The 4th Dimension

It has been a quite a tough few months considering the overall situation of the world. We being ‘global engineers’ have also been hit with the global recession. It’s not pleasant hearing about your friend or senior being a victim of the economic meltdown across the globe. However it’s in such times that we need to regroup ourselves and focus on new alternatives.

Among many alternatives available, one of them is to focus on the online world in parallel with the offline counterpart. With each passing day job search is getting tough. Gone are the days when we all use to find the Sunday papers loaded with career opportunities. Opportunities are still there but they are very scarce. They might not be advertised in the newspaper but they still appear on the World Wide Web. As you cover all the offline formalities for job hunts (scanning newspaper, dropping CVs etc.) are you keeping track of the online formalities as well?

We have to keep in mind that we live in changing times. Conventional notions are being replaced with dot net values with our career being no exception. The advent of technology has brought in many changes. In this fastest of times it is very important that you are ready to make spot on decisions. Many recruiters and hiring agents nowadays keep track of potential employees through the web space.

Your online profile on notable websites can act as a catalyst for your job search. There might not be many local success stories of the online world but you might be the next in line? Your online profile is more or less like your CV/Resume. As a CV reflects your personality in the offline world, your profile does the same in the web space.

Do spare some time and give your online profile a trim. Try to make it a bit professional. Be it Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin etc the chances of your future manager going through it is always there. Take an example of your display picture. It’s fun to have all types of pictures on your social networking profile but for career related sites such as Linkedin, it is important that your display picture is as professional as possible. A picture can tell a thousand stories, so try to figure out that what your picture is portraying you as? I am sure you will not like that despite your great career achievements, your display picture is reflecting your personality as a non serious person.

Keeping this in mind you can now see the presence of Zumbeel on Linkedin. For a start you can find career related articles here. But we hope to evolve it with the passage of time. You are encouraged to join and also share your views.

In last few days I was fortunate enough to attend some of the pilot sessions of Zumbeel where I had the chance to meet some of Pakistan telecoms finest brains. Talking to one of the senior guys regarding job search strategy for fresh entrants he was of the following opinion:

Telecom Operators/Vendors are always on the lookout for good resources. The problem with most graduates is that although they write a lot of stuff on the CVs but when it comes to the interview, they are absolutely clueless. Another trend these days is blind CV submission through job site, majority of people we interview are blank when asked about their source of information about the position against which they have applied. This shows lack of seriousness on part of candidates and at least we make it a point not to hire such people even if they are competent enough for the job.

Contents and overall presentation of the CV also counts a lot. For example, my company would never shortlist a candidate if his contact email address (written at top of the CV) is anything like “cool_nomi1982@….”. A professional organization expects professionally written CVs.

Universities (barring few) are also part of the problem. The kind of stuff they are teaching in Engineering is useless when it comes to real life scenarios. We are still a long way from the kind of collaboration that should exist between universities and the market.

Many might not endorse the above views but still some of the things pointed out are facts. I myself have observed people coming for interviews and answering that WiMAX and GSM are two names of the same technology. Phew

But nothing is lost yet. It’s a new year which means a new beginning. As someone so rightly said

The old year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!

Just to sum it up!

Every man should be born again on the first day of January.  Start with a fresh page.  Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.

Cheers

Haris

N.B: The following is the URL for Zumbeel @ Linkedin

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=94494&trk=hb_side_g

I have always tried to figure out what keeps people to continue to stretch themselves in such a demanding profession called telecom. When most individuals are returning home after a fixed routine, telecom professionals are usually gearing themselves to trouble shoot a cell site.

And guess what? I found an answer to that. The thing that keeps them moving through thick and thin is their love for what they do. If they would not have loved their profession there was no point in stretching themselves from nine to none. I call this the love factor.

The following by Steve Jobs gives an interesting read:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle”.

In our lives we come across different people who have been forced into a profession. Be it is their family’s traditional way of earning or the choice enforced by their mom and dad, in this scenario they cant do much except to find something that will keep them moving, and i can bet on it that its not easy. Remember that life is too short for the wrong job.

So what if you are doing that doesn’t excites you any more or it was something that you had to choose because you were job less for may be 8 months or so? There can be numerous answers to it. But if i would have been in your situation i would have acknowledged myself for figuring it out that yes i need to get out of this. You have taken the first major step of reaching towards your goal. It is not easy. You may have to leave your 25k job to go for a non paid internship for 3-6 months leading to a permanent slot. But isn’t this worth it? After all you will end up in something that you always wanted to be. You just have to believe in yourself and that’s it.

I take a lot of strength from these lines that Abraham Lincoln wrote to his son’s teacher.

“Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong… Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone’s getting on the bandwagon… Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness… Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidder, but never to put a price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and stand and fight if he thinks he is right”.

And just to sum it off i again quote Steve Jobs:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

Keep helping others and keep looking for your love factor.

As someone so rightly said “Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely”

Until next time.

Haris

On a personal note, to see my blog amongst so many senior pro’s was no less then imitating, it just gave me that extra bit of self motivation that I too can achieve as great as all of the blog contributing professionals at Zumbeel.

Many thanks for all the views and comments. I will sure try to accommodate the requests in future posts.

N.B: I am open to all sorts of professional networking invitations. I can be reached at syedharith@yahoo.com