Getting ready to enter the workforce after your studies can be tedious on its own without the added stress of wondering whether your CV is up to standard. The CV or resume is generally the first impression potential employees leave on employers and recruiters. The next big step of course, is facing the interview.
On the 16th of February 2021, the Rotaract Club of SLIIT invited Ms. Minuri Adasuriya to conduct a session on CV writing and interview etiquette in order to give students and potential future employees an arsenal of important tips and tricks to writing the perfect resume. This session was held under Corporate Stride, a phase of the initiative “STRIDE”, which aims to help individuals develop their personality, enhance their skills, confidence, and corporate presence. The session, which was held via Zoom and broadcasted live on Facebook, was a huge success with over a hundred participants.
Ms. Minuri is an experienced HR professional with over 12 years of working on global initiatives across a number of industries for multinational organizations based in Sri Lanka and Australia. She obtained her Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in Human Resources and minor in Operations research in 2007 from Macquarie University, Australia. Additionally, she holds a Master of Human Resources and Industrial Relations with Distinction from the University of Sydney, Australia. Ms. Minuri graced the session with her immense knowledge on the subject of writing CVs and facing interviews appropriately, all without a single dip in her lovely, bubbly energy.
With an incredibly comprehensive presentation, Ms. Minuri started the session by asking the audience: “What is your objective?”. Beginning the session with this question seemed to provide structure for the participants, and they had some time to figure out exactly why they are taking the time to attend a session with important information about entering the job market. One of the most commonly asked questions during the session was whether or not there is a particular structure to be followed when creating your CV. Evidently, there is no single structure and it depends on which industry you are entering. Ms. Minuri used her personal experience as a recruiter to answer the participants’ questions, and this gave the audience very insightful and concrete answers on what to expect when beginning the process of creating a resume and preparing for an interview. She stated the importance of adding volunteer experience, using action verbs, and avoiding superlatives, showcasing outcomes of your work numerically, and recognizing biases (which include gender, appearance, marital status, and religion) when fine-tuning your CV.
Next the presentation discussed preparation for interviews. Ms. Minuri emphasized the importance of practicing your answers before an interview to avoid getting stuck and making a bad impression. She made it a point to remind the audience to embrace themselves by mentioning how they are unique and being humble. A tip she shared with the audience before facing an interview was to research the company/organization that you will be applying to.She explained how this could give you an edge over other candidates as it shows the panel of interviewers how dedicated you are. Another important point was to maintain proper etiquette, which includes being on time, dressing appropriately and smartly, having a pleasant attitude, sticking to the point and also, surprisingly, to share your failures. Ms. Minuri shared with the audience some of her personal stories and showed everyone present that it is okay to fail, and apply what you learnt when trying again next time.
The session came to a close after a Q&A session with the audience both on Zoom and on Facebook live. The moderator for this session, Rtr. Abirami Thanabalasundaram relayed the questions to Ms. Minuri, who took the time to address the participants’ specific doubts, which included building confidence when creating a CV and facing an interview; coping with tension, stress, and imposter syndrome before an interview; dealing with gender bias and racism during interviews and so on.This session was so much more than just a list of tips and tricks to writing a CV better than your peers. The importance of having confidence in oneself, trusting your instincts, and preparing to your fullest extent before facing a panel of interviewers were only some of the great points Ms. Minuri made. It is safe to say that although the audience may have expected to leave the session with a handful of life hacks, they left with valuable advice from an experienced professional, along with some life lessons to always practice and cherish.
සිසුවෙකු වේවා, අලුතින් වෘත්තීය ක්ෂේත්‍රයට පිවිසෙන්නෙකුට වේවා අතිශයින්ම වැදගත් වන කාරණයකි නිවැරදිව අයදුම්පතක් සකසා ගැනීම හා සාර්ථකව සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයකට මුහුණ දීම. මන්ද යත් එම අංග දෙකම තම අනන්‍යතාවය මෙන්ම ප්‍රතිරූපයද විදහා දක්වන සාධක ලෙස ක්‍රියා කරන බැවිනි. මෙම දැනුමේ කාලීන අවශ්‍යතාවය තේරුම් ගත් අප, සිසුන්ට සහ අනාගත සේවකයින්ට පරිපූර්ණ වෘත්තීය පිවිසීමකට වැදගත් ඉඟි සහ උපක්‍රම පිළිබඳ දැනුම ලබා දීම සඳහා 2021 පෙබරවාරි 16 වන දින මිනූරි අදසූරිය මහත්මියට CV ලිවීම හා සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණ ආචාර විධි පිළිබඳ සැසියක් පවත්වන ලෙස ආරාධනා කලෙමු. මෙම සැසිවාරය “STRIDE” හි මූලික අදියර වන Corporate Stride යටතේ පවත්වන ලද අතර එමඟින් පුද්ගලයන්ගේ පෞරුෂත්වය වර්ධනය කර ගැනීමටත්, ඔවුන්ගේ කුසලතා,විශ්වාසය සහ ආයතනික පැවැත්ම වැඩි දියුණු කිරීමටත් උපකාරී වේ.
මිනූරි මහත්මිය පළපුරුදු මානව සම්පත් වෘත්තිකයෙකි. ඇය ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාව පදනම් කරගත් බහුජාතික සංවිධාන සඳහා කර්මාන්ත ගණනාවක් හරහා ගෝලීය මුල පිරීම්වල වසර 12 කට වැඩි කාලයක් සේවය කර ඇත. ඇය 2007 දී ඕස්ට්‍රේලියාවේ Macquarie විශ්ව විද්‍යාලයෙන් ව්‍යාපාර පරිපාලනය පිළිබඳ උපාධිය සහ මානව සම්පත් පිළිබඳ ප්‍රධාන හා මෙහෙයුම් පර්යේෂණ පිළිබඳ සුළු උපාධියක්ද ලබා ගත්තාය.
සහභාගී වූවන්ගේ ප්‍රශ්නවලට පිළිතුරු සැපයීම සඳහා මිනූරි මහත්මිය සිය පෞද්ගලික අත්දැකීම් භාවිතා කළ අතර, මෙය සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයක් සඳහා සූදානම් වීමේ ක්‍රියාවලිය ආරම්භ කිරීමේදී අපේක්ෂා කළ යුතු දේ පිළිබඳව ප්‍රේක්ෂකයන්ට ඉතා තීක්ෂණ හා ස්ථිර පිළිතුරු ලබා දුන්නේය. Zoom සහ Facebook live හරහා සැසිය පැවැත්විනි. මෙම සැසිය මෙහෙයවීම Rtr. අබිරාමි තනාබාලසුන්දරම් විසින් සිදුකල අතර ඇය මිනූරි මහත්මිය වෙත ප්‍රශ්න යොමු කළ අතර, සහභාගී වූවන්ගේ නිශ්චිත සැකයන් විසඳීමට කාලය ගත් අතර, එයට සීවී එකක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමේදී සහ සම්මුඛ පරීක්ෂණයකට මුහුණ දීමේදී විශ්වාසය ගොඩනඟා ගැනීම ඇතුළත් විය. තමන් ගැන විශ්වාසයක් තබා ගැනීමේ වැදගත්කම, ඔබේ සහජ බුද්ධිය විශ්වාස කිරීම සහ සම්මුඛ පරීක්‍ෂක මණ්ඩලයකට මුහුණ දීමට පෙර ඔබේ උපරිමයෙන් සූදානම් වීම මිනූරි මහත්මිය සදහන් කළ වැදගත් කරුණු කිහිපයක් පමණි. සහභාගීවූවන්ට ඉතා වටිනා දැනුවත්භාවයක් ලබා දුන් සැසිය අපගේ අරමුණු ඉටුකරමින් නිමාවට පත්විය.
உங்கள் சி.வி. தரநிலையாக இருக்கிறதா என்று ஆச்சரியப்படுவதற்கான கூடுதல் மன அழுத்தம் இல்லாமல், உங்கள் படிப்புகளுக்குப் பிறகு பணியாளர்களுக்குள் நுழையத் தயாராக இருப்பது கூடுதல் சிரமமாக இருக்கும். CV அல்லது விண்ணப்பத்தை பொதுவாக முதலாளிகள் மற்றும் ஆட்சேர்ப்பு செய்பவர்கள் மீது விட்டுச்செல்லும் முதல் எண்ணம். நிச்சயமாக அடுத்த பெரிய படி, நேர்காணலை எதிர்கொள்கிறது.
பிப்ரவரி 16, 2021 அன்று, SLIIT இன் ரோட்டராக்ட் கிளப் ஆல் திருமதி மினூரி அதாசூரியாவை சி.வி. எழுத்து மற்றும் நேர்காணல் ஆசாரம் குறித்த ஒரு அமர்வை நடத்துமாறு அழைத்தார், இது மாணவர்களுக்கும் எதிர்கால ஊழியர்களுக்கும் சரியான விண்ணப்பத்தை எழுதுவதற்கு முக்கியமான உதவிக்குறிப்புகள் மற்றும் தந்திரங்களின் ஆயுதங்களை வழங்குவதற்கான ஒரு அமர்வு. இந்த அமர்வு கார்ப்பரேட் ஸ்ட்ரைட்டின் கீழ் நடைபெற்றது, இது “ஸ்ட்ரைட்” என்ற முயற்சியின் ஒரு கட்டமாகும், இது தனிநபர்கள் தங்கள் ஆளுமையை வளர்த்துக் கொள்ளவும், அவர்களின் திறன்கள், நம்பிக்கை மற்றும் கார்ப்பரேட் இருப்பை மேம்படுத்தவும் உதவும். ஜூம் வழியாக நடைபெற்று பேஸ்புக்கில் நேரடியாக ஒளிபரப்பப்பட்ட இந்த அமர்வு, நூற்றுக்கும் மேற்பட்ட பங்கேற்பாளர்களுடன் மிகப்பெரிய வெற்றியைப் பெற்றது.
பல கேள்விகளுடன் இந்த அமர்வு ஆரம்பிக்கப்பட்டது. CV எழுதுவதற்கான முறையான வழிமுறைகள் மற்றும் பெரிது நேர்காணலின் பொது பின்பற்ற வேண்டிய மிக முக்கிய விடயங்களைப் பற்றி திருமதி. மின்னுரி கூறியது பங்கேற்பாளர்களுக்கு பெரிது பயனுள்ளதாக காணப்பட்டது. அதுமட்டும் அல்லாது, நேர்காணலில் நாம் பெரிதும் செய்ய கூடிய தவறுகள் என்று அறிந்திராத பல விடயங்களையும் கூறினார்.
பங்கேற்பாளர்களிடையே காணப்பட்ட கேள்விகளைக் கேட்டு அதற்க்கான விடையை திருமதி. மின்னுரி அவர்கள் வழங்குவதன் வாயிலாக இந்த அமர்வு நிறைவடைந்தது.
Penned by : Rtr. Shashini Hewavithanagamage
Edited, translated and published by : RACSLIIT Editorial team 2020/21
Rotaract Club of SLIIT 