Kickstarting a Career...

I have had the opportunity to interview thousands of candidates for various positions in the Organizations I have been associated with in my career.

I have not seen many people who know exactly what they want to do in their careers. Most people have goals, that very generic like "settling down abroad" or "be a project manager in 5 years" and sometimes even "I need to buy and SUV next year!". That's not bad. A career does not depend on whether one has goal or not, what one needs is an opportunity!. My Blog Post on Opportunity explains what one needs to do to encash an opportunity. 

When I interview candidates (I am referring to young Job Seekers, who are looking forward to their first job!), I get to hear the following expectations from their jobs;

• No more than 8 hours at work
• Assignments abroad, frequent trips to different countries
• Working on New Technologies
• Change of Projects every 6 months to handle boredom
• Want to work on only X Technology and not on A, B or C
• Will work on Programming only, will not do any support activity
• Willing to work for a max of 2 years in this company
• No Work on Weekends 
• Work-life balance
• Flexible Work Hours 
• Lots of Training and Learning
• Vacation Time
• Free Transportation
• Free Food
• Recreation facilities at office
• Growth in their careers
• Good Salary to start with and raises of 30% year on year
• Loans for buying Vehicles and Home Appliances
• Sponsored Courses in Institutes of repute
• Time off to do a Post Graduate Course

When I ask them what they can contribute to this company at this point in time, they unabashedly say, "I don't know much now, you Train me and I will perform!".

I can go on and on. I have met very few people who have said, "I need this job and give me any work, I will do it". People come to interviews with closed mindsets, they come with a lot of expectations without willingness or intentions of earning any of it. Some candidates are so arrogant that they were not willing to work for less than "N" in salary as it is "Too Less", they did not even see, that their earning is 0 now, and that something is better than nothing...

Not one realizes, that the first step in one's career is To Secure the First Job. What assignments one works on, the career path, the technology, salaries offered, facilities provided in office are all immaterial. 

There is so much of competition now. The loss of one candidate is the gain for another one. If one candidate refuses an offer, there will be 100 candidates who will be willing to accept the offer. It's time that the Job Seekers change their mind sets, set low expectations and grab any opportunity that comes their way. Career Management can happen later and there will be a lot of time for that...