How long will it take me to find a new job?

Most of the people who reach out to me are people who are looking for a job. They have either already quit their previous jobs, or they are considering moving to a new job while still in their current jobs.



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And there's one question that every single one of them asks me without fail - 'how long will it take me to find a new job?'

This question becomes more pertinent if you have already quit your previous job. You are then hoping to find a job as quickly as possible.

There are two important points here which you need to keep in mind, if you also have this question :

• When you have already quit your previous job, it takes longer to find your next job!
  (At least, that's how it will seem to you!)
• Finding a job is a full-time job!
  (This sounds cliched, but a job search is a full-time activity which requires time and effort.)

There are some common factors which determine the time taken : state of the economy, the state of hiring in your industry, the demand for your skill sets, etc.

But there are still some factors in your control which can help you shorten the time taken to find that ideal job :

• Research
• Think through and make a list of the kind of roles, the industries and the specific set of companies you would like to focus on. A lot of useful information can be gleaned from the web to help you in this exercise.
• Spend time with your resume so that it clearly positions you for the roles you would like to target. Take professional help, if required, to fine-tune your resume. (This post might help - Resumes still matter!)
• Network
• Make a list of all your friends, ex-colleagues, batch-mates, etc. and start reaching out to the them.
• Be very clear and precise about the help you need from them. People are willing to help but don't know how to, if you just tell them 'I am looking for a change, please let me know if you come across anything relevant for me'. Instead try 'Can you introduce me to person X in company Y/ head-hunter/ your connection in company Z'.
• Remember that most companies hire through internal referrals, and through their own hiring teams. While it is useful to network with head-hunting firms, they account for only a fraction of the actual hiring that actually happens. It is therefore important to network and connect with the relevant business heads in the companies that you have short-listed.
• Conversations
• Your focus should be to try meet with and have conversations with all the relevant people (head-hunters and business heads in companies and people in your direct network).
• In your conversations, do not restrict the discussion to job openings. Instead, talk about industry trends, the company's plans and talent challenges.
• Ask people for advice and inputs on career options, and you'll notice that people then get involved in your job search and try to help as best as they can.
• Invest
• As I mentioned earlier, a job search should be treated like a serious project. You will need to invest time and effort.
• Set time aside every day, and especially over weekends, to network, connect, reach out and follow up with people.
• Make it a point to maintain a calendar/ diary to keep track of all the conversations and the follow-up activities so that none of them slip between the cracks.

A typical job search, where you treat it like a serious project, can take between 4-6 months. The first 2-3 months will need to be spent in just networking and having conversations, at the end of which, relevant conversations will start emerging. These will then lead to serious options which you can then pursue to their logical conclusion.

And if you are lucky, you will land a job much sooner. But you will notice that that too happened because of your network and the conversations.

Do you have any other suggestions on shortening the time taken to land your next job, based on your own experience? Do share it herckguruprasad@gmail.com.
e as a comment, or mail me at

Energisers vs. Drains!

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In my line of work I meet a fairly large number of people. And many of them are people I am meeting for the first time. And I love that about my job!

Recently I realised that I unconsciously tend to classify people into two broad categories : 'energisers' and 'drains'.

'Energisers', as the name suggests, are people who energise you when you interact with them either in a formal meeting or just a casual conversation. During the course of the conversation, you feel engaged, you enjoy the exchange, you connect with the person well. And at the end of the meeting, you feel it was time well spent and you feel good about having met the individual. It doesn't matter that you might not have closed the deal, won the business or convinced the person to take up the assignment, or whatever.
Often, after an interaction with an 'energiser' you feel you have learned something new or gained some additional insight into some aspect of life, personal or professional.

And then there are the 'drains'.They just have this unique ability of sucking out all the enthusiasm and energy and hope and everything positive out of you.

Ok, maybe I am exaggerating here. But you would know what I mean.

An interaction with 'drains' leaves you feeling sapped of energy, annoyed, and frustrated. You feel that the conversation has been a waste of time and you haven't made any progress whatsoever with the individual. You feel like shaking them up and asking them to wake up and move on! (Or sometimes you just want them to get to the point!)

But what I usually do is politely try to cut short the conversation and let the individual know that I will reach out to him or her. These are people you tend to avoid over time.

It is not surprising that 'energisers' tend to get shortlisted and hired by companies more often than the 'drains'!

So here are a couple of questions for you : why are some people 'energisers' and the others 'drains', and is it possible for a 'drain' to change into an 'energiser' over time?

Please post your comments of write to me at ckguruprasad@gmail.com and I will publish your responses in my next post.

I was fired! But how can I tell you that?

One of the toughest situations people face in their career is being out of a job and having to explain the reason for that while they are looking for their next break.

The most common lines I hear from most people in such a situation is that they consciously decided to take a break to :

• write a book
• spend some quality time with family
• work with an NGO/ give back to society
• try something on their own

But very often, if they are not actually true, a good head-hunter or a recruiter can figure out that these are just euphemisms for being fired or being laid off from your last job! And the problem is that, if this is actually the case, these excuses sound more like lies or like you are trying to cover up something unpleasant. And that need not be the case!



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So how do you handle such a situation? Do you share the fact upfront that you were fired or laid off? Do you try hide it or brush it under the carpet, and pray that it never gets discovered?

I personally believe that you need not shout this from the roof-tops when you are applying for a job. But it is very important to share the facts at the appropriate time and not make it seem as if you were withholding sensitive information.

It is much easier to explain the fact that you were laid off than being fired, because people find it easier to understand and accept the fact that some companies tend to downsize businesses and let go of people. But when it comes to explaining the fact that you were fired, it is trickier.

Here are some tips to keep in mind on how you could handle such a situation :

• Answer honestly. That always works best. The worst thing that can happen is, the interviewer checking with a friend in your previous company and getting the real story. They then feel that you lied to them, and that's a sure way of getting knocked out of the process.
• Have an answer ready and rehearse it well before the meeting. Don't spend too much time on it, but don't try to avoid or brushing it aside either. Answer it precisely and try move the conversation to the next topic with a related question, if possible.
• Focus on what you learned from the experience and how you have moved on.
• Offer to provide some credible, senior references from the previous company which will give the hiring manager some comfort that you are not trying to hide anything, or that there is something that could come back to bite them later.
• As a rule, don't bad-mouth the previous employer or the supervisor. Hiring managers tend to view that negatively, and wonder if you are trying to blame others for your shortcomings.

Being in a situation where you have fired or laid off is an emotionally stressful experience. But the key is to remember that this situation is just a blip and that there is clear value that you bring to the table, then the hiring manager can clearly sense that. Smart hiring managers also know that if they give you a break, you would go the extra mile to make it up to them. And before you know it, you would have bounced back and come back stronger.

P.S. Do you have any questions on your job search? Write to me at ckguruprasad@gmail.com and I will either write back to you or cover it in one my my posts. Keep reading!

Asking the tough questions!

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The toughest questions are not the ones asked by the hiring managers. The tough questions are the ones that you should be asking of yourself before you take up a new job in a new company.

And I have noticed that very often, most people don't ask these questions. In fact, many times, they don't want to ask the questions that will rock the boat and jeopardise the process they are sailing through.

So you are being wooed by a company that you've always been fascinated about and have met with executives in the company who are reputed leaders in the industry. And the process has reached a stage where you have to now take a call on making the move.

All the critical check-boxes seem to be ticked :

• Good company; great brand
• Role and title adequately reflects your experience and is a step-up from your current role
• Great team of leaders and peers that you would be working with
• A good compensation package
• Your family is not going to get uprooted and they are also excited about this opportunity

But you still haven't asked some very important questions :

1. How is the new role going to be a step-up from your current one and how does it fit in with your overall career plan? Will there be a dilution in your growth as a professional?
2. How much head-room is available for growth in the new role and the new organisation? Do you have an opportunity to make an impact in the new role? Does the role challenge you adequately? Are the challenges the kind you are looking forward to?
3. And the most important questions : Is the culture of the new organisation something you are prepared for? Is it the kind of environment you can thrive in, and succeed? Will you be comfortable with the ethos and value system of the people and the place?

These questions and their answers can make all the difference between your being happy or miserable in the new role.

And there are innumerable examples of people who find the answers too late : soon after joining the company. And they realise that they cannot continue in this environment and then exit within 6-12 months of joining.

So, no matter how uncomfortable they make you, ask yourself these questions. You'll thank yourself for doing so.

(And how do you get the answers to these questions? We'll try answer this question in the next post.)

Shipwrecked and lost at sea!

This is one of the worst possible things that can happen to you in your career.

Imagine the scenario...

You have had a fairly stable and successful career. You have been in a leadership position for several years now, and you still have another decade or so to look forward to in your career.


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You recently came across a great job opportunity which scored on all fronts : company credentials, scope of the role, designation, growth prospects, learning opportunity, compensation, etc. The leadership team is a great set of professionals who you vibe very well with; and your chemistry with the manager, you would be reporting into, has also been great.

After discussing the opportunity with the important people in your life and after some serious introspection, you decide to take up the offer and move into the new role. You are very excited about the new chapter in your professional life.

And before you know what hit you, you are out of a job!!!

Within a short period of your joining the company (weeks or months), the company is acquired by another organisation (and these days, the acquiring company doesn't necessarily have to be a larger organisation) and in the reorganisation exercise, your role has been eliminated.

So what do you do when you find yourself in such a situation? Here are a few things you could do :

1. First and foremost, try find out as much as possible about the company you are joining, to avoid being caught in such a situation. Reading all about the company through news items on the internet, analysts' reports, etc. would give you some idea about the possibility of the company being a take-over target in the near horizon.

2. As far as possible, ensure that a severance clause is included in your appointment letter/ contract, so that if such a situation were to arise, you would have bought yourself some time (paid for by the company) while you found an alternate job.

3. Go back to your previous employer and have a conversation about the possibility of moving back into your previous role or a related role. This could be the quickest way of getting back into a job. (But the assumption here is that you have not burned bridges and had exited the previous organisation gracefully.)

4. Speak to the manager who hired you in the acquired company to identify possible alternate roles in the acquiring entity. It might make sense to take up a different role, even if it is not the ideal role, since it buys you time to plan your next career move.

5. Work your network to connect with the key leaders in the acquiring company to have informal conversations wherever possible. This would give you some idea into the acquiring company's working style and its plans. At the least, it helps you build some brand equity with the new leadership team, which could count when roles are being defined.

6. Connect with the search consultants you know and let them know about the situation so that they can reach out to you if they are working on any relevant assignments. Also connect with the leaders in the industry, especially the key competitors of the acquiring company, to explore possible roles.

Most importantly, be mentally prepared for a 4 to 6 month horizon before you can come up with relevant options for yourself.

And before long, your career should be back on the fast-track!

Who had the last laugh?

I recently interviewed a senior leader for a client assignment that I was running. I am not sure if the client will hire this individual, but I am definitely going to present this individual as a very good candidate for the role.

This is one person that stands out among many of the people I have met over the last few months. And I asked myself what was it about this person that made him stand out? There were other candidates who had better experience, better pedigree, and various other credentials.

But the one aspect that seemed to make a difference is humour, or rather his sense of humour.

I remember distinctly that this individual had high energy, was not cagey nor over-enthusiastic, was not condescending nor apologetic. He was pleasant, sure of himself and had a crisp and clear way of presenting his responses. And most importantly, he a good sense of humour.

I have had interactions with candidates in the past who come across as cynical and sarcastic. And the sarcasm is directed towards their employers, colleagues or even head-hunters! And it was clear that the cynicism was dragging the individual into a vicious downward spiral.

But, I digress! Coming back to the individual I was talking about.

He clearly used his positivity and his fine sense of humour to great advantage.

Is humour a good idea, especially in formal situations like job interviews? Does it always work?

• Humour works if, and only if, you are able to carry it off well, and it is not a forced effort. If you are not feeling comfortable enough to use humour, any forced effort would only back-fire.
• Humour works if the people you are interacting with, are able to appreciate the humour. The last thing you would want is to give some stiff-upper-lip executives the impression that you find the whole exercise 'a laugh'.
• Humour works once you have established your credibility and have developed a connection/ rapport with the individual(s) you are meeting. Trying to tickle their funny bone too early in the interactions would leave them wondering what you found so funny!

Humour, if it flows naturally, and is well used, could be a great way of engaging with the people across the table and taking the discussion up a few notches. It clearly helps you make a favorable impact and stand out vis-a-vis the competition.

Use humour well, and you could well have the last laugh!

Are you a lifer?

Recently most of you in India would have come across this article about the near zero-attrition among the senior management in companies like ITC and HUL (Zero attrition at senior management since 15 years; remuneration & reward strategy cited as main reasons - bit.ly/xTuQ1a). The article went on to enumerate the reasons for these exceptions in today's corporate environment.



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 Most organisations spend a huge amount of time, money and effort in reducing attrition, especially at leadership levels. High churn at these levels creates instability within the organisation, uncertainty in the ranks and ultimately below-par returns for all stake-holders of the organisation.

But is zero-attrition practical? And more importantly, is it desirable in today's context?

It definitely seems to be a desirable attribute for the organisation, but is it desirable for you and your career?

Senior leaders with relatively stable career graphs are viewed in a positive light by hiring managers or board members of companies. But what about leaders who have spent their entire career lives in a single organisation? Here are a few thoughts :

• If an organisation is able to provide growth, stability and reward to an individual, there is no reason for the person to move. (Remember our parents who spent their entire career in single organisations/government jobs and retired with all the benefits? They couldn't bring themselves to think of moving out of those jobs.)
• But in today's context, you do not come across too many organisations where you can bet your entire career on. You still have the government jobs and some rare companies like ITC & HUL, but these are exceptions.
• Professionals have far more risk-appetite today and are willing to move companies for professional growth. And, unlike in the past, there are various options available out there. And such jumps are no longer viewed negatively.
• What this trend has given rise to is an entirely different perspective of 'lifers', or people who have spent a lifetime in an organisation. (People who have spent 12-15 years or more in an organisation tend to be viewed as lifers by hiring managers!) Lifers actually get looked upon with a pinch of suspicion!!!
• Has this person stayed on in this organisation because she didn't get head-hunted by anyone else?
• Is this person too risk-averse and not willing to move out of her comfort-zone?
• Is this person too used to working in a certain environment? Will she fail if she is put into a different setting?
• This person has not demonstrated the ability to move into a new organisation and deliver in a completely new setting.
• Did this person grow in the organisation by virtue of being the only person left behind? Have all the good people left leaving behind only the average performers?

So zero-attrition and lifers would be great indicators for organisations, but may not necessarily be good for you and your career.

And the worst thing that can happen to a lifer is suddenly finding yourself being let go by your organisation and feeling like a deer staring at the headlights of a speeding truck on the corporate highway!

Don't let this happen to you!