You probably are familiar with these amazing headlines: “9-year-old boy joins the millionaire club”, “Brothers aged 10 and 12 launch mobile app firm”, and “Microsoft’s CEO gets impressed by an 8-year-old Indian kid”. Have you ever thought how are these young people earning despite not having a university degree or any professional work experience?
In today’s digitized age, there are unexplored career openings which go beyond the regular 9 to 5 jobs. People have started taking self-initiatives and built a career out of their hobbies and passion. All you need to do is introspect, and list out your strengths, capabilities, skills, and passion. Your passion will drive your career path. You might reach the pinnacle of your career without really having to hunt a full-time employment at any company. Here’s how:
UTILIZE STRATENOLOGY
As we call it, “stratenology” is a mix of strategy and technology. It implies the strategic usage of available technologies. With technology boom, you will have to learn and adapt to the usage of new gadgets and software. Ability to use basic computing and office packages is equivalent to just being ‘literate’ in today’s world. If you really want to outrival your peers, you will have to utilize more of the given technology and below are a few of them:
The new tech frontier
a. Google AdSense
A big banner on Google’s AdSense home page reads “Turn your Passion into Profit”. If you’re passionate about cooking, you could start with your own cooking recipe blog. If your passion is travelling, you can start your website sharing your travel journeys and enthralling experiences. Now, on your website you could place Ads from Google AdSense and start earning. Google’s AdSense works with Earnings per Click (EPC) and Cost per Click (CPC). On every click on ads appearing in your website, you will be paid.
b. Monetize YouTube Channel
You might even want to video-blog (or simply vlog) by uploading your content in the internet through YouTube videos. In order to start earning from your videos or vlogs, you will need to enable monetization on your videos. To enable monetization, you need to make sure your videos are completely new, and that there is no copyrighted material. With video monetization, you allow YouTube to place ads on your video. These ads work on Cost per Click (CPC) and CPV (Cost per View) formats.
CREATE YOUR OWN JOB POSITION
No, we are not talking about startups, entrepreneurship or being your own boss. It is about creating a job position which never existed before. This new job position must suit your skills and strengths, and should be viable and feasible for the organization as well. Recently in a panel discussion of a career event conducted by Jobs Dynamics, a US-returnee shared her experience of how she was exhausted with job hunt in Nepal before finally creating a new position at an organization that matched her skills and passion.
To create your own job position, you should be aware, pro-active and up-to-date about recent developments, company performances, and global practices. For instance, the non-government sectors and civil society organizations within Nepal lack human resources with excellent ‘knowledge management’ abilities. If you are willing and able to manage organizational knowledge, you could simply walk-in and propose a new job position that could benefit the organization in both short and long terms. If your pitch is successful, you might be working on something which you love and are good at.
LET THE JOB SEARCH YOU
Recruiters are massively hiring candidates from online job portals and social media, especially LinkedIn. So make sure you have a very good online presence in those portals and social media. LinkedIn connects you with various professionals. You can follow companies of your interest and get recommendations and endorsements from the community. Most newcomers think that they do not have ample work experience and don’t bother to set up their LinkedIn account. They leave out their volunteering experiences, internship works, and group project works – which actually add value to their profiles.
Personal branding is important and you should be creative if you want others to notice you. People across the globe have started branding themselves with the help of creative resumes – be it in the form of a magazine, a chocolate bar or a dedicated personal website! These steps make you stand out from the crowd, and thereby minimize job hunt frustrations.
The author is associated with Jobs Dynamics Pvt. Ltd., an organization driven towards providing the widest range of job solutions to people looking for work in Nepal. He can be reached at [email protected].
