Looking for a job in India? Check out our blog post on “10 Tips to Find a Job in India”! Discover valuable insights and strategies to navigate the competitive job market, optimize your resume, network effectively, and ace interviews. Don’t miss out on this essential guide to kickstart your career in India. Job search in India traditionally was done through references and newspapers. But, at times there has been quite a shift in the manner people find a job.
Ways to find Job in India
Newspapers: This was the most basic method to find a job until the internet became the norm. However, newspapers still are considered a popular form to reach out to candidates. A Walk- In job openings are mostly given out through newspapers.
References: Getting through a job or an interview through contacts of your friends and relatives are usually called references.
Placement agencies: Placement agencies line up an interview depending on the qualifications and skill set the candidate possesses and the requirement of the employer. They usually charge a fee for their services.
Companies’ career page: A company’s website usually has a career page. Most companies update their career page as per their recruitment requirement. Going through a company’s career page is a good habit if you are in line with their ideology and the work culture, and their role opening suits your skills and qualifications.
Online portals: Online portals are the most common way of job search in India. Portals like Monster.com, Naukri.com, Timesjob.com are some of the most common ones. Few portals focus on particular segments of job seekers too. For example, Jobsforher.com and Hersecondinnings.com cater to only women, and Freshersworld.com is for freshers.
Social media
Everybody these days is connected through social media. You can use this opportunity to expand your job search in India. The most common social media site for professionals is LinkedIn. You can create your profile on LinkedIn and search and apply for jobs. You can come across other people who are currently working in that company. It’s like a professional social media site. Another way to leverage your job search is through Facebook. You are connected with a lot of people on Facebook which can help you find a job.
It is not an impossible feat, and one can take certain steps to get a job without any prior professional experience. Here are some tips on how to get a job as a fresher.
1. A break helps to find a job
One should give himself or herself just a few days to unwind from his or her recent sleepless exam nights before getting onto his or her job hunt right away. It is essential for one to come back to a fully rested and refreshed mental state in order to think and prepare well for what’s coming next.
2. List our strengths
Focus on what abilities we have recognized in ourselves over our academic years. Write down a list of soft skills or personality traits that we see in ourselves. It could be anything such as the ability to communicate, verbally or through writing, or the skill to lead a group project. These are reflected in our resume as the skills needed to work in a professional environment, as an individual professional as well as a team member.
Applying for every job we find isn’t always a good idea. Focus our search on jobs that we’re qualified for. We’ll have a better chance of getting selected for an interview. Even better, come up with a target list of companies we’d like to work for and do our best to get noticed by them.
3. Seek help building your resume
Recommendation letters and reference is when someone writes a letter to the employer as to why we can be the best fit for the open role. As this recommendation comes from a higher authority, our chances of getting selected increase.
Sometimes, trying to dig out our skills and abilities can be quite confusing, and more so for someone trying to look for jobs as a fresher. This is where our close friends or family can help. Ask them to tell us what they see as our strong points and our weaknesses. We’ll be surprised to see ourselves from their perspective and find a job out more about us than we thought we knew.
When applying for a job as a fresher, we will be asked for a resume or cover letter. This is the first step of the job selection, and therefore, we need to make sure that our resume is relevant to the job we are applying for. For example, suppose we are applying for a content writer role, we need to mention specific skills in our resume like creative writing, blog posts, article writing, etc. We can’t apply to a content writing job with just the technical knowledge skills mentioned in our resume.
The recruiters need to have something in their resume to select us above the other candidates. Therefore, the rule is to give them what they are looking for. So, it is essential that we keep on modifying our resume and cover letter as per the jobs we are applying to.
4. Online job boards to find a job
We can also get professional services for building our resumes, from online job boards and portals where we can register ourselves. These platforms allow us to search for the jobs we are looking for, filtering searches by posting date, experience, role, industry, and location. We can have our resume and profile boosted for better search results among recruiters, learn tips and tricks to improve our interview skills and get advice specific to industries and roles, and even other aspects of the professional lifestyle.
5. Make the most of our networking skills
Living in the age of the internet and social media, it is imperative to have a network online. While professional networking sites such as LinkedIn are purely meant for career-oriented connections, even our social networking platforms have dedicated groups and pages for us to connect with people for professional opportunities. Organizations give employee referrals more preference than we might think.
And more often than not, employees get a referral bonus too. So, don’t shy away from approaching a friend or friend’s friend, for we might actually be providing them an unexpected bonus.
Recommendation letters and references
Recommendation letters and reference is when someone writes a letter to the employer as to why we can be the best fit for the open role. As this recommendation comes from a higher authority, our chances of getting selected increase.
Emails
Emails are another good way to attract the attention of employers. We can find the email id of the recruiters and employers from the company’s career page and directly shoot emails to them. Pitch why we are an ideal fit for the role, and attach our resume for their reference.
Networking
Networking is an essential component of successful job hunting. Most jobs are still found by networking, whether it’s online or in-person. We never know who can help us find a job unless we tell our connections that we’re job seeking. Here’s how to utilize our contacts at a company.
6. Research our employer to find a job
If we were to consider someone to work with us, we would naturally expect them to show some interest in us, right? Almost every interviewer asks us what we know of the company, and it definitely looks bad if we have no idea. Yes, we might be applying to multiple companies, and remembering everyone’s details is difficult. But, as a fresher, having a keen interest in the company coupled with a passion to prove our worth are sure ways to make a good impression on the employer. It also helps if we customize our resumes for specific roles/companies that we apply for.
Company career page
Companies have a complete page dedicated to the career opportunities we can have with them. The company career page has a list of the open vacancies. We can apply to the job roles from the company career page or drop our resume in the provided mail. However, we need to check and apply for finding the job we are suited for. For, e.g., it would be of no use to apply for finding a job that is asking for five years of experience when we have just graduated
7. Align our skills with the company goals to find a job
So, we already listed out our skillset in our resume, and the interviewer has already seen it. Instead of repeating that during our interview, we can describe how our skills can be utilized to make an impact in the workplace. Highlight any achievements that are relevant to our role. We can cite examples of projects, assignments, or volunteer work where we might have delivered actual results, therefore, proving how we can add value to our potential employer.
8. It’s either a good overview or it’s over
Our resume only gets about 5-6 seconds before the recruiters move on to the next one. With such a small window, our overview is our best chance at grabbing our recruiter’s attention. Make it as crisp and to the point as possible, providing a comprehensive view of our purpose. This may sound intimidating, but nothing that simple research on the internet won’t resolve.
9. Prepare for our interview – before and after
There are loads of questionnaires specific to find a job roles, where you can prepare for expected interview questions. But, our best learning comes from the actual interview. Even if we don’t get to the next round, we now have life experience. Revisit our interview, study what our body language was, re-answer the interviewer’s questions, and refine our resume.
Job fair and career events
Another thing that might help us to find a job as fresher is the job fair and career events. These job fairs are organized in a lot of cities, in which different companies take part. We can attend these job fairs and events and leave our resumes with the companies. Job fairs are also a great way to make a connection with recruiters. Leaving a positive impression on the recruiters increases our chances of being remembered by them. We just need to be conscious of the upcoming job fair or events.
Training platforms
There are a lot of training platforms that help you master a particular skill or course and even help you find a job in that field. You can register at these platforms online, and once the training is completed, their placement cell can match you up with the relevant jobs.
Walk-in interviews
Occasionally, companies organize walk-in interviews. We can reach the location and directly apply for the job there. We don’t need any prior letter or recommendation for that. Just take our resume and necessary documents and be confident enough when applying for the job.
Approach directly
Lastly, all said and done, we can approach the employers directly. However, we need to be very careful when doing so, as this might not always work in our favor. Be very polite and confident and let the employers know about our skills and attributes. Make them believe how we can contribute to the company’s growth and benefit each other mutually.
10. Knowing our worth vs. Negotiating our salary
Earning our own money is one of the best things we look forward to as part of entering professional life. While most companies have a fixed starting salary range for fresher jobs, some might be open to a little negotiation. But, before we think of negotiating, we must be aware of the industry range for our role. We can compare salaries for fresher roles in our industry from professional sites.
The Monster Salary Index is one such option that provides us with a comprehensive report of salaries across roles, industries, and even locations. If we think our offer is quite less than the standard range, we can put forth our case based on our research. Speak to them about how we can be effective in the role and convince them that we deserve more than what is being offered.
Conclusion
In conclusion, finding a job in India requires a proactive approach, strategic networking, and staying up to date with the market. By following these ten tips, you can increase your chances of securing an employment opportunity in this diverse and dynamic country. Good luck with your job search!
