s been my personal experience that people sincerely looking to network are suspected as job seekers and not someone genuinely interested in expanding his/her network base.

Many juniors ask me as to what they should do when they enter their university final year. My answer is that your end term goal should be that you have around 6-10 people who can recommend your achievements to someone. Sometimes I wish I had known this reality a bit early but it’s never too late.

Here are some ways to network: (courtesy http://www.zumbeel.net/career/networking.php)

Make a list of all the people you know e.g. your school friends, your college friends, your university friends, your relatives, your exiting colleagues, your former colleagues, your neighbours, doctors, lawyers etc. Now contact these people and ask them weather they know anybody in the relevant industry and if they do would they able to help you out in contacting them.

Once you have the contact details then arrange a meeting. Please make sure your deal with this meeting professionally.

Remember that when requesting for networking, job requests should be right at the bottom of your agenda. If you are only interested in getting a job then probably you don’t realize the potential your network can do.

We live in world of people and in order to do anything in the world you need to know people.

Just to sum it off.

It’s not what you know but who you know that makes the difference.

So get up and start knowing people around you.

Happy networking………

Until next time,

Haris