Getting a job in highly populated India

It is hard enough to fight for a job in Malawi whose population is around 15 million. Can you then imagine the task in India, with a population of 1.25 billion? I do not know where I would start looking for a job in such a country. With this curiosity in mind, I asked two friends who are Indian citizens and very successful career information technology (IT) professionals in Africa on what one needs to do to get a job in India.

They told me that what compounds the problem is that every year, Indian universities churn out some half million technical graduates all fighting to get the first job! So, their answer was that it depends on the level at which one is in career development.

For those just coming out of university—and we focussed our discussion on IT jobs as an example –they have to first get a small consultancy job, or volunteer or indeed any other opportunity that simply gives them a chance to prove. Once they get the volunteer job, they work hard in their role, be it developing a website or assisting senior programmers in product development or system administration.

The two gentlemen recalled how they used to work from around 9 or 10am until around midnight. They said they would knock off at mid night only to catch some sleep and once they woke up they would be back to work. They had to prove their worth and value. They have to produce something outstanding in their volunteer or consultancy job so that they can be worthy of employment.

This is unlike in our country where only very few young graduates are prepared or willing to take on volunteer jobs as a start to their career. They cannot work for free to build the competences and to earn the trust and credibility which can help them win big jobs that pay big money. Basically, we are very short-sighted.

The underlying problem is that we are accustomed to free things. We do not want to invest or spend in order to gain something in return. We want to reap without sowing—that is very difficult if not impossible. Without sweat, we cannot gain sweet.

We need a paradigm shift. But we do get some rare exceptions even in Malawi. I once had an IT intern who was not paid any salary or allowance and yet he was the first to arrive at the office and last to leave. He worked so hard in between. Within three months, he got a well-paying IT job at one of the banks!

The two Indian friends told me of the second scenario–for those advanced in their career. I asked if they look for jobs in newspaper adverts. They said: “Absolutely no—never!” They said their jobs are not in newspaper adverts. They get jobs purely through networks. Although they work in Africa, they make sure that they continuously keep their networks in India alive—and other networks in Africa too! They said that if they were to go back to India without a job, they would start knocking at doors of the people that they know well! And within a couple of months, they would find a job!

How many of us invest time and resources in building, expanding and nurturing our professional networks? Remember there are no free things in life beyond the free air that God gave us to breathe and, for us believers– salvation. For the rest we have to exchange with some form of expenditure be it money, time, other resources or something in return. Work to build, expand and ever-green your networks all the time.

This will save you the moment you badly need a job when you lose what you have while comfortable. Do not think that you will build the networks when you are jobless. Your value then will degrade and so building networks will not be as easy. In fact, that time, you will not have the resources needed to build and sustain networks. Do it in good times! Good luck!