SOCIUM

Profession is nothing, image is everything!

Rashid DYUSEMBAEV

ALMATY, April 26

(THE GLOBE)

�Career day� 99� was held in Almaty last week. This event was held to help tackle the problems of employment facing many recent graduates and young specialists. The event attracted considerable interest from our unemployed youth. However, in comparison with last year, the number of participating companies was several times less. Many companies immediately declined withdrew after April 5.

�To guarantee the correct restructuring of the existing enterprises and the establishment of the new ones, tens of thousand qualified managers will be required. But we could neither find nor train such a great number�, � Grigory Marchenko, (�D.B. Securities, �Kazakhstan Energy� # 10 1998).

It is evident that supply in the labour market far offer exceeds the demand. On the other hand, the introduction of the free floating tenge�s rate has fortunately not resulted in numerous dismissals and long lines at the recruiting agencies, as occurred in Russia after August 17. For a very short period following August 17, the number of unemployed increased by two to three times.

Besides, the Russian experience showed that in spite of the crisis, top managers are in great demand. But even if you are not a manager of high rank, it is still possible to find a decent job.

This is not due to the approaching summer, and hence increasing demand for seasonal attendants. Optimism is caused by an analysis of the Russian crisis. The void left by fleeing foreign enterprises has been filled by Russian manufacturers. At present there is a demand for managers promoting domestic brands. There is also room for domestic manufacturing companies to expand.

�It does not matter to us what profession you have, the main thing for you is to be a social, perspective man, the rest we teach you ourselves�, stated a top-manager of the regional department of the big foreign company.

The big foreign corporations that have used the crisis to capture the market deserve special attention. �Coca-cola� is one of the most obvious examples. The firm has not reduced its operations in Russia in response to the crisis. Rather, the company has increased its turnover. In Kazakhstan the beginning of such processes are also evident. The introduction of the free-floating rate has not prevented such companies as �Coca-cola� and �Procter & Gamble� from taking part in �Career day� 99�. These companies still require new personnel and new managers who will further promote their products in the Kazakh market.

In summarizing the results of �Career day� 99�, the following things are striking. Despite the company�s profile (auditing or banking) they are not interested in what profession you have recieved in the institute. The main thing is that you should be a social, open person. It is only in this case that you can be useful to the company.

Your image (your professional image) comes to the foreground. Your success depends upon your professional image, on how you can sell yourself. The logic is simple enough: if you cannot manage to sell yourself to a company, you would be unable to sell the products or services of this company.

This is the weakest aspect of our workers. As it is obvious from the research, published in the last issue of THE GLOBE, the majority of our people still search for a job through their relatives and friends. Moreover, only 12.8% of the polled students look for a job continuously. Information on jobs is mainly received from newspapers and friends. We should mention, that as a rule, in a paper you can find a position of a loader, or net marketing manager, that actually means a long walk in the street bothering the passers-by. Even if you made up your mind to send your resume, many people do not know how it should be prepared.

In this connection, the Western experience (where system is completely different) may be very interesting to us. In the west students begin to send their resumes to different companies while in the early grades of high school. Moreover, future professionals thoroughly follow all the news connected with corporations (what companies are going to merge or to separate). The analysis of such events allows one to predict both the growth of a company�s demand for new personnel and probable reductions in staff.