The other side

In my perfect imaginary world, every resource is equally accessible to everyone , all deserved ones gets their best without undesired sweating and the effect of bias/luck. But that’s not the case in real world, thanks to the dynamic parameters involved.

When it comes to Employment/Job, that is indeed the critical stage in anyone's lives. I know the pain of being jobless, the state of being unnoticed despite the talent and the limited opportunities. More precisely, First Job is lot different/challenging with high expectations and emotions involved. Therefore, I am focusing this topic on the the first job aspirants as experienced candidates already know the path and have better accesses/experience in handling this.

As years went along my career, although I got complacent with what I got, below questions/phrases from my relatives/friends pounded me heavily during various stages in my career and left me in thoughts.

----"You are well settled, my --- completed graduation, would you be able to show/help finding a job?"

---"My #relation#(i.e in reference to me) is so successful and settled, I am sure he will be able to help settle our daughter/son".

These sound familiar? . Probably most of us would have run in to something similar!!

In all above instances, I know I seriously wanted to help those young ones to settle, but I couldn't do much. Because, neither I am running a company nor I could funnel them through a reference channel. The best I could do is to send their resumes to known contacts and/or suggest to apply for the job openings that I come across. Ultimately, it would have little-no impact to admit it candidly.

Along this journey this thing shaped as such:

2000s: What can I do to help them( for the sake for satisfying the expectations on me.....)

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2020: It turned out as my quest to help young graduates, who are unable to find jobs due to limited opportunities. I know I still didn't get better on being successful, but this time I don't want to let it soak and die in my mind. Hence making this attempt for good cause and pitching my voice for voiceless.

As we know, Big/Medium sized Tech Companies usually go for campus recruitment/internships in top/well known colleges. I see there are numerous colleges which don’t have such opportunities, but it is absolutely fine. However, it doesn’t have to be implied that best talent studies only in reputed colleges in main cities/towns and that we can't find such in remote/rural colleges. Circumstances(transportation/economic/family/remote etc) make students to choose some college options, which obscures them from getting in to limelight.

Secondly, I know there are random off campus drives but those may not cover good amount of slack. And, I see these drives have limited visibility and may not occur within the time these graduates are still fresh in the market.

In an urge to help talented graduates, I have tried to reached out to some freshers who are highly talented, and having passion on career, but do not have access to better opportunities and exposure. Out of my discussions with them, I got overwhelmed with their talent and/or untapped scenarios(needless to discuss here) they are in, ultimately due to which they are left unnoticed and unable to get a hold of the strings that they could crawl upon.

Out of experiences earlier, I took it as a challenge and tried to push couple of resumes wherever possible , through number of contacts I have, but no luck as of yet. I learned freshers need to go through either registration processes on company websites and wait for the call or wait for off campus drive announcements, and there are no reference channels.

As a summary of my analysis on this situation, I see following solutions.

1. Referral channels for freshers:

- There may be exceptions, but I commonly see that referral programs are focused on experienced candidates only. Organizations need to consider opening up reference channels for fresh graduates too. As the companies' trusted employees, with unique backgrounds/cultures/origins can?get?the talent from their own areas, such references strengthens diversity in the talent. Also, references would be authentic when employees’ referential credibility is tied with the quality/success rate of references.?

- Secondly, this saves huge costs and time by avoiding/curbing the need for ad-hoc talent hunt, and majority of quality fresher requirements can be met.

- Thirdly, it provides a wizard for people who are craving for opportunities to extend help to the students needing support.?Also, this motivates employees with the taste of Entrepreneurship!! (Of course, they may not be creating jobs but certainly helping fill positions soon and controlling joblessness on their part). At minimum, it gives a sense of fulfillment.

- Mainly, this also aligns with the organizations’ vision to provide equal employment opportunities to all.?

2. National Qualifier:

- Not sure of the practical challenges/regulations, a national level qualifier drive(something similar that grad. colleges , public services follow) is required to pool qualified talent. As a testimonial, we have heard/seen several successful stories in public/civil services exams, which gave life changing opportunities for the great talent from remote/rural areas and those who had no resources except the passion for the career.?Had those miracles been possible if such exams were limited to only renowned colleges/cities?. Certainly No.

-If this is modeled in tech industry companies can start from these qualified candidates, before even going for own drives. Although I quoted this in tech industry aspect, same can be modeled across other streams.?

I would like to conclude it here. Please feel free to share updated information, resources, insights if you have think that would help.