Take Salary from Present Employer, Work for the Next One!

Take Salary from Present Employer, Work for the Next One!

Many recruiters, during course of interviewing, come across candidates who give low salary and increments as a reason for wanting to quit their existing jobs. Many times interviewers also feel that many candidates are not putting in their best in their existing jobs. During discussion, such candidates also give low salary and low increments in their existing jobs as a reason for their below par performance. They state that if given salary, increments and promotions as per their liking, they would really work hard.

I conduct a workshop ‘Seven Steps for Success’. Exceed Expectations and Work Hard is one of the seven steps for success, other six being Thinking (how high), Attitude, Goals, Inter personal relationship, Self Image, and Character. I also come across many above type of participants during this workshop.

A typical conversation with a few such participants post workshop runs something like this: “You say that we should always exceed expectations, we should always work hard and do our best; but why should we? We neither get good salary nor good increments nor good promotions. We are willing to do what you say provided our employers give us get good salary, increments and promotions”.

‘Take Salary from Present Employer, Work for the Next One’ is a capsule of above workshop I have developed to convince such participants futility of this thinking and the damage they are doing to their career by this type of attitude.

The conversation proceeds further on following lines:

My response, “Agreed. Everyone must get good salary, increments and promotions in order to work efficiently. Now, as a few of you are not satisfied about your present salary, increments or promotions many of you must be applying for new jobs”.

Slight nodding of several heads!

 “A few of you must also be getting interview calls and attending interviews”.

And nodding becomes more furious.

“Without even checking with any of you, should I tell you the result of your interviews”?

Anxious wait for my further response!

“The responses you generally get are: Thank you very much for coming to meet us. We will get back to you after a few days and no one gets back to you. Some of you might even be getting offers which are in similar and many cases worse than even your present package”.

‘True! But, how do you know this’?  is what the look on their faces say.

And I explain to them what I think is the main reason for above response.

‘In 100% of the interviews 100% of the candidates are compulsorily asked one question. Tell us about what you have been doing from the time you have started working especially where you are working now. What are your achievements’?

‘As you do not put in your best efforts, you do not have many achievements to discuss. The interviewer asks you reason for your below par achievements. Low salary and low increments is the reason many of you give as reason for your below par performance. Of course, you assure the interviewer that you will work really hard provided your prospective employer assures you of good salary, increments and promotions’.

‘Alternatively you will inflate your achievements and mention what you have not actually done and achieved. There can be no third answer’.

Sheepish grins on a few faces confirm that this is exactly what actually happens.

And I continue:

‘Imagine that you are not the candidate but the employer. Will you employ some one who has just now told you that he/she is not doing his/her best in the present job’?

‘Obviously no’ is the immediate response.

And I continue,

‘And, when you give second type of answer don’t you think that your body language, tone and inflexion of voice gives you away that you are telling lies’.

A few more sheepish grins!

And I continue,

‘Now tell me, will you hire a liar who is telling lies in the interview itself’?

‘Obviously no’ is the immediate and loud response.

And, suddenly the realization dawns on them about the reason for their rejection in interviews.

‘So, here is the take away from this workshop’, I tell them.

‘The reason you get rejected is that you have no convincing answer which you can give confidently and convincingly about your achievements in your existing job. So what ever be your situation in your presently, what ever be your salary, increments or promotions, always do your best in your existing job so that during interviews you can answer the question about your achievements in the existing job convincingly and confidently’.

‘So, even though you draw your salary from your present employer, always think that you are actually working for your next employer so that whenever you are asked the question about your achievements you can answer it convincingly and confidently’

‘Aim for excellence all the time. If you do that, you do not have to look for new job. New and better job will come to you searching for you’.

‘There was a dialogue in the movie ‘Three Idiots’. Don’t chase success, chase excellence and success will chase you anyhow’.

And many of them do get convinced about futility of their thinking and the damage they are doing to their own career by this type of attitude

Hence, the title of this article:

‘Take Salary from Present Employer, Work for the Next One’!

Are you interested to get this and other such workshops conducted in your institute? Please write to me at englishacademybaroda@gmail.com or call me (Sarwan Singh) at 91-88666 80407. Please also visit the link http://slidesha.re/1vtxYuO for details of our ‘Smart Student Program’ and http://slidesha.re/YT9SPn for details of our ‘Shaping Young Minds’ under our ‘Project Wisdom’.

We offer many free as well as paid workshops for educational institutes.