Jobless Out Not Hopeless

Are your friends’ employment and job-related updates on Facebook driving you insane? Fear not, we’re here to rescue you! Palak Kapadia gives you the how-to on surviving unemployment after college

In an alternate universe, life rolls pretty much the textbook way. You graduate from college, get that dream job, make loads of money and enjoy work so much that you look forward to it every day. In that world, no new graduate would ever have to deal with unemployment. But hold on a moment, real life doesn’t work that way. Be it because one didn’t find something great at the placements, chose not to settle or simply didn’t get selected, the fact that recent grads can and do find themselves unemployed is extremely common. But before your friends’ ‘Started working at…’ updates on Facebook, your parents’ “What are your plans for the future?” and your neighbour’s daughter’s husband’s uncle’s “Beta, kahaan naukri karte ho?” make you want to take a plane to Antarctica and never return, we have some tips on how to survive the post college unemployment.

FIND AN INTERNSHIP
No, they aren’t going to pay you much and yes, you might have to bring your boss coffee at times, but let’s face it – internships are indispensible when it comes to adding value to your CV. A lot of corporates and big brands have a minimum requirement of graduation for the interns that they take in. “I worked with Accessorize, one of the top most brands of accessories in the world for a few months after I graduated. I handled their social media and to say that the experience was amazing would be an understatement. The kind of exposure I got there is unbeatable and the mention of a brand as reputed as Accessorize on my CV grabs eyeballs wherever I go!” says Pooja Shah, a recent graduate from SVKM’s Usha Pravin Gandhi College of Management in Mumbai. Besides, a lot of companies have a potential absorption of their interns. If they love your work while you intern with them, you just might end up with a job offer!

FREELANCE
A lot of professionals these days prefer freelancing vis-à-vis taking up a full-time position. Freelance assignments allow you to work on multiple projects at once and explore various avenues. You are free to take up as many assignments as you can handle, hence effectively using your time and building up your portfolio. Also, since you will be working for various corporates in your field of expertise, the contacts that you make will go a long way in helping you secure a job. However, do ensure that you have enough money saved up for the few months or so that you plan to freelance. Freelancing doesn’t pay as much as a full-time job, and there are times that assignments run dry.

START UP YOUR OWN VENTURE
Whoever said that you had to work for someone to make money? For those who’d prefer to be their own boss and think they have what it takes, go ahead and start your own venture. Jay Bhansali, dropped out of his final year of a media studies degree to work on his dream of filmmaking. Driven by his passion and ceaseless zeal, he co-founded Veda Productions. “I’ve always had this thing of starting something on my own because I believed in doing something for myself rather than slogging for someone else. The biggest motivation for me was to have my own identity in a crowd of millions – I wanted to find myself and use my capabilities to influence the industry with my charisma and work. I always believe my intuition and somewhere my intuition already knew what I always wanted and I just went with the flow! ‘Less are the days to be big!’ – that’s the maxim that drives us. It’s only been a year we’ve started Veda and we’ve been doing quite well! One of our videos with Shankar Mahadevan even got nominated for Honesty Oscars 2014, a category under the Academy Awards,” he adds with pride.

PICK UP A NEW SKILL
One is never too old to learn something new. Use the free time on your hands to pick up a new skill – it may be something relevant to your field of study. For instance, if you want to be a graphic designer, why not sign up for a course in photgraphy? Or Mr Budding Writer, why don’t you learn a new language? You may also learn something that you always wanted to, but somehow never got the time. You never know when these skills just might come in handy. Besides, which employer doesn’t want to recruit someone with proficiency in diverse fields? All in all, not getting a job straight after college might just be the best thing to happen to you. There are tons of things out there, waiting to be explored! All you have to do is look.

Volume 4 Issue 3