INDUSTRIAL TRAINEE: PART TWO
The Process Of
Industrial Training Placement
By
Eburuche, O.C. Banito
CEO,
BNT Consortium International
The
process of securing IT or TP placements this days had become so rigorous,
stressful and a tedious assignment such that most students give up on their search.
During the time of securing IT placement, students often get tensed going up
and down and most often, confused about how to go about it. In this process,
most students end up not securing any place at all or they may end up serving
anywhere that is available that was never their choice. In order to get the
right placement, you must learn to prepare yourself ahead of time so that when
others are running up and down; you will be relaxed planning your next level.
Preparation
In
preparing for your IT, you must know yourself, know what you want
(training objective), and know where you can get it. These factors are important as they will help
you plan very well.
·
In
knowing yourself, you must be able to know the skills/talents that you have
that your prospective company will look at and give you the opportunity to be
trained in their firm. Discover and evaluate your learning skill and how fast
you can develop on it. Every trainer
wants someone that is a fast learner. Assess other skills. Such skills like
communication, interpersonal, problem solving, leadership, critical reasoning, and
computer skills among others. Your ability to determine what you can offer to
the company is a determining factor to securing the right place.
·
Know
what you want. Do you want a firm that will improve your skills after the
training, or the one that will pay you handsomely or you want a different thing
altogether? Whatever thing you want, define it and make it clear. This is what
I refer to as “Training Objective”. Your objective may to attain high level of proficiency
in quality control, assessment and investigation, engineering design, software
development, accounting, process operation or any other area of your choice.
But you must have a training objective that is clearly stated.
·
Know
where your objective can be met. Ask yourself questions like; which industry
match my training objective? Among the companies in this industry, which company(ies)
match with my training objective? How can I get to them? The more you have
these questions answered, they more you narrow down your target and the easier
it becomes for you. Don’t work by chance and luck rather take your time to
strategically position yourself to where you are going. Make research about the
company(ies) that you are interested in, study their products and services, if
possible, find out the names of the key personnels in the organization that can
influence your adoption by the company. Get all reasonable fact that you can
about the company. This will help you discover the key strengths and weakness of
the company so that you will discover how to starve your weakness and empower
your strength while meeting with them.
Things you must do!
Ø Develop the right attitudes. Your
attitudes determine your altitude. Learn to be an optimistic and positive
person.
Ø Rejection is not a death
sentence. It is not a feel of doubt or
non-competence. Be aware!
Ø Avoid procrastination. Learn to
control your time.
Ø Develop a good sense of decision-making
skill. This will help you to do the right things at the right time.
Ø Develop your knowledge base. Do not be like others, make a difference.
Ø Be self-controlled and
disciplined.
Ø Engage in personal
development. Develop in your leadership,
analytical, researching, reading, writing and oral skills among other areas.
Ø Be smart. Always be fast to see opportunities.
Ø Always volunteer.
Ø Stay connected. Build up a network of like-minded people
around you. It will help you get there faster.
Ø Never turn down on
responsibilities. Learn to be a servant.
Ø Learn to be dogged that is,
perseverance and also learn to be patient.
Ø Humility, honesty and sincerity
must not be missing at all.
Ø In all these, build up
confidence.
PLANNING
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Strategic,
efficient and effective planning will definitely lead you to where you want to
get to. In planning you have to do the following;
Ø BEFORE
GOING OUT:
·
Set
targets
What do
you want to achieve in during your training?
How can
you achieve it?
Who can
help you achieve it?
Where can
you get your targets met?
Who is
my network?
These modeled questions will give you a guide
to where you should be going from where you are. It will delete biasness and confusion from
your planning. It spells out clarity of objective. Also, remember that IT is
for practical knowledge enhancement so your financial goals during IT should be
secondary.
·
Networking;
Work with a team
Build a
team that can help you accomplish faster. Get your family, friends, mentors,
supervisors and others alike involved. Let them help you in the search. While doing
this, never relax and fold your arms. Do
more work than them.
·
Research
The Market
Securing
a place for IT today is like the same hell people pass through to get a job. In
this, you must be ready to be addressed as a jobseeker. Some markets
are hidden (unadvertised) while some are visible (advertised). Discovering the
possibilities in these markets will help you know where to go. Make good use of
your social media network like Facebook, 2go, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs among
others to create awareness. Also use the
web to search for your prospective trainers.
·
Get
A Supervisor
This is
perhaps, one of the biggest mistakes that students do. They do not bother to
get a supervisor that will guide them through. Yes, there is always an IT
co-ordinator or supervisor but getting a personal supervisor that will act as a
guard and mentor to you is of high importance. Never you go for an IT or TP
without getting a personal supervisor. The supervisor should be a professional
in the area of your interest.
·
Get
A Referral letter
Why most
students find IT placement search stressful is because most of them do not care
about referral letters. Most of them don’t even know what it means. Work with
your supervisor and your team/network on how to secure a referral letter. This will
save you embarrassment right from the company’s gate. It gives you the
opportunity to know who you should meet in a company; that deletes unnecessary
questions from the receptionist or from any other person in the company.
·
Get
Your Tool Kit Ready
Like I said
earlier, searching for IT placement is like looking for a job. So you have to prepare
your correspondence that is; your resume, cover letters, referral and
recommendation letters. Get all that you
need to go the company with. Somebody may
ask, is this important at all? Yes, it is.
It will make you exceptionally different and it will make your potential
trainer to notice you.
·
Prepare
For “May Be” Interview
Most companies
use interviews and aptitude tests as part of their screening exercises for
their trainees. Preparing for a “may be”
interview will be of great advantage to you. Prepare yourself on general knowledge,
develop a good mathematical and logical skill and learn to be smart and precise.
Develop on your communication skills so that you can command attention. Some companies
may give you an interview in disguise as you are submitting your application
while others may fix date for all prospective trainees. So you must be prepared always!
GOING
OUT
After you
might have located your target(s) in your plan, next is to meet them. In doing this;
- 1. You must dress appropriate. Dress corporately and professionally too. Dress to command respect and attention. Develop also a good sense of solid colour combination. Preferably wear black, white, ash or carton colours. Let there be a match between your belt, shoe and tie.
- 2. You must be in the company on time.
- 3. Avoid use of slangs in your communication.
- 4. Never go the company without your correspondence, that is; your resumes, cover letters, referral or recommendation letters.
- 5. Develop enthusiasm and passion in the company you are going to.
- 6. Know that everyone in the company counts. Right from the gate through the receptionist or secretary to the human resource personnel. Treat everyone with respect.
- 7. Always devise means on how to see the top personnels like the HR manager, the director, CEO and not just dropping your application with the gate-man or receptionist.
- 8. Never drop your application without talking to the HR manager or the director. Let your first impression show how interested you are in the company.
- 9. Make your presence known. Exchange warm greetings with everyone you see. This will ignite some questions that will make you a topic in their discussion.
- 10. Never accept no as a defeat. Most often, most HR managers will tell you, we do not admit IT students or you are too young. Do not just leave with that. They use this approach to test your patience and your perseverance. Always find a means to communicate your relevance to them. But if it doesn’t work, locate your next target.
- 11. Never leave the company without getting a contact.
- 12. Always follow up your application using reminding letters, calls or checking in.
Things you should
expect and how to handle them.
·
Discouragement:
This can
come in any phase. It may be from friends, families, lectures, superiors among
others. To overcome this, you must be clear of what you want and be
confident. Do not let side distractions
get into you. Be determined, concentrated and focused.
·
No
supervisor: Most
often, you may discover that everyone is busy and no one may admit to be your
supervisor. Select one person and keep discussing it with him. Explain to
him/her why you need him/her. Persistently and consistently do so and you will be
surprised when he turns in.
·
Bias/confusion: You may be confused in not
knowing which company to apply to. Multiple
applications are allowed.
·
Preparing a correspondence: Most
students may not know how to prepare their correspondence. Some do not even know what they need. Always meet your academic adviser, supervisor
or career office for guidance.
·
No
attention: Most
often, the HR manager or director may not have the time to give you attention
even when you are there with him in the office.
Keep calm and allow him to get done but if you can’t, make your presence
known by subtlely inquiring of him whether he is to busy. You can also seek for permission to wait for
him till he is done. You can also pick an appointment with him when he is less
busy. But to be on a safer side, perseverance is the best.
·
Rejection: Most often you may hear clauses
like “no placement opportunity in our company”. Do not just go with that; feeling
dejected, depressed and non-relevant. How you present yourself matters. If you
receive such cold statements, you are most possibly going to employ your
negotiation and perseverance skills. Let
the trainer know your objective. Be knowledge-
seeking-oriented and not finance-seeking-oriented. Most trainers always think of how to carter
for their trainees so they way to get you off them is “we do not have placement”. But if you truly discover that there is no
placement there, then go to your next target because investing your time into
things that are not realistic will only make you unreal. Do not force misery and regret into your
career.
·
Stress:
One thing
that you must know is that stress is inevitable. Develop a stress management
plan by doing the right things at the right time. Prepare your correspondence
on time. Avoid lateness and procrastination. Put the search on yourself. Do not allow vain promises around you because
when you discover how unreal they are, it will cause stress that you may not
manage appropriately.
·
Disappointment:
Most
students rely on their friends, parents and relatives to do the search for them.
Building on connection is good but often times you get disappointed. To overcome this, learn to do your search
alongside your connection/network. It is better that you have options to choose
from than to be disappointed.
Thank
you for reading our update. Your comments are highly appreciated on www.bntconsortiuminternational.blogspot.com.
You can also share your IT experience with us and subscribe for updates on this
blog. Thanks for visiting our blog and please, stay connected for our next
update.