Job Search thru a consultant!

AJAY, popularly known as AJ by his peers was a typical dotcommer who worked hard and played hard. With the dotcom disaster he took a 50% salary cut and an impending pink slip. His manager was polite enough to tell him to start looking out for other opportunities since the corporate shutters might come crashing down anytime. Despite having accumulated a comfortable nest egg during the heydays he realised that he has to sit down and work out a POA(Plan Of Action!) He was aware of that posting his resume online was the in-thing andvarious job sites promised a variety of services. Apart from this AJ planned to approach various job consultants and register his CV with them. As he was 'rich on time', he did a bit of homework before approaching the consultants.

List Enlist!

He made a list of consultants who recruited for all kinds of companies and also the specialised headhunters who recruited only for certain industries. Having worked as a Senior Business Development Executive with extensive product and concept Marketing experience he knew that he had could fit into various industries and had to shoot his CV across to all of them. And he knew that going through a job consultant would be the best way to achieve this.

After listing all the consultants he started the tedious job ofdicovering whether they were registered with the Government. Otherwise any kind of official correspondence from the consultant will automatically become null and void. As the consultant is not an official entity engaging in a legitimate business but a fly-by-night operator.

Mode of Payment:

Job consultants are not a social service organisations, they make money by placing people in various companies and therefore filling up vacancies in the company with the right man for the job.

So AJ also found out before hand as to how the consultants got their payment, did they charge the candidate for the services, or take a commission from the company or charge a percent of the cost to the company (salary package) being offered to the candidate as service charges.

Online and printout:

While approaching the relevant executive in the job consultancy make sure that you have adequate print outs of your CV and also carry it on a floppy as many prefer soft copies that be easily forwarded to the client through email.

In case you have taken the effort to build your own home page on the Internet showcasing your work experience and the projects handled then mention the URL in your CV so that the potential employer can look it up for further details. By effectively combining two mediums you can enumerate your professional experience without making the CV very longand verbose.

Preferences

He sat down and made a list of the companies that he would like to work with and also rated them according to his order of preference. He decided upon the kind of package that he wanted taking into consideration important aspects like career growth and job satisfaction.He also established the designation at which he wanted to enter the new organisation. He ensured that his expectations were nominal during these testing times. He also made a "black list" of the companies to which he didn't want his CV to be forwarded and mentioned why.

Right person:

Each and every consultancy has different departments that deal with different areas in the job market. Typically a team is dedicated to Software careers and another set to non-Software careers. In the mid-size and large set ups specific teams for overseas job placements also exist. This helps the candidate to contact the specific person according to his individual preference of job location.

Wheeling and Dealing!

As an individual he may not be able to effectively negotiate and land the best package. This is where a consultant helps the most, where they will match the candidate's expectations with what the company is offering and make sure that the two are in sync. They ensure that the candidate is satisfied with the offer being made and the company is happy with the candidate as the best man for the job. Their aim is to ensure a win-win situation when the parties leave the negotiation table.

Decision-making:

In case you have more than one job offer on hand then a job consultant would prove to be your best guide. As they will provide you with additional information regarding the various companies and allied factors that you need to take into consideration before accepting a job offer.

After making all these preparations AJ contacted the respective executive at the consultancy in person, registered his CV and made his expectations very clear. He constantly kept in touch with the particular executive to inquire about the status of his CV and latest developments regarding his job status.

Ajay was aware that how ever much online services promised results, nothing could beat meeting a professional headhunter whose job (and income!) was to fit you in a company best suited to your qualifications and expectations.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN

maalini.mds@careercommunity.co.in