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A few months back, a friend of mine was looking for a job. While having late lunch on a Saturday, she mentioned that she went job hunting with her old officemates. They had decided to resign from their old positions and look for new employment somewhere else.

It reminded me of the days when my batchmates and I were also looking for employment. I had initially also opted for a call center job, lured by the prospect of high initial rates, add night differential and all those other perks of working in a call center–let us say that working in a call center was sounding very attractive indeed. I only ran into one problem. I was applying in June (graduations in my school were held during that month) and I had previously arranged a trip abroad in October. While being interviewed (seems like I passed the exam) they were asking about my future plans, I decided to be brutally honest about my trip.

I’ve previous arranged for a 10-day trip abroad by October, but I give my word that I will not be absent for a single day until the day I have to leave for my trip.

That’s what I told the interviewer. Apparently, it doesn’t work that way. You have to be present for the whole training period else, you’d fail the exams and such. At that time, training lasted for 6 months. In the end, they were offering a compromise–a contractual position for the equivalent of less than the minimum wage today. Erm… no way. Why? (1) That pay grade was very low, and I wouldn’t even cover my expenses. (2) It would not look good on my resume, a 3 month stint as a first job.

I took a job with a bank instead. I told my then would be boss the same lines about my future plans. No problem there. Of course they’d have to dock my pay for that period, but other than that, there were no complications. I also ended up learning a whole lot more about the banking and finance industry and about the business processes. A few of my batchmates who took the call center career path are still there. I’m on my third job now, but I’ll write that long story some other day.

Back to my friend, she mentioned that she was going with her former officemates to apply in some company. I gave her the following advice.

Do not apply as a group, it diminishes your chances of being picked. This is a strategical move. For fresh grads this might not be as effective as your experience points are still nil. Unless you are top of you batch/class, you’re not going to stand out as much. For those applying as a group, the company isn’t going to take you in as a group. There might be four or five of you but the company isn’t going to hire all of you.

You are not going there for a business presentation and selling your whole group so it is not a good idea to bring with you—or to tag a long with—a group of people having the same skill set and experience as you do.

More tidbits in my next posts….

*This is a series continuing where Job Hunt 101 left off. Feel free to share your job hunting experiences.