Dear friends,
Be Employable and Deployable
“Look for an occupation that you like,
and you will not need to labor for a single day in your life.” – Confucius
Welcome to Students: Concerns and Clarifications on Career, Entrepreneurship and
Leadership Success. You must be surprised to see another book on students. I
am emboldened to author this book on students due to the overwhelming response
received from students for my award-winning book, Student Leaders: Growing From Students To CEOs. I am passionate
about shaping Indian students and I enjoy spending most of my time with them to
understand their challenges and to provide them with solutions. As my vision is
to build one million students as global leaders, I consider spending my time
with them as an investment. And it is a great opportunity to understand their
psychology, perceptions, expectations, and aspirations on career, success,
entrepreneurship, leadership and life.
During my training and teaching
programs, the students expressed their concerns on several areas. Most students
find their concerns unaddressed. They
are looking for authentic answers in the form of a standard guide to read
during their leisure and travelling time. In a nutshell, they are exclusively
looking for a quick reference guide with questions and answers in a
conversational tone. Hence, I have
authored this book to help not only students but also freshers, job seekers,
job providers and working executives to understand various aspects of
employment interview, professional etiquette, career, success,
entrepreneurship, leadership and life. I am excited to see that the book is in
your hands now.
Victory
versus History
Do you want to achieve victory or
create history? If you want victory, you
can easily achieve it through your hard work, smart work, wise work and
network. But creating history requires lots of passion, patience and
perseverance. You achieve victory if things are in your favor and you
accomplish your goals. You create history if things are not in your favor and
you move forward with tons of trials and tribulations despite the odds being
stacked against you and when there seems to be no light at the end of the
tunnel. Hence, you need to decide for yourself whether you want to achieve a
simple victory or create history to become a living legend.
When a ship is free from a storm,
anybody can be at the helm to steer it whereas when the ship is facing a storm
there is need for leaders to sail the ship smoothly to the shore. When things
are favorable any Tom, Dick and Harry can accomplish goals. However, when
things are not favorable the real heroes emerge and make a mark. Whenever there
is a crisis the real leaders are born to provide the right direction.
Being
a Fresher is an Asset, not a Liability
Freshers have several concerns of
which the major one is that they will not receive employment opportunities
since they don’t have work experience. Many freshers expressed their concerns
during my soft skills and leadership development training programs. The fact is
that being a fresher is an asset, not a liability as you are flexible and can
be molded very easily. You are at the starting point of your career. You are on
a clean slate. You have tons of fire in your belly and you are passionate to
listen and learn. Hence, employers treat you as an asset, not a liability. Additionally, employers hire you for your
attitude and train you for skills. They want good candidates with great
attitude. They prefer to recruit freshers with a great attitude rather than
experienced employees with a rotten attitude. Hence, present and project a positive
attitude to connect with your employers during an interview to grab your
employment offer.
How
to Grab Your Dream Job?
To grab your dream job, find out careers
you are passionate about. Stay clearly
focused on the line or the sector or the industry you intend to enter. Adopt
unconventional methods to search for employment opportunities by doing intensive
research. Express your enthusiasm to
work and demonstrate the value you add to your employer during an interview. Be
persistent. Develop networking skills to connect with the people in your area
of interest. Be active in social media especially LinkedIn to connect with likeminded
professionals. Be confident, and above
all, be an optimist.
Be
a Dream Employee for Your Dream Employer
Everyone dreams about marrying a good
spouse with lots of great qualities. Similarly, every student dreams of working
in a good company. Do you know your dream employer? Is it Google, Facebook,
Microsoft, IBM, Apple Computers, General Electric, TCS, Infosys or some other
employer? Do you know how to grab an employment offer in your dream
company? Just you want to work in a company
that offers decent salary, exciting working ambience and quick career growth,
every employer dreams of recruiting a dream employee who can add value to their
organization to improve their bottom lines.
Employers want to recruit candidates
with a breadth of attributes. They look for candidates who are a judicious
blend of curricular and extracurricular activities. That means they look for candidates with achievements
outside the academic arena as well. They expect the candidates to transfer their
academic knowledge into the industrial setting to grow as successful professionals.
Here are some of the qualities the employers look for in their dream
employees: attitude, initiative,
assertiveness, communication, dedication, passion, performance, forward
thinking, problem-solving, team building, diversity skills, embracing change,
learning from mistakes, surviving office politics, adding value and making a
difference. Above all, employees must
have the ability to fit into the organizational culture of dream employers.
Therefore, you must develop your mindset hereafter to demonstrate the qualities
and skills that your dream employer looks for in dream employees. Remember, you
can achieve success only when you can demonstrate and deliver what the other
person expects. Unfortunately, people demonstrate the qualities that are not
expected by their prospective employers resulting in rejection. Knowing this fundamental technique is the key
to your success to grab your dream job and achieve great success in your life.
Be
Employable and Deployable
Peter Hawkins once remarked in The Art of Building Windmills, “To be
employed is to be at risk, to be employable is to be secure.” Hence, you must
be employable and deployable to grab your dream job. However, most students who
pass out from educational institutions are not employable currently. They
prepare from the exams’ perspective and pass out with grades and scores through
rote learning and cramming the content without understanding the subject. It results in unemployability among the
students. They complain that the government is not providing them with jobs.
They must understand that industry looks for plug and play candidates who can
be productive on the very first day.
They must appreciate that there are certain skills required that help
them grab employment opportunities such as soft skills and employability
skills. In fact, companies are looking for deployable students rather than
employable students. Deployable students are the students who can work in the
corporate world without much training except through induction programs. Companies don’t appreciate spending money in
training the employable students as costs involved are high. Hence, educational institutions must churn
out deployable students to enhance campus placements.
It requires integrated efforts from
all stakeholders such as students, educators, recruiters, parents, educational
institutions, and non-governmental organizations to enhance employability among
students. Remember that employers look for
not only educationally qualified students but also employable and deployable
students who can be productive in the workplace on the very first day to
enhance their organizational excellence and effectiveness. To summarize, there has to be coordination
from all sources to teach and train students effectively to enable them to become
employable and deployable in the corporate world, and to be able to lead the
nation successfully.
In the following chapters, you will
enjoy reading your concerns with clarifications in a conversational tone on
career, entrepreneurship and leadership success. Additionally, they provide you
insights and ideas about my passion, vision and mission to build one million
students as global leaders.
"If you would not be forgotten as
soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth
writing.” - Benjamin Franklin
References
Life is great!
Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR
Leadership Consultants India
Listed
in Marquis Who's Who in the World in 2013
Vision 2030 Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCO-gWmTRk
Twitter: @professormsrao
Thanks for reading!
Kindly share your thoughts and
comments below, I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.
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