“A river cuts the rock not because of its power

                                            But because of its consistency”

PREFACE: In this article I am basically trying to focus on the most common mistakes job seekers do after their graduation. The examples used here are for engineering graduates but I feel that it is applicable to all.

At the end of final year, usually students are divided into two groups. One with jobs & one without jobs. One with students full of enthusiasm, clear goals, bright future - the heroes of the class. The other group is of people with no hope, no enthusiasm & no clear picture of future. Congratulations to the heroes but today I am not going to talk about them .The focus of this article is the other group, the so-called zeroes of class. My suggestion to them is that there is no need to feel depressed but at the same time please do not drop your guard. Just avoid some common mistakes and you will soon find yourself in the other group.

Leave your Nest as soon as possible ::

You should be at the right place on the right time. And the best place to find jobs are hub cities. For software graduates it is Bangalore or pune. Most of graduates know the best place to get jobs but they have some hesitation and fear of leaving the city where they were born, where they have so much attachment. So they always find some reasons to delay their departure like “yaar degree nahi aayi”, “cat ki exam to ho jaye”, “bhai ki shadi ke baad jauga”, “abhi apne yaha par bhi companies aane wali hai”, “Rakesh ka wait kar raha hu yaar” . Unfortunately their parents and their close ones also re -enforce this fear strongly because sometimes they are also not ready to say goodbye.

But the fact is if you leave early you will have less competition to face. If you have just passed out from your college then you have more chances to get a job. Also you will have more time to settle and understand big city life. As time passes the pressure to get a job will only increase. This way you will have less initial pressure to get a selected in a company.

Live in hostels only ::  

Find the hostels where other job seekers are living. Do not live with your friends who already have jobs or along with two or three people in a remote area. For a job seeker the most important thing is information: about the walk-in drives venues, how to prepare for technical test and interviews for different companies, what is currently happening in walk-in drives, which company is hot, which company is fraud, where to go & where not to go et cetra. This kind of news you can easily get in hostels. Also, a Hostel has an environment which enables you to study in a right direction. And the most important is the psychological aspect. If you see so many people who are like you; struggling for jobs then you get a lot of moral support also.

Strenthen your Network::  

Suppose by any reasons it is not possible to live in hostel, then it is very important for you to have a very good network. You should be able to get every information of any walk -in currently going on in your city. Try to be friends with a person who is living in a hostel. Remember this type of friendship is semi-professional. It means that you also have to give him information regarding walk ins, otherwise after some days he/she will stop contacting you. A very important advice- do not try to bypass any of your friends. Do not hide any important news from your friend; it is not beneficial in long term. 

Keep your gun loaded::  

                It may be possible that sometimes due to many factors you may get fewer opportunities, at that time it is very important to cash in every single opportunity you get. And for that it is very important to sharpen your aptitude, technical & communication skills daily. Otherwise wise you may regret not being vigilant later.

Have patience::   

A very important tip: please do not lose your patience. Because when god is hell bent upon examining you, you may face lots of difficulties like the friends with whom you came for job search may get jobs but not you, you may get rejected in the last round many times, you may have some economical problems or you could get less opportunities than others .Always Remember.... every dog has it’s day.So be patient and wait for your day.

Look back::  

Do the retrospective of your failures on the same day. Try to pin point the exact reason of your failure. This job is not as easy as it sounds. Because sometimes we make excuses and give false reasons .the best way to combat this is to make 4-5 member group, tell them exactly what happened and figure out the exact reason. Also you can break  the whole interview process into subsections like written(aptitude,technical,english),gd and interview(communication, technical).find  out the section you are lacking in. I am very sure that once you find out the section in which you are lagging behind, you can easily figure out ways to improve.

Study in the right direction::

Apart from reading the books it is a good idea to solve interview questions of different companies. This type of questions you can easily get from any interview question site.I know some people do not agree with this approach but through this type of study you get more in less time, and are able to recall more data in less time. This type of study will surely help you in written tests and for interviews just read same topics from the books in detail. Also it is a good approach to make handy notes.

Extra Edge::

If you want some extra edge than you can do some kind of certifications. There is one exam called “Elitma” for freshers if you get above 75% in that than there are good chances of getting calls and also you can show this on your resume. Apart from that you can join premium version (paid version) of job sites .it is also helpful to get interview calls.

In the end I just want to mention that if you read the above mentioned suggestions carefully and are able to incorporate them in your life then I am very sure that you will find yourself with a job in no time and will take your first step on the ladder of success.