Missed the Placement Bus, Take the Job Flight. 7 Tips for Freshers

You have worked hard through your college and here comes the opportunity that you have waited for; companies would line up to pick the best of the lot through campus interviews. You are nervous and excited with anticipation. You watch your friends being called by various companies and some getting placed, some waiting for response. You are happy for your friends who get placed, but still nervous as you haven’t got a call yet. Finally, the interviews are over and all the companies have announced their verdict.

You were not on the list.. This is the end of the world! Right? Wrong. Its surely is a hard time for you, watching many of your peers jump with joy when you face disappointment. Well, sitting back and whining about it is not going to help. Pull yourself up and put your best foot forward until you get the placement you deserve.

To start with, follow these tips to improve your chance of getting hired without losing any more time.

1. Explore Your Alumni Network:

Alumni associations are an excellent place to start with. Your Alumni are your kin and have an emotional connect with you even before they know you. They would do everything possible to help you out. However, be sincere and don’t pester them with requests. Don’t just ask for help, take an approach where you can also help them in some ways or the other. E.g. some of your alumni members must be entrepreneurs with their own ventures; see how you can volunteer to help without expecting anything in return. Be rest assured that people in general are good and know how to return favors. Someone would notice your efforts and you surely will get rewarded with referrals for the right opportunity.

2. Be Proactive:

Make a list of early stage startups in your domain. Call them all to find out if there is a position vacant. Chances are they are looking for a sincere and hard working candidate. Your being proactive and making an effort would surely get noticed and at the least you will get interview calls from some of the places. Don’t worry about the remuneration in the beginning (unless it is a matter of survival for you) and try to get the right kind of experience. Not only will you learn a lot but also would gain invaluable experience. You don’t know what opportunity you will stumble upon while on the go!

3. Get Socially Active:

I know people in the position of authority who get requests from total strangers on LinkedIn with a referral request or a job opportunity and believe me not all requests are ignored. Many a times people like to guide you out of goodness. Not everyone forgets that they too were a fresher once and got helped by someone or the other to get the first push. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook (Yes, even Facebook!) are great tools for creating professional connections. So, don’t wait up and start socializing today.

4. Improve your communication skills:

Single most big factor in making an impression is your communication skills. You may be sincere, hard working and knowledgeable, but if you cannot express yourself well then you lag behind in your pursuit to build a great career. Good part is improving your communication skills isn’t that difficult. All it needs is some conscious effort to improve it. First of all leave your inhibitions away and express your views in front of others. You don’t need to be outlandish but be confident in your approach. Just think about it, maybe you lack of good communication skills is the whole reason you couldn’t get placed in the first place. Internet is full of good articles on how to improve your communication skills. One important thing though is to stop reading and start practicing what these articles suggest.

5. Start creating your portfolio:

Even if you are not placed with a company, you can work independently on project that you create for yourself. E.g. if you graduated as a computer engineer, you should think of a project that may help others and start to work on it. Be ready with some of the sample work that you can show to companies when you approach them. This would certainly provide you an edge over your competitors.

6. Work for free:

Grab every opportunity that you can. Take up internship positions if you have to and prove your worth in the company. With sincere effort, you would get noticed and chances are that you would get a permanent offer in the company. Even if you don’t, you would surely impress some person who would have the connection to point you to the right opportunity.

7. Ask joblagao.com to help:

It’s not a gimmick. We really mean to help. Yes, do it right away. Send your resume to hr@joblagao.com and our team will do whatever it can to guide you, point you in the right direction and get you referred through actual employees working with reputed companies. In fact if your profile matches one of our own requirements we would consider it. We are a dynamic startup and expanding so wait for nothing, start applying.