5 Things to do in online job search

On 6th Jan 2009, when I went to my office our team was asked to attend a "communications meeting". Soon after the meeting started we were shocked to hear "due to economic slowdown in the US company has temporarily decided to close down our project" and we were asked to resign immediately. Though this is very common in companies from western world, it was a unbearable shock for me and my team. Despite some shock I was confident that I would get a job easily, since I was productive at my work most times. I kept my wife informed about this and she had confidence on my skills and hard work to get employed soon. When I decided to look for openings in a job portal I did realize that the number of openings have drastically come down, may be its because of the slow down. I sensed a mild heat!!! But still I said to myself, "yeah, though supply is more and demand is less we can get it if we keep searching deeper". Also I kept on clicking "Apply for this position" button in almost every alternate ad. I was almost convinced that someone will call me. To my surprise even my friends didn't call me. Couple of days later, I was watching a flash news on the TV which said "Satyam - Indian Enron" and Ramalinga Raju resigned due to their scam. My lovable job site jammed due to the several thousands of Satyam employees flooding the site. Again... too much supply and too little demand. I am gone !!!

For several weeks I wasn't getting any calls, and found that something is wrong with my resume. I spoke to some of friends who were employed as HR professionals on how they search and screen candidates. One of my friend helped me in explaining all. Then I found some ideas... slowly I started implementing my great discoveries and saw some success. I continued that and at last despite the slowdown, too much supply-too little demand, entire satyam jamming the job portals, I manage to get some calls and employed by one company (though the salary was way less than what I was getting). Over a period of time I was picked up for a profile which was dream job for me.

What are those strategies I implemented for a successful job hunt? I have made a short one page resource document with those 5 Things I did for a successful job search. If you are interested please download "5 Things to do in online job search"

Please do not forget to comment on it.

A typical medical rep's dilemma - Company or Colleague?? --- react or regret??

I met a friend of mine who works for a pharmaceutical company as a field executive.He is working in the company for several years and has always contributed significantly. He was flexible enough to take new challenges; in fact he was transferred to places to establish some of the products. He has a very typical problem now.

After putting several years of experience in an executive position, he is now awaiting for a managerial position. There are few front runners for that position within his company. Few months back he discovered that one of his colleagues (competing for the same position) is reporting false. And this is happening for some time.

My friend is aware that “reporting false” is an intolerable pharmaceutical industry so he talked about this issue to his manager then, but to his surprise none listen and he was told “you need maturity to handle such type of issue”. Increasingly my friend notices his manager’s bias towards this colleague.

He is in a dilemma now, taking this issue to senior management provides some window of opportunity to get the problem fixed, on the other hand taking this issue can permanently damage his relationship with his colleague and manager. In addition, though taking this issue provides a chance of my friend being considered for promotion, yet he doubts the senior management may also not listen to him and brand him permanently as “immature guy”.

This is a typical situation in pharma industry where almost all reps at some point would undergo such situation, Even I did!!!

I provided some solutions to my friend, but he looks unconvinced. Can you provide a solution?