| |9 November 2017HIGHERReviewdevelop a positive view of you. It takes more than knowledge to land a job. Be smart about impression management.2. Establish a strong professional direction. A postgraduate education endows students with strong qualifications that have to be guided toward an intended professional path. Re-search the job market to know the trends and hiring needs. Use the information to conceive a variety of professional op-tions. Envision different professional paths and dare to think of yourself performing different occupations. Seek good mentor and listen to the feedback from mentors while decid-ing the process towards the information.3. Work on the essentials. There are established professional documents and performances that employees must manage. Write your C.V. early and keep different versions of it (short and long, or different styles for different kinds of jobs). Get feedback from a reliable source. Rewrite it multiple times until you have developed the best version of yourself on pa-per. Practice your interview skills. Put together a panel of professors or appropriate professionals who would be willing to practice mock interviews for the job you want. Hear their feedback for improvement. Attend job seminars organized by your university's career centre or your department. Ap-proach them and ask if they would be willing to write a pos-itive letter of recommendation on your behalf.4. Refine interpersonal skills. Professional success partly depends on other people. Be mindful of your interaction with others. Good relationships accrue goodwill, which translates into intangible capital. Unforeseen support and collaborations can always arise in unexpected places. Re-member, you never know who will help you in the future. Understand the social politics governing workplaces (even graduate programs have them). Listening well and being attentive allows you to recognize who and what can affect your career. It also allows you to be mindful of opportu-nities. Practice being a sensible colleague. In grad school, the lines of friend and colleague can be blurred, but in the workplace such undefined boundaries can elicit unintend-ed consequences. Find professional networks and cultivate positive connections. These relations can materialize into future collaborations, references, or sources of information, among others.5. Cultivate sanity and live your life. University and pro-fessional lives are only part of the building blocks of fulfil-ment. It is a good practice to find significance and serenity in ordinary existence. A balanced individual communicates stability and credibility. The professional world will notice. Find interests that promote well-being in your life. Engage in meaningful activities that make you happy.Finally, remember that knowledge does not land jobs, intelligence does; thus, be ingenious in building your professional future starting in grad school. (As Told to Amrutha Ram) A member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors London, (MRICS), he is responsible for the corporate real estate, administration, general services, facilities (soft and technical services), infrastructure, purchase and sourcing, health and safety, security, travel and MICE and so on. He has always been instrumental in writing handbooks, manuals process notes for most of the organizations. He is the board member of iNFHRA, and a recipient of recognitions for working with organizations like ICICI Securities, TNT India, Bombay Dyeing, Piramals in leadership positions.Dr. Abhijit Sarkar
< Page 8 | Page 10 >