Curious Case Of Right Person For The Right Job.

Ever since I have returned to hometown from the capital things have been rough. I have tried to restart the cake business. even sold close to 50,000 (gross) worth cakes in Christmas. Took counselling sessions occasionally. But primarily I have always been a trainer. A passionate trainer who doesn't train for the sake of training but trains to see a process of positive transformation in the trainees.

Knowing that I was in search for a job, a friend recommended my name to his General Manager of a big car dealer in Northeast who was looking for someone to look after the 'training' and digital marketing.

The first day of meeting I understood that more than a trainer he was looking for someone to design social media campaigns and also train the staffs in the dealership stores. But since they have a graphic designer I just have to give my input on the social media campaigns and the designer will do it accordingly. His primary goal was to increase the followers of particularly his Dealership store on different social media platforms. He seemed to be impressed by my practical knowledge on reaching out to the customers on social media platforms but told him that it takes time and there are technicalities involved and use of different tools like analytics, Google alerts, using hashtags, keyword tools, social mentions etc. Also I am not at all an expert in the field but speak from the experience of my pages on social media platforms on how to interact with the potential customers.

At this point we also discussed about the salary. He was confused on how much to offer, he felt that he needed someone like me who has a rich training experience and has a know-how on digital marketing. But he mentioned that he cannot offer me the amount I was drawing in Delhi as there are cost differences between former and Guwahati. However, I kept the ball in his court and let him offer me a number first.

Couple of days later I was called again, and he seemed to be very positive in taking me and even gave me the list of documents to be submitted for joining. But he gave me a task to design a mock social media campaign and a newsletter. He gave me three days, but I not only completed the task in a day but also submitted a short summary of presentation on how they can use different tools to increase the social media reach by using the above mentioned tools. It was an efficient response from my side.

He replied on email that he didn't like the design that I created but did not mention anything about the newsletter. See, a newsletter is not a big deal to create and that has been one of my responsibility in my earlier roles but to create a social media graphic and to go out of my comfort zone and deliver that in advance I surely was expecting some appreciation because I already mentioned to him that I have no graphic design experience and I was doing the mock so that he understands my idea of design which the designer can later take care of.

He simply mailed back that I do not fit into the criteria which he was looking for. There was no feedback or anything, Reasons can be many, may be was undecided on the salary to offer and assumed I won't be convinced with his offer, may be he felt that he needed a designer rather than a trainer and actually felt that I am not good in that. Or may be upon seeing my inputs he can delegate someone to do the task.

See, the reason can be anything, I would have appreciated at least some honest feedback. The recruiters need to be sure what are they looking for, if the recruiters are undecided they are not only wasting their time but most importantly wasting time of the individual who is searching for anything to grab at this difficult times.

Multitasking is different than trying to juggle between two different roles. When will the organizations or rather people like these will stop treating the trainers shallowly and think that all a trainer needs to do is to dictate the guidelines and complete the man days.

P.S. - Also, it is a big time recruiters and HRs need to stop mentioning about cost of living equation difference between other metros and Guwahati. For god sake, stop doing that, first of all there are no more cost differences anymore, they have disappeared over a period of time and most importantly if the recruiters are expecting candidates to compromise on the remuneration then are they willing to compromise on the level of talent they are ready to take?