What's Your Launchpad ?
Platform and Career
Many students ask for advice on resume during the internship and placement process at my business school. I usually base my advise on fantastic and practical suggestions from Wisława Szymborska- Polish poet, essayist, translator and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Here are the important parts.
Regardless of the length of life
a résumé is best kept short.Concise, well-chosen facts are de rigueur.
Landscapes are replaced by addresses,
shaky memories give way to unshakable dates.Memberships in what but without why.
Honors, but not how they were earned.Write as if you’d never talked to yourself
and always kept yourself at arm’s length.‘Writing a Résumé’ – Wisława Szymborska
Platforms have transformed the world of work. I have written about Blue Collar Worker, Creative Class and Work Life Balance in previous editions. Do check them out.
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DTW
During the Week, Aditya Puri retired as Managing Director of HDFC upon reaching 70 years of age and serving the bank for 26 years. To say that he had an extraordinary career would be still way off mark as his achievements go beyond HDFC Bank and has been transformational for the entire banking industry. According to an analysis by The Economist , Mr Aditya Puri led HDFC to extraordinary heights and generated 83 Billion Dollars as absolute shareholder value which makes him one of the finest banker the world has seen.
What can explain such an extraordinary career trajectory ? Is it his exploration of new opportunities (he left Citi Group in Malaysia to return to India), Experimentation (technology first) or simply being at the right place at right time (part of private bank in heady days of 1994) and may be all three or many more.
Careers can be immensely benefitted by the power of platforms in aiding discovery. Hiring information platforms have made discovery an easier and faster process as compared to good old snail mail based government employment exchanges. Of course, we have niche platforms for tech jobs, creative gigs, women workers and many more.
I have often discussed about the power of “optionality”- limited downside but potentially unlimited upside. Platforms can help us create optionality in career trajectory through learning and networking opportunities. Platforms can potentially help the aspirants solve the long tail problem of matching rare careers to equally rare opportunities. Social networks for professionals like LinkedIn can spread the word far and wide to connect supply and demand.
Platforms have created time shift even for consuming content for career transitions. Multiple platforms offer courses/knowledge sessions for continuous learning for working professionals thereby creating upward mobility for millions who can’t afford to take a break for higher studies. Innovative financing models like Income Sharing Agreements (ISA) may help job seekers to acquire a specific skill without taking on a debt burden.
Chief human resources officers from Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow and Verizon have joined hands to launch People + Work Connect to help move pools of people from one employer to another. It is NOT open to staffing agencies or individuals so basically serves to connect companies looking to fill their vacancies from recently retrenched employees from a company in the ecosystem.
Some companies like AirBnb created a mechanism to let the fired employees get employment in other great companies while offering them a generous severance package.
Platforms can help you to manage your career trajectory by helping you discover, engage, improve and even move on!
OTW
Over the Week, Sean Connery left us reminiscing about his memorable portrayal of James Bond.
Just the other day, I was discussing with my first year marketing students about the endurance of James Bond brand and its various transformations over last decade. With Daniel Craig taking over the 007 duties in Casino Royale, we saw a street fighter, bruised and of course “blond” James Bond. It was difficult for some purists to imagine/digest this transformation of Bond Brand but Daniel Craig seems to have won them over. The following scene brings out the inherent conflict of the character and subsequent struggle to establish credentials.
One of the career advice that I have received and would like to convey is to learn from others’ experiences. Of course, we would live a different life but we also do not have to reinvent the wheel. We could all be wiser in hindsight but today you could use somebody else’s hindsight to guide your foresight. We could learn from people who are further down the life and career trajectory than us and perhaps solve the career maze.
I Love You
Shailendra
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One more piece of combination of inspiration and information by you sir! Nowadays really platform helps a lot in a job searching and switching and the best example is Linkedin, even this covid situation increases the importance of this. A very nice approach done by people work connect. The most beautiful lesson given by you sir that learn from other's experience.
really loved the idea of AirBNB by creating a pool of fired employees by which they can reduce the threat of information leak (as most of the employees do it ) and they will maintain the good repo with the entire ecosystem.
and connecting them on a platform would be a nice game to watch.
thanks a lot for this sir.
PS: i might sound silly but i'm still waiting for you to give your words on Mirzapur season 2.