Rinat Minnullin of recruitment agency Unistaff met up with Gagan to give him some advice on improving his job search. He agree with Gagan that his expatriate status could be putting employers off and advises him to lower his salary expectations for the right job.

Gagan and I agreed that we should meet personally to discuss his recent job search strategy and the problems he has encountered; we would also analyze the reasons behind them and the techniques that might help him achieve his goal.

We came to the conclusion that Gagan’s approach toward finding a suitable job was appropriate and that he had not made any cardinal mistakes. The job objectives Gagan is setting up for himself are quite realistic and achievable — a mid-level management position with a multinational company, preferably in the field of marketing or key-account management — and he is flexible about the specifics of the position.

Gagan has excellent presentation skills — he speaks well and dresses appropriately for business meetings. When he speaks, his logic is clear and he has the ability to formulate and present ideas. Gagan presents himself as intelligent and pleasant, which gives him an advantage over other candidates.

Gagan’s cover letter and CV have been very well prepared and do not require any modifications. His approaches toward identifying sources of job-related information and the job market are heading in the right direction.

However, two months of job searching have not produced any results so far. In my opinion, the reasons behind it are as follows:

First, Gagan is an expatriate. Employing expatriates is no longer so attractive to major international firms. Russian local employees are considered to be better suited, as they have similar skills but do not require expenditures and time investment in taking care of work permits and visas. Some employees also doubt whether an expatriate’s commitment to work in Russia is on a short-term basis. Therefore, Gagan should let employers know that he has been living in Russia for 20 years. He is married to a Russian and speaks Russian fluently. To include this in his cover letter would be advantageous, as would be speaking Russian during job interviews with Russian-speaking decision-makers.

If a firm is looking for a non-Russian employee, Gagan shouldn’t underestimate the potential discrimination. Most companies prefer to hire people from European countries and the Americas as opposed to those from Africa or Asia.

How can Gagan tackle this most challenging and delicate problem? One solution is to identify multinational companies where decision-makers are also citizens from Asian countries.

Second, I think Gagan has not been sufficiently aggressive in his job search. He is only spending an hour or two each day on the task, usually after work. In terms of correspondence, he has sent only 15 resumes to agencies and about 20 resumes in response to direct vacancy advertising. The result of is that he has only been to two interviews. Even though he is not planning to change his job immediately, his approach should be more pro-active, sending out at least 200 resumes.

Employment agencies are not the only targets of the job hunt. Candidates should send their CVs directly to companies on a target list and follow up with telephone calls. It is better to approach firms on your own rather than use an employment agency that will undertake a mass distribution of your CV without following it up.

Like many other jobseekers, Gagan seems to overestimate the role of recruitment agencies in finding jobs. In a recruitment agency, all business processes and procedures are established and tuned to serve one purpose — selecting the single most appropriate candidate for the client company, which is the primary user of the agency’s services. Sometimes a list of possible employees will include dozens of candidates, even if we are talking about a mid-level management position. However, in a good, reputable agency a recruitment consultant will never refuse to provide basic consulting to a candidate, even though its goal is not to satisfy the jobseeker.

Third, even though Gagan says that he is not requiring an expatriate salary and social package, his salary expectations are 20-30 percent higher than those of a typical Russian candidate for a similar position. Obviously, this fact does not give Gagan an advantage over other candidates; he needs to let potential employers that, for the right job, he is willing to compromise on the salary.

Fourth, in my opinion, Gagan’s chances would also increase considerably if he expanded his target list of companies to include advanced Russian businesses that are specifically looking for expatriates’ expertise and fluency in English to perform functions of business development, directing marketing, etc.

Finding an appropriate job may be quite a challenging task for Gagan given all the factors we indicated above. However, the most important things — professionalism and the desire to build a career in Russia — are present, so finding a job is simply a matter of time.

Please contact The Leader at editor@theleader.ru or by fax at 959 2408 if you would like a job seeker profile to be done on you. The identity of the job seeker would be disguised in the profile.