A phrase that we have been using time and again. The fact is, it is a profound truth. And it gets at play the most when one heads for the ultimate nerve-juggling task. A Job Interview!

Your first interview for a job unarguably is that decisive moment which has the tendency to influence your entire life, be it personal or be it professional. Have you ever imagined that this moment, if it turns in your favor, will determine the type of outfits you will wear to work, the sort of friends you are going to keep, the kinds of associations you will have to build, the lifestyle you will be leading, to the extent of the rank of schools your children are going to attend? And this makes me wonder, how can we just get away by taking it for a joke? Read More »

Ever heard the term “Global Village”?  I did first in school, wrote lengthy essays on it. But the real understanding of this term came much later. What a miracle it was to be able to search your buddies from school days! And gradually Facebook became our fourth nostril.

Updating status on Facebook at least twice a day, commenting on friend’s recent photo of his trip to the mountains. How technology bridges the gap is phenomenal. That too, within seconds. Friends change their statuses and we bombard them with our comments, living the same moment with them. Neat! Isn’t that? Even get nosey by peeking into everyone’s profile just to know what they are up to. Scanning their albums and Read More »

Sit yourself down before a mirror and try reflecting upon where you have gone wrong. One mistake that most of us make is of taking our resumes “for granted”. How many of us actually know and realise the significance of a good resume? Well the standard answer will be “we all do”. But think again!! How seriously and sincerely do we follow that?

Do we actually in the real sense of the word realise that our resume is the first and the foremost impression we are making on an employer? And it should have zero errors; rather it should contain content which would make the employer call us for an interview. If you are thinking your resume is the sole piece of document that will land you straight into a job then please note Read More »

Starting on May 11th to May 17th you will have one week to apply to all relevant jobs in Pakistan, to download company information and to chat with HR staffers representing their HR on a one-on-one basis for instant feedback and advise you may need.

Logon to http://www.rozee.pk/jobfair/

The Virtual Fair will connect thousands of students and alumni with leading jobs in Pakistan.

A valid degree is no longer the only tool you need to build your career or develop a sound plan for employment in an already saturated employment industry; what you need is a well-timed entry of your individual brand into the job market. How do you develop your brand?

Connect with your Placement Office

To start off, if you are lucky enough to be part of a University that has invested in a Campus Placement Office that gives career advice and helps talented students with placement in top companies, you must have already been profiled in the annual profile books or been recommended though your Placement Office.  You should leverage your counselors and ask them about how to get started on building your career. Remember that it is never too early, because you are competing with other students who have an edge over you because they package their coursework and affiliations better. So, don’t miss out on a good opportunity because you didn’t market yourself well enough or took too long to launch.

Use your university’s image to work for you

Moreover, all universities have their own brand worth that you can tag along on, and many universities have certain specialty areas that they are considered the best in. If your university is among the top slots in that region, you should highlight your educational star power by stating your university affiliation boldly. See ROZEE.PK Survey 2007 listing the Top 10 Universities Rated by employers.
Read More »

Nick VanDerWalt
Academic Dean
Hult International Business School

Managers seeking to enhance their careers, or even simply stay in employment, are faced by challenges no other generation has faced. The rudimentary human requirements of self fulfilment and even ensuring the continued ability to provide families with a basic standard of living have become far more complex than ever before.

Not only are managers encountering some of the most rapid and radical change in the history of humanity but they are facing some of the greatest global financial instability. This has arisen from the last century of fundamental change ranging from simple flight to the destructive power of nuclear weapons and on to space technology. Recent advances in such areas as genetic engineering and scientific technology as well as the true globalisation of markets only serve to highlight this challenge.

Social, business and political structures have reflected this change and we can no longer look at the precedents set by the previous generation. For the first time managers are facing a level of ambiguity in all they encounter from the organizational structures to the skills they must possess and the technologies they must use in their day to day activities – office technologies that were not even dreamed of a decade ago.

By avoiding or failing to participate in further education, such managers are simply ruling themselves out of the career market at a time of increasing competitiveness for jobs resulting from the global financial crisis. However, simply taking a few courses to provide some relevant skills is not sufficient.

Such skills become rapidly redundant in today’s environment – sometimes in as little as six months Rather, aspiring business leaders must learn how to manage ambiguity resulting from change. Global organizations take familiarity with basic skills for granted. What they look for first and foremost is the ability to manage in a changing environment. Associated with this, they look for people of integrity and principle who can also operate in a global business environment and then finally, they look for the skills.

Perhaps the greatest reflection of this is the level of investment people are prepared to put into their own education and the depth and breadth of the education they seek. Such leading US business schools as Harvard, Hult, Stanford and others that are in the top rankings of such publications as the Financial Times and the Economist attempt to provide this. Hult through its global staff drawn from the faculty of the world’s leading universities, its rotation of students through its campuses in the US, Dubai, London and Shanghai builds on it students’ cognitive abilities to lead through change, to build global relationships and operate in an environment that will create huge opportunities for them.

For those who wish to be competitive in today’s job market, there is an imperative for continuing education. Without it people will sink below the waves of turmoil created by change and the continuing instability of the global markets. Career management and continuing education is today’s imperative for managers to retain their jobs and realize their aspirations for themselves and their families.

Mr. Nick van der Walt is the Academic Dean at Hult International Business School in Dubai. He has held senior positions in industry, academia and the community as chief executive, director of companies in the energy and services sectors, and trustee of charitable trusts. Having served in these roles, he has extensive corporate and educational experience in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Australasia. Professor van der Walt has also consulted to the boards and senior management of some of the world’s leading companies. His research has been published extensively in leading international academic journals and he has also served as the Honorary Consul for South Africa in New Zealand appointed by President Mandela. Professor van der Walt’s outside interests include sailing and squash.

To learn more about HULT International Business School and how it can accelerate your career click here.

At times, I see skilled people stuck at jobs that are way below their aptitude while others end up with these great job opportunities! This makes me speculate if luck has something or everything to do with getting a quality job?

Do you remember the experience when luck crossed your path at one time or another in your career? You met a friend of a friend at a chance meeting and he told you about an opportunity at his company which fit your background. You went for an interview and were hired right away: Good Luck? And what if you gave 4 successful interviews for the same job but you did not get it and you did not know what went wrong: Bad Luck? I wouldn’t praise/blame luck just yet until I have read rest of the article!

It requires persistence and hard work to earn an opportunity of good luck. Those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.

In this article, I will talk about how instead of worrying about being lucky or unlucky, which you cannot control, it is more productive to focus on certain traits that you can cultivate in yourself during your professional career to help lady luck find you every time.

When you see a successful person in life, notice how he or she has ingrained most, if not all, of the following attributes in his life. As far as that successful person is concerned, it is not just luck!

Update yourself:

World has become a global village. It’s a small place and technology has squeezed everything within the palm of our hands. Therefore, the following tips should help one in order to keep up with its pace:

• Keep yourself open for learning new skills. If already employed, ask your employer to invest in your skills enhancement; if you have to accept a new job for a slightly less money in order to gain the pertinent skill-set, then do so.
• Be proactive about accepting new assignments at work. Sometimes the more challenging the task, the more you will learn.
• Communication skills have become important in all types of jobs in this age of electronic mail. Try to enhance your communication skills by reading and writing as much as you can.

Thus, with enhanced skills you can become a more useful part of your existing organization. The more updated you are, the more versatile and successful in various capacities you will be and the more will you be bestowed by the Luck Goddess.

Put Perseverance into action:

A wise man once said, “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.”

• Work a little harder or a few minutes longer on a task that you do not like.
• Don’t give up on difficult jobs or situations.
• Keep working at the difficult thing until you complete it.
• Always finish what you start.
• When something doesn’t work right, try again and again.
• Don’t lose your temper when someone or something upsets you, try to evaluate the situation objectively.
• Always try to place yourself in the other person’s shoes.

Always remember: Many strokes overthrow the tallest trees.

Supervise your brand:

It is common culture at a job place to assign tags to colleagues regarding their performance or nature e.g., bossy, consistent, lethargic, dumb, energetic, sharp etc. This practice, i.e. branding a certain image of a certain person, is very effective as a matter of fact because when it comes to your colleagues, your branded image is glued to their memories whenever they think of or talk about you. In other words, it becomes your reputation. These brands can damage, or facilitate your career. So try building a good brand from day one for yourself as you are your own brand manager at your work place.

Networking:

Networking is key to develop and retain good professional relationships within, as well as outside, the company. It also opens up numerous prospects for a bright developing future.
So, keep a smiling face and a good fun nature, as the wise always say, build as many bridges as you can!

Groom yourself:

Jobs have become a worldwide industry which requires a certain outlook and personality for its workers. Employers are more particular now than before about how the employee carries him/herself. For this reason, not only the outlook but also the over all personality of a person is judged during the interview sessions.
Hence, the job seekers should pay due attention to the aspect of grooming themselves.

HR departments of big multinationals have even devised certain personality tests in this regard where you are monitored thoroughly, e.g., how you react under different or stress situations, patience tests and so on. So along with your brilliant degrees and glittering CV, this section also requires particular attention.

Before leaving for an interview some obvious, but most often ignored, things should be considered:

• Take a shower.
• Don’t smoke just before the interview
• Select neat and pressed clothes. Prefer white, blue or black colors- these are considered business colors.
• Use a good deodorant.
• Men, make a neat shave. Trim your beard/mustache/hair/nails.
• Females, do not use loud colors e.g. red or shocking pink nail paint, lipstick or clothes. Remember, it’s a job interview, not a wedding ceremony.

My sole advice to you is that: groom yourself according to the industry needs. If it requires a jeans, wear the jeans, if requires a suit, wear the suit. It does not need to be expensive. All it has to be is a neat, fresh and enthusiastic look. Attire yourself in a way that blends in with your personality and your job nature.

Always Deliver your best:

In the end, always try to deliver your best at your job place. Whatever is the nature of your job, it requires attention and sincerity to produce the crop of success. Instill in yourself a competitive nature and make your work stand out. You will not regret the results.

So, dear reader, it’s time to write your own story and make your own decision. Leave no loop holes and you’ll see how luck finds its way into your life.

ROZEE: Owing to the tough economic situation and the sky rocketing inflation in the country, how is PTC coping with the challenge to keep the company cost effective and attractive at the same time for job seekers?

Mr. Shahed:The key to survive and excel during this difficult time is to ensure having an agile organization. The ability to promptly adjust with the changing circumstances helps us cope with the upcoming challenge. A quick decision-making practice within the organization keeps us ahead of the curve. Our philosophy when it comes to rewarding people is to be competitive in the market place and reward for performance.

When we have to work with constrained resources, we try to make sure that we are allocating our resources appropriately to reward the high performers and retain the high potentials. Where possible, we fill vacancies internally although we do seek out external talent as this provides the opportunity for fresh thinking, new ideas and experiences.

ROZEE: Do you believe Pakistani Universities are creating an effective talent pool and what is PTC’s strategy to attract and create the best talent in Pakistan?

Mr. Shahed: Over the past few years the focus towards grooming the young talent of Pakistan has increased among both educational and corporate sectors. Various universities are in the process of developing and enriching their graduates with knowledge and practical experience, required to meet the challenges of the job world.

PTC also focuses on identifying, recruiting and polishing the young talent present at the top notch universities of Pakistan through their rigorous and systematic employer branding programme. One such very popular initiative by PTC is Battle of Minds – a case study competition for university students.

ROZEE: As a major partner in ROZEE.PK’s online recruiting tools, how would you rate the success and importance of online recruitment firms such as ROZEE.PK?

Mr. Shahed: Online recruitment firms are one of the major sources that PTC uses to fill its Talent pool as it provides a comparatively cheaper and easier solution to all the candidates and hence an equal employment opportunity. Among the present online portals, ROZEE.PK gives us access to a more refined and competent pool of talent required by the organization to achieve its goal and carry out its operations.

ROZEE: PTC is a well oiled machine in terms of having a strong international backbone. How has this business model succeeded so far and what are the principles of its success?

Mr. Shahed: Being a part of global organization is great!!! More and more we are moving towards “Above Market Way of Working” – to put it simply if there is a common need of different markets, that work is done in one place and shared amongst all other companies.

This is working very well for us and the group. We have access to best practices around the world; our people can get exposed to multicultural environment through the aid of technology and through working with colleagues from other countries even sitting within our company. Through this exposure our people have also been able to take forward their career beyond the boundaries of Pakistan, 20 of our managers are currently working in different parts of the British American Tobacco world.

ROZEE: Human Resources are among the first casualties of an economic slowdown. What is PTC’s strategy to deal with this challenge?

Mr. Shahed: Human Resource becomes the first casualty when an organization has extra people on their payroll who are either not required in the first place or not adding substantial value. Through a robust performance management process, we make sure that we keep only performers in the organization. Economic downturn is one form of change but changes occur continuously around us.

We keep ourselves abreast of these changes and restructure accordingly. In this process we are compelled to downsize our organization but we make sure that this is done with dignity for those who have chosen to leave us and we ensure appropriate financial assistance so that they can transition into their next career smoothly.