Amit’s e-world

Today, is one of the rare free days. I am through with my mammoth MSI group report (16000 words .. uggh) submission. Just been wandering one the net & also paid a visit to one of my earlier blog sites. Here is a masterpiece written on 28th Dec, 2004. Its timing is appropriate as we have just had an emotional intelligence lecture in Leadership & Top Management elective.

Have you ever read an HR interview in the newspapers? In almost all of the ones I have read, there is one innocuous factor that all HR professionals look for in a potential candidate. That’s EQ - emotional quotient. Though quite a buzzword nowadays, it wasn’t quite heard of in the old economy. Let’s try and understand what makes EQ so prized in the new economy.

The old economy was an industry of equanimity. Employees were more or less aware of where they would be in 5 years. The routes were clear most of the time, and cases of disparity in peer salaries were far and few. Let’s take an IT industry scenario. The demand-supply dynamics in this industry warrant higher prices for some resources. Higher prices could include higher wages, better opportunities, global mobility et al. Of course, only the cream can enjoy such benefits. But the new economy industries not only need the cream, they need the masses as well. After all, when there are margin pressures, the IT companies concentrate on volumes, don’t they. And to have the desired volume of business, they need the right volume of people - both good and bad. Though the cream may not really need to be emotionally strong (because companies will rarely risk testing the emotions of such employees), this is a very important asset to have in all other resources. This is because the biggest factor of dissatisfaction in employees is caused by peer pressure. And with the disparity in peer-pricing so rampant and so large, the average employee is expected to be emotionally strong to take all this disparity in his stride and keep performing.

If the "average employee" in the above paragraph, makes you say "That sounds like me", keep reading. Lets understand what it takes to develop a high EQ. Well, nothing better than a real-life experience of being let down/rejected.. Ha ..Ha. That is the tough route and undesirable too. The easier route is as follows. Firstly, always remember the 9-1-1 slogan "Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst". This will ensure that rejection doesn’t take you by surprise and destroy you from within. And secondly, always have a good number of goals and be open to alternate paths. The problem with most people is that they have too few goals and are therefore not hedged against rejection. Also, be open to explore other routes to reach your goals. Many times, I have seen people hell-bent on trying to reach a goal through a route of their choice - thats mostly the route they already are on. That’s primarily because of the human tendency to resist change (subject of my last blog) and his reluctance to challenge stability. But always remember, the route is less important than the goal itself.

A few days back, when I was attending a lecture in the Leadership elective, my phone suddenly started buzzing. I stepped out & took the call. The lady at the other end introduced herself as a recruitment consultant. This was for a job I had applied to a few days back in an area that interests me most - outsourcing advisory. After a few questions clarifying my past roles and current status, the discussion went into a normal interviewing mode, and I was starting to say things about my leadership experience, my understanding of the role, what attracted me most to apply, my top 3 strengths that I bring to the role and all those general interview questions. What’s more, I was even asked for references. All this information on a call that was unscheduled & ill-timed. I think I managed the call well, and was assured that my case would be taken further with the client.

This experience re-affirmed the importance of career focus - an advice that many career pundits preach. Had I not been fully aware of the role & the sector, I am sure I would have stuttered my way through the impromptu discussion. However, interview preparedness is not the only benefit of career focus. It helps you in a few more ways as explained under.

First, if you are really interested in a sector, you can select appropriate people in this sector to talk to. With the proliferation of professional networking sites, alumni database and your own contacts, getting people to speak to, to help you get a better understanding of the sector, is not difficult. In fact, career focus helps you channelise you energy in identifying the right people to speak to. Quite simply put, it isn’t possible to network with 100 people you had no common connection with & maintain them as part of your life-long network. Networks are really important in getting to understand the companies / sector. Often, company websites present a very rosy picture about what they do, but an insider’s perspective of what they do, is perhaps much closer to reality.

Second, you can make better applications to fewer companies, if you are applying direct. Any good job hunt strategy is the one that uses all the channels avaiable for recruitment i.e. campus recruitment, direct applications, networking, recruitment consultants. Managing your job search along with your MBA is an under-rated challenge. Ultimately, you are stuck with either of two approaches. Make a high volume of applications with low customisation of your applications or the reverse: make a low volume of applications with a high degree of customisation / tailoring of your application, specific to the job description. Invariably, people without a clear career focus tend to adopt the first approach for most of the applications. Needless to say, the second approach is more time-efficient & effective.

I have just recovered from a 10k run at London yesterday. We had around 20 runners from the current batch & a few alumni also joined in. It was a great event and thankfully went off peacefully given the renewed security threats in the UK. We left by coach in the wee hours of Sunday & found our parking after struggling to find unblocked roads that led us to St. james park. As we waited some distance from the start line, we got to touch & hold the olympics torch that would be used in the 2012 marathon, as one of the officials was carrying it for everyone to see & feel it. The race started at 9.35 a.m. & the professional runners got off the mark first. Though Dheeraj, Graham & I were around 50-60 metres from the start line, it took us a whopping 26 minutes to cross the start line, as the organisers has narrowed the start line to give racers enough room to run once they started. One of the differences between this run & the half marathon that I did last year at Mumbai was that yesterday there weren’t markers at every kilometre. I remember seeing only the 1k marker and the 6k marker. Psychologically, this gives infrequent runners like me quite a good feel to suddenly see a 6 km marker, after the first one. I must also admit that the number of walkers that I saw yesterday were considerably lesser as well, perhaps an indication of the general fitness levels of people in this country. It was good to bump into a few other runners from Cranfield after almost 8 km into the race. I am very happy that I was able to sprint in the last 100m of the race to make a glorious finish in 69 minutes. The winner did it it 29 min 48 sec. After the race, I collected my well-deserved good bag with a much needed Red Bull, a granola bar and a prestigious medal. To finish it, we had a picnic organised by the Cranfield trust (the charity we ran for). It was a great day & a great experience and we enjoyed it thoroughly.