Guest Post - Mayank Mantani

Mayank is one of Chris' Spring 2012 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about job interviews.

Getting a job is no longer an “apply-appear-approved” deal. In the era of globalization, exposure, cutting edge competition and focused specialization; it has become the need of the hour to align an individual with the organization, as well as the job title, the job description, and its respective entailments.

We have known our parents and their parents, and them theirs, to work decades in a specific job as a duty and nothing more. Passion has been lacking in the majority of people we know of the bygone generations, and job satisfaction has been somewhat of a whimsical paradox. What changed? Here, one can point out that the change has been an oxymoron, a bad good if you must. It took the world time aplenty to figure out what lacked. Passion is the answer to it, the answer to happiness in that 9 to 5, the satisfaction of contributing something to the world and not just scrounging food for the family. To quote Annie Gottlier- “It’s so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to.”

This is the reason why we must choose something that we love, and not what we think the world will love about us. Mind you, no work is any less respectable, only when it comes to loving what you do, can you achieve a true corporate nirvana. 

Finding what you want to do in life is not just a single brainstorm process with your parents or the school counselor; it’s having a talk with yourself. What ticks you, what excites you and what you see yourself doing, and doing happily at that, ten years down the line.

Chances are, what you want to do will be a lot different than what you will attain if you lack that razor sharp focus. To this, one needs to follow a certain protocol. From the basic steps to knowing the field you will choose, to shortlisting the loosely based fields in the same genre for you to experiment; it is a huge intellectual and challenging experience. Once you’ve got that covered, one must brainstorm with veterans of the same field to get insight that no search engine, no book, no colleague can give. This insight comes from experience. To bend your head down in humility, and learn the art from the masters will give you a much-required jumpstart in the industry.

Simultaneously with this, networking is extremely important. The idea is to let you out there. Seek challenges; be always up for tasks that will let you go that extra mile. After all, finding a job is not just getting home a paycheck, it is writing your identity in a life manual called resume. What best than pick something that’s a heart’s desire backed by sheer grey intellect.

Lately, social networking has provided a boost to the professionals by connecting them at a single click. Websites such as Linkedin connect professionals from over the world in their desired respective industries. Increasingly it has become a platform to find jobs, recruit professionals and connect companies engaging in sought after business deals.

For every working professional once in their life comes a point, where they come across a job which requires the perfect use of their skill set and provides opportunities to feed their hunger to grow.

To focus on ‘that’ ideal company, it’s pertinent to strengthen your foothold in the networking industry. This can be done through various mediums such as career fairs, online opportunities, recruiting agencies, industry specific seminars etc.

Web is proving to be quite an effective medium where fast growing companies are adept at updating their needs and requirements to the world of applicants. Continuous networking with the company personnel will put you in the front row of the candidacy.

The quest for the ideal job will only be converted to reality when one does not indiscriminately hand out resumes; rather a need specific applying behavior is adopted. Applying wherever one can lay hands on will only dilute your vision from what should be your focus. Know the job; know the company, the product, the industry, and the working environment. Once it fits the bill, make sure you know the company profile in and out, like you are on the payroll already. Hard core knowledge about the company profile is the first step to landing that perfect job.

If there is one advice to be given to find a perfect job, frankly there will be none. Although a continuous pursuit with enthusiasm to learn and the ability to connect will surely put you on the right path till you can find that job that we call a dream come true. Finally, one must never forget the ethics of a job. In the end, a job is not a mere stepping-stone to success for you. Always be up to contributing to the organization you work for, and never shy away from additional responsibility.