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Naukri.com launches Android, iPhone & BB Apps – Introduces HTML 5 site

Arun Prabhudesai — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:48:45 +0000

Naukri has finally launched dedicated mobile apps for its Job search engine. Being the biggest Job site in India, they should have come up with these apps earlier – However, its better late than never :). From the looks of the apps they have released, they have done a good job of it.

TimesJob was one of the first Indian job search engines to introduce their apps for iPhone and Android based smartphones, however, they have not been too popular. Even after close to 6 months of launch Timesjob Android app has not crossed 50k downloads, whereas iPhone has witnessed even lesser. Even the user ratings and reviews have not been that good.

We downloaded Naukri.com Android app on our phone and found it to be quite good. Even other users who downloaded the app have given excellent ratings. In less than 2 weeks since its launch, Naukri Android app has witnessed between 10k to 50k downloads and users have rated it 4.8 on 5!

As far as the features go, Naukri apps have all the standard features expected – The app allows job-seekers to filter job openings by location, keywords, functional area, experience bracket, and minimum expected salary.

App also allows users to create up to five custom job alerts based on defined search criteria. The alerts are directly sent to the users’ inbox three times a week. Users can also track the number of times a resume has been viewed by an employer, and the companies they have applied to earlier.

Apart from these smartphone apps, Naukri also has launched its own HTML 5 site, which allows users to search jobs from a mobile friendly interface, when using Naukri site from a mobile browser.

All in all, Naukri has launched decent apps and they surely should be popular with Indian job seekers. If you are looking for a job switch, download this app and let us know what you feel!

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Giving a Job Interview? 5 Mistakes you should Avoid…

Kaushambi — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:23:59 +0000

If famous career coach Usha Albuquerque’s tips for avoiding job interview blunders in India are anything to go by then it’s pretty clear that you need to look beyond the usual word of advice given in a job interview – such as dressing appropriately, coming on time and so on.

Here’s a quick guide on how to create impact in a job interview quickly by avoiding these 5 common mistakes.

Be achievement centric not job centric

Most Indian candidates tend to forget that employers are looking for a great long term professional to join them, not just to fill someone’s shoes or a mere role, says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder of Head Hunters India, as reported by Wall Street Journal India.

Candidates tend to narrate what they did in the previous job but they forget that they have to give the employer a bird’s eye perspective of their significant achievements in the past few years. You never know, employers might find something in your history interesting enough to separate you from the rest of the lot.

Display a desire for learning

It’s a myth that employers are always looking for candidates who are full of qualifications and positive qualities. As Education Times reports, Seema Arora Nambiar, Director People Resource at McDonald’s India (West and South) says that employers like candidates who accept that their limitations and show willingness to learn.

They would love to mould a candidate to their advantage instead of having a candidate who knows-it-all. In the knowledge economy, it’s okay to say ‘I don’t know but I will look it up’.

Don’t be nervous

Easier said than done, breaking into a sweat, having a shaky, shivery voice, losing your cool or giving long verbal pauses are clear signs of the fact that you’re not born to be a leader. Considering that your employers will expect you to head future board meetings, lead a team, troubleshoot in crises and so on, you’ll be spilling all your beans if you let your nerves overcome you. According to Charanpreet Singh, Associate Dean of Praxis Business School, Kolkata, as reported by Rediff, interview panels are capable of grilling you not exactly to test much of your knowledge but to test if you cross the lines of nervousness and aggression or not.

Keep your ethical ground intact

Ethics have recently come into the forefront in the corporate India and in management academia as a discipline. The interview panel will have mock situations ready to test how you would behave if you were put in an ethical dilemma. Again, there are no right or wrong answers to situations with ethical complexities because it is a subjective matter, but make sure stand your ground well. The best way to deal with this is to thoroughly research the background of the members of panel who would be taking your interview and pre prepare a few thoughts accordingly. An opinion on ethical behavior is critical.

Get an industry perspective

Even if you are applying for a highly niche, technical role, you will be at great advantage if you have an overall industry perspective and cross disciplinary knowledge. If you are in the plastics industry, peripheral knowledge about the chemical industry is required, if you are in the IT industry, peripheral knowledge about content management would work to your advantage, if you are in the film production business, knowledge about project management would be beneficial and so on.

Your knowledge and interest areas are what employers wish to learn about, not just the fact that you can perform your task list well.

You may also be interested in reading our previous articles on mistakes that you should avoid while writing your resume and What your resume should actually contain.

Majority Indians still prefer going abroad to work!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:36:57 +0000

Indians are still attracted to West when it come to employment – Although, India is dubbed globally as land of opportunities, majority of Indians want to go abroad to work. That’s the finding by Work monitor report released by Ma Foi Randstad.

And if you think money is the criteria for the move abroad, you are wrong. The report states that while globally, less than a third of the respondents are willing to move abroad for a job without a pay hike, employees in India do not have a problem with relocation – Infact, majority of them are willing to do so!

Indians have highest Mobility Index ranking across the world of 144 followed by Brazil, China & Mexico. Also, younger Indian’s (18 – 34 years) are more willing than older ones (35 to 64 years)

Highlights of the Work Monitor Report:

45% of the workforce believes in focus on promotion, while 34% believe in doing something
different.
On average 8 out of 10 employees expect to receive a pay hike, bonuses and additional employment benefits in year 2012.
Although the general economic outlook was gloomy in 2011, close to 80% employee feel that their organization had a good year except for senior executives. 64% of Employees with salary of 10 Lakh p.a and higher felt their organization had a good year.
A very high proportion (81%) of men expect to work beyond their retirement age and a nearly equally high proportion of women (74%) expect to work beyond their retirement age.

It is a known fact that Indians want to move abroad, because of better infrastructure, better pays, better standard of living among other things. However, over last decade, Indian cities have also grown and pay scales have risen drastically. Yet the propensity to move abroad has not lessened. Although, we have been constantly hearing of reverse brain drain, interest of going abroad remains very high among Indians.

I have a question for readers – Do you think this trend will remain in coming years as well? or do you think, given the growth India is expected to have in coming years, more and more people will prefer to stay back and explore more opportunities in India itself?

Linkedin most overused Buzzwords 2011 – Indians go from “DYNAMIC” to “EFFECTIVE”!

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:18:25 +0000

When ever you come across any resume or a LinkedIn profile or even a bio written by self – More often than not, you will find buzzwords, which have become kind of default. Infact, sometimes they are so overused, that they create an exact opposite impression of what the meaning stands.

Linkedin yesterday released their survey on LinkedIn’s most overused Buzzwords across the world in 2011. The results were collated based on the words used in profiles of over 135 million LinkedIn users worldwide – India now has over 11 million LinkedIn users.

Here are most overused words segregated by profile countries:

Creative: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States
Multinational: Brazil
Dynamic: France
Effective: India
Problem solving: Italy
Motivated: Ireland
Managerial: Spain
Track record: Singapore

If you take the words used in the profiles at face value, users in India are supposedly the most “effective”. LinkedIn releases this survey every year – In their 2010 study, Indian’s were mostly “Dynamic” which this year has converted into being “effective”.

It is my personal opinion that when you use these kind of buzzwords, you are just trying to mask what you are exactly not!

What’s your take?

7 Signs your Star Employee is searching another Job! [Infographic]

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:42:56 +0000

One of the biggest setbacks for a company, especially a startup or a small-sized company is when one of its star employees decides to leave. The cost of replacing an employee is very high, and it can cause a serious dent if the he / she is one of the best employees in your company.

In most cases, you will be able to gather cues if an employee plans to leave your organization. Folks at Mindflash have created an great infographic that shows how losing and replacing even one employee can cost your business significant money and time. One of the most important aspect of HR function is to figure out how to keep the Rockstar employee satisfied and engaged.

7 Signs your Star Employee is searching another Job!

Hopefully this nifty infographic will help you in reading those early signs and addressing before you rockstar employee decides to say goodbye to your company.

Important things to keep in mind while updating your LinkedIn profile!

Kaushambi — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:41:59 +0000

Updating your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter profile clearly doesn’t compare with maintaining your LinkedIn profile. Amongst all the social media that you might be using, your behavior on LinkedIn should be significantly more formal, professional and appropriate than the rest. You may be excused for recommending a new beer brew to your senior colleague on Twitter or Facebook, but it’s a serious no-no on LinkedIn.

Remember, you have a make or break chance to get a new job, hire a talented individual, outsource services and create new partnerships through LinkedIn. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while updating your LinkedIn profile.

Update with a purpose

Do you see a tab on the right hand side of your LinkedIn profile showing ‘Jobs recommended for you"? LinkedIn mines that data from the inputs you give them from your profile. Every update about your skills, awards, hobbies, education, group memberships etc will allow LinkedIn to give you job recommendations accordingly.

Why not update your LinkedIn profile according to the search results that you want LinkedIn to throw up for you? Also, use group discussions and answering questions in LinkedIn forums as means to get your name out there on the web space and to get more familiarity in your network.

Avoid returning recommendations

Extremely active users LinkedIn must keep this point in mind while updating their LinkedIn profile because they tend to lose the focus between being a LinkedIn enthusiast and an effective LinkedIn user. Whether someone has recommended you or if you’ve sought a recommendation from an industry senior, make sure you don’t type out a recommendation for them in reply to show your gratefulness.

Exchanging recommendations can be easily spotted by potential employers and can make your profile silly and sold out. You may choose to write a separate thank you note to the people who have recommended you separately.

Use strategic wording

Embellished, ornamental and flowery resumes are a thing of the past. But that doesn’t mean you present yourself with unabashed simplicity without a sales pitch. While updating your LinkedIn profile, keep in mind that you are here to sell yourself with strategic language.

If you are currently unemployed and looking for a job, the phrase under your name should read ‘In transition’ or ‘Towards better opportunities’ instead of reading ‘Unemployed’ or ‘looking for jobs’!

This applies specifically for students and fresh graduates who don’t have much substance to put into their profile and are fishing for words. What will set you apart from the rest of the graduate market is the ability to present your personality in a snapshot by using words that sell your skills effectively.

Show that you have time for updates

Rule number one is to not assume that the whole world is on Facebook and Twitter. Many people who might have the potential to be your next boss may get thoroughly annoyed when they see that you haven’t given original updates on LinkedIn, but have simply used re-tweets and hash tags.

Although you are simply trying to save time by connecting your other social media accounts to LinkedIn, it can put off readers who may not have a Facebook or a Twitter account. If you want to keep your updates uniform across the board, make sure you manually copy-paste your updates instead of automating them.

Follow offline culture online

If you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing golf shorts in office on a Monday, why post your picture in the same on LinkedIn? While this was a just an example, you must apply this rule to everything that shows up on your LinkedIn profile.

Remember, you’re not only talking to your group members and the people in your network, but inadvertently reaching out to a whole community of professionals, job seekers, students, skilled workers, contractors, head-hunters and their likes.

Behave exactly the way you would in a physical offline office atmosphere. Announcing that you’re the Mayor of a restaurant or a SuperUser on FourSquare isn’t surely going to do you any good on your LinkedIn profile.

Advantages of Government jobs over Private Sector jobs!

guest — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:59:00 +0000

For most middle class Indians, there has been one perpetual dilemma – whether to go for a private sector job or the government sector job. In last couple of decades private sector jobs came in vogue, before which Government job was the ultimate prize for a job seeker.

Looks like we are back to the times where Government jobs are starting to get attractive again. This article here discusses the advantages of the government jobs over private sector jobs.

Although the government jobs have often been seen as the one with relatively lesser monetary benefits but with the advent of 6^th pay commission, the scenario has changed for good.

Earlier, Indians were more inclined towards the private sector jobs, but now, the belief in public sector’s jobs even by the young generation is increasing.

Advantages of Government Sector Jobs over Private Sector

Job Security

The biggest advantage of Government job is “Job Security”.

Private sectors are prone to layoffs and we have very well witnessed such layoffs in the past during the time of recession. Whereas, in government sectors the situation of the employees more or less remained same and the job positions remained intact.

Pay Structure

Now the next significant factor would that be of the pay structure, as it is a very important factor for any job-searching individual. After the introduction of the 6th pay commission, the pay, which a government employee gets, is in par with the corporate sector and I don’t think that you would have anything to complain about here!!

Working Hours

Personally I think the next factor an employee would scratch his head over is of the number of working hours he / she has to input and that is a big plus over private sector. In government sector jobs, there are standard working hours, unlike private sector ones, where an individual has to do overtime against ones wishes (many time without any benefits as well). And if at all situation demands a government employee to do overtime, then he / she is entitled to attractive overtime benefits.

Promotions

An important factor, which any job seeker would take in account, is the promotional benefits. In government jobs, promotion is always based on the service period hence, the longer you work, and higher are the promotional opportunities. Obviously, this can be called as advantage as well as disadvantage because for someone who is above average may not be able to grow faster than his average counterparts

Benefits & Perks

Next comes the benefit & perks a Government employee gets. For government jobs, many benefits such as retirement benefits, pension plans and funds exist moreover benefits such as medical, housing, loans, childcare etc. are also available. While some large private sector companies do offer such benefits, majority of them don’t offer except for mandatory ones.

Retirement becomes a factor and in the later part of our career and the retirement age of 60 years and in some cases of 58 years ensures longevity of an individual’s career.

Work Stress

Government sector jobs are not at all stressful when compared to the jobs in private sector. The work load in governments jobs even if high would have more than enough time frame to complete it in the best manner possible unlike that of private sector jobs.

To conclude, the main benefits of working with government organizations is the reputation associated with it on a whole as well as the numerous opportunities coming up in recent times due to stellar growth of Indian Economy.

Also, I would like to highlight that Private Sector jobs do have their own advantages as well, and in many cases a Government job may not be right for an individual.

Would love to hear your comments on this!

[This is a guest post written by Vaibhav Deshpande, he is founder of website dedicated to Government Jobs]

Top 5 reasons why recruiters use social media to hire!

Kaushambi — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:39:33 +0000

It would be wrong to say that companies depend entirely on social media for hiring and getting to the ideal candidate match. But it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to say that an individual’s profile on social media or a passive web presence can heavily influence a recruiters opinion which can in turn affect their hiring decisions (or not).

Apart from a few problematic questions that hiring through social media throws up, such as "What is the line between personal and professional?", "What kind of information should a recruiter filter?" and so on, let’s take a look at why recruiters are increasingly using social media to hire.

To check who you really are

It’s unbeatable why anyone looking for a job wouldn’t clean up their social media profiles knowing that recruiters use it for hiring. From inappropriate online behaviors, backbiting about formers employers, memberships in certain types of groups and forums, shabby language skills to the types of friends a person has, recruiters can mine just about any kind of data about you as a person when they’re hiring.

Why would they undergo traditional procedures of personal calling, reference cross checking, confirming the credibility of information in your resume and so on, when they can rate you on their personality test absolutely through your social media page totally free of cost?

To filter existing applications

Companies who do not depend entirely on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, actually end up using it in their third or fourth round of recruiting. This is when they have already eliminated a whole bunch of applicants and are in the process of sorting out a last couple few.

At this juncture, after references are cross checked, social media can provide a last brush of valuable insights to a recruiter about which candidates they should zero in on.

Would they rather want a candidate who has solid connections with the top management of a rival company or would they prefer a marketer who has varied outside-the-office interests?

To test the waters on how much buzz a job posting creates

For a small and medium business enterprise or for an independent entrepreneurial venture, it’s a fairly expensive deal to constantly advertise on paid recruiting portals or through print advertisements on a frequent basis.

At the end of the day, even recruiters are under the stress of ‘selling a job’ and ‘attracting the best candidates’. Through social media, recruiters can advertise lower rung and mid level positions free of cost.

More importantly, by doing so they can test the response of applicants through direct inquiries and make alterations to their hiring strategies in real time.

To browse through a pool of candidate profiles

It is not necessary that recruiters use social media only when they urgently need to hire. Headhunters and HR professionals are constantly on the prowl for interesting profiles and candidates. They often keep an eye out for talent rather than a set of skills alone.

Many recruiters engage in conversations with potential candidates and bookmark their profiles only to make them an offer in the future. One of the top reasons why recruiters like to use social media is also because they can get a sense of demand and supply of jobs in the market, what candidates are looking for in a position, what they think of current remunerations, work life balance, a happy workplace and so on.

To target an extremely segmented niche audience

As a recruiter, you choose to use hash tags on Twitter for better niche keyword search results or Facebook Ads, Facebook Business Pages and Facebook Marketplace to find a category as specific as a ’40 year old seamstresses in Dallas area with 2-3 years of industrial experience’.

There are no limits on how deep you segment your target audience. An important reason why recruiters use social media is to not waste time, resources and money by advertising generically and then start filtering and sorting.

For applicants, the cue here is to join as many niche and segments forums and groups they can. They should make their online profile keyword rich in such a way that it becomes easy for recruiters to spot them in the crowd.

There are obviously many other reasons as well – but given above are 5 most important ones as to why recruiters aggressively use Social Media in their hiring process.

And a word of advice for people who are looking for a job or a switch – Please pay close attention to what you say and conduct on Social Media sites – It may come back to haunt you and you may probably loose a lucrative job.

Indian Startup Jobs – Marketing & PHP skills in demand [Infographic]

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:24:04 +0000

I just came across a very interesting infographic created by folks at My Smart Price giving insights on startups job scene in India. As expected – most of the startups lack Marketing & Sales people – that’s their biggest demand.

I can tell you from my personal experience that finding a good marketing / sales person for a startup is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There is no dearth of below average Marketing / Sales guys, but a good guys are just too rare.

On the technology front PHP has the biggest demand, While Microsoft Technologies seem like a absolute No No for startups. Not a single job has been put for MS technologies.

Indian Startup Job Scene [Infographic]

As far as geography goes, maximum startups jobs come from Bangalore followed by Mumbai & Delhi. Pune beats Hyderabad & Chennai in the startup job scene as well!

Note: The infographic has been made based on data crawled from various Indian job boards. The list can be found on their blog post.