In the past year or more, I have received more then 100+ mails/requests from different sources (excluding of course the Linkedin ones) asking for assistance to either find a job, provide an introduction to get a job. Except some freshers, most of them were from people who were looking for a job in desperation or had been laid off.

Whilst I tried my best, not being in the placement/executive search was not able to do justice to all of them. Observing some of them directly, through friends, on social network, made me realize that it is an social embarrassment in India (though that seems to be changing) which in turn leads to fair amount of negativity and even depression.

I do not profess to be a doctor or adviser, however thanks to experience over the years one can think of the following:

Don’t take a trip into self pity One of the easiest thing to do and which people hate to listen to, leading to your being avoided.

Don’t take things out on your family or kids A fall out from the first point, at times due to expectations from the family, but it is important that you remain calm, seeking their support rather than taking it out on them.

Put things in perspective Take time to introspect, you cannot be right always, see where you were wrong, how that affected your career & carry those learnings forward. Also evaluate if there is an entrepreneur lurking inside you?

Read/Renew Hobbies/check out with NGO’s Join a library, borrow books read; check your hobbies, something that you have forgotten or left aside in your rat race. See if you can contribute positively in an NGO’s - this would keep you grounded when you see people less fortunate than you.

Look after your health This is of paramount importance and should not be compromised at any point of time.

Lastly, Network with friends, acquaintances, your extended family. This ideally should be an ongoing exercise, however in the rat race and whilst in a ‘position’ we normally tend to forget. Keep your ego aside, listen to some advice and move forward.

Do you have points to add, do let me know & would like to add them.

Oh! Don’t forget to keep networked.

The last couple of weeks have been really tough in terms of bringing Projects up to speed. There has been a constant back and forth where my expectations and deliveries were a complete mismatch. A couple of colleagues kept asking, ” How do you make Project work” especially when I kept pushing the 90 day turn around. And this is what I shared with them.

Build your team (existing or new)

List all the people who are part of the project team
Factor all the skills that are required
Talk to each member about his/her skill set
Match people to the skills & tasks required

Once this is ready, it is important to list down:

Steps to schedule Management

1) Know which deadlines are sacrosanct (hard and fast) and which have some flexibility
2) No task should last longer than 4-6 weeks
3) Don’t schedule more detail than you can yourself oversee
4) Develop schedules according to what is logistically possible
5) Record all time segments in the same increments such as in days or weeks
6) Have some flexibility in project schedule for handling problems that might occur later

Believe me this works wonders for execution. If you feel something more can be added, please comment & I will update the post.