The non Jugadi Method

The prelude:

What about Jugad in fields, you feel you are good at or have a definite passion for? Strict unwritten rule: NO JUGAD. Trust your instincts and abilities; they will easily outdistance the five letter word. Trust yourself to swim in unfriendly waters. So what is the “ethically right and functionally better” route? Well you will have to apply through usual channels, some applications will be unsolicited, yet you would mail them. Some will turn you down even without a reply; some will do that in writing thus would be more polite. Then there will be some who would offer you what you are not looking for and a rather meager number of those who would be interested in what you are willing to give and work for. So how to go about this rather tiring exercise?

As is the case with many college students, one doesn't have a corporate or official work experience to boast off, so we have to rely on the extra-curricular and educational activities during our college and some stellar performances in high school (Keep them to minimum though). Your employers or prospective mentors have no choice but to trust their gut when it comes to selecting people for an internship/2month training. So make it easy for them by giving an honest and holistic review about yourself in not more than three pages (Excluding cover letter). I can’t overstate the importance of honesty, even without certificates they can incriminate and you will be digging a hole if it turns out to be a fruitful relationship and just a petty lie to ruin it.

If you feel like experience and exploration are key issues to you, you can seriously think about working in a start-up. You might have to let go any summer-money dreams but you might get a real firsthand experience, with a job you are held accountable for and a Pre placement offer as well! Start-ups work on a shoe-strung budget and have a dearth of human resource, so they usually don’t mind a helping hand but they can’t pay you much for that. Mostly remuneration is performance-based. For a search on start-ups Google "top start-ups" "start-up competitions india" etc.

So how to go about writing your resume and making sure it reaches the right people?

You will have to make a sales-pitch and dig all over the net to find the right people to pitch it to. But the process is not as scary as it may sound; if you use the smart keywords for search you can easily get the contact info of at least 100 companies within a couple of days. You might think selling, marketing is “phony”, “unethical” at times but even good products have to be sold. Without the right marketing nobody will take you, or you would underachieve relative to what you could have. You wouldn't be hired without you convincing them that you are a good product to invest into. So if you let me, we can now look into how to make a good and convincing sales-pitch.

The cover letter and resume are covered next.