How fresh engineers should hunt job?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A young Electrical Engineer posted at his LinkedIn:

 “5 months completed as a jobless engineer. This is engineer’s future in Pakistan. #Thank_You_Pakistan, #Thank_You_Government”.

Someone tagged me at my LinkedIn account and I thought to guide all those young engineers who are struggling to find jobs.

The easiest thing in the world is to evade responsibility and blame someone else for one’s own failures. Job market is driven by simple rule of Economics, that is, Supply and Demand. Right now, Pakistan is facing glut of engineers as private or semi-government universities are producing engineers in large batches, mostly of low quality. In this cut-throat competition, only the fittest engineers will survive. Jobless engineers must know that Job-hunting and Selling process is same. You need to learn The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”.

I visited LinkedIn profile of this complaining jobless engineer and found that he has set the tightest privacy on his profile. No recruiter and headhunter can contact him because his contact details are not visible to anybody. It tantamounts to the situation that you close the door from inside and complain that nobody visits you. What is the fun to be at LinkedIn if you are not reachable? Be LinkedIn Open Networker (LION). Trust me, nobody will hurt you. Check my LinkedIn profile and you will see that anybody can contact me even if he/she is not my first degree of contact.

Lesson: Be accessible at social forums or don’t use.

Let me share an interesting story with you. Three years back, I announced at Facebook that I will coach 4 jobless engineers for one month FREE OF CHARGE on how to get your first job. The only commitment was that after getting job, they will coach at least 4 jobless engineers without charging. I enrolled 4 engineers, one from each province. I made WhatsApp group and gave threm assignments.

  1. Reading my book The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”. Book is free.
  2. Make a list of 50 companies which you think should hire you. List will include name of the companies, postal addresses, website links and name of CEOs.

The timeline was one week. One engineer left the group immediately after getting the assignment. Rest of the three engineers did not bother to read my book beyond few pages and none of the engineers could make list of potential employers as I advised them. Their whole focus was on providing them REFERENCE. I closed the group after 2 weeks. Master appears when disciples are ready to learn. Be coachable. Be teachable. Losers look for references. Winners become references. Become reference worth quoting for.

Follow the following steps and you will have cutting-edge advantage over your peers.

  1. Shift your focus from REFERENCE to CAPABILITY. Like water, you are capable of charting your own path.
  2. Make a list of at least 100 companies that can be your potential employers, their postal addresses, people on key posts and website links. If you cannot do it in this age of internet, then sit at home.
  3. Think why any company should hire you. Make a compelling case that you are a garden variety rather than wild grass. Become value provider rather than miserable job-seeker.
  4. Write a killer CV. You must learn the craft of writing. If you cannot learn, hire professionals to write CV for you.
  5. Write a surgically customized cover letter. Become rifle rather than water gun. You will get zero results with To-Whom-It-May-Concern
  6. Send your Killer CV and surgically customized Cover Letter to a specific person in the organization. E-mails are ineffective. Rise above the clutter. Send CV and Cover Letter through courier.
  7. By pass HR. Send CV/Cover Letter to departmental heads of engineering functions. There are always vacant positions at entry level. Offer yourself for internship and focus on learning. Majority of interns are hired by the same companies. Recently, a mechanical engineer from GIK told me that he was hired by his company soon after internship.
  8. After sending CV and Cover Letter, follow up through reminder letter, calls/SMS, at LinkedIn, Facebook. Engage him that you need his professional coaching and advice. Use smartcuts not shortcuts.
  9. If you are in a small city and looking job in urban centers, you will be disappointed. Move to big cities where there are more jobs. Stay in economical hostels on sharing basis.
  10. Spend quality time on social media for searching right people rather than commenting on others’ posts aimlessly.
  11. When you get interview calls, go with ideas. Read chapter Interview Management from my book The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”.
  12. Watch movie The Pursuit of Happyness. You will learn that more right people you contact, you will get better results.

1995

I was working for Caltex. I wanted to apply in another company but I was not sure of name of CEO. I called at their UAN and asked the operator what was name of her CEO. First thing she asked was: Who are you and why you need it? I said, “I am student of IBA Karachi and we want to invite your CEO at our seminar and we have to send him letter of invitation. So, I need his name”. The receptionist immediately shared name of his CEO. Now, everything is available at internet. Be smart.

Associate with positive people. Sit with winners and your conversation will be different. For bootstrapping, join freelancing sites to win projects and teach juniors at Skype. I know many young engineers who earn in 6 figures while working at freelancing sites.

Good luck.

Special Note:

 

  1. Is your CV worthy of getting you interview calls? We will evaluate your CV FREE OF CHARGE. Just email us your current CV at [email protected] and you will get evaluation in 48 hours. In case, you don’t get evaluation, please follow up through WhatsApp/SMS at +92 302 8356228
  2. Download The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”. It is free for friends. Just send blank email at [email protected]. You will get the link in less than 5 seconds (do check your spam folder as well).
  3. Join Ashraf Chaudhry at Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for networking, job alerts and daily motivation.
  4. For sales trainings, key-note motivational sessions and one-to-one Purple Arrow Coaching, please WhatsApp/SMS at +92 323 2470 890 or email at [email protected]
  5. For joining our How to Earn Money Online, WhatsApp at +92 302 8356 228
  6. If you liked the post, share with your friends. Sharing is caring.

 

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