Varun Reddy

  People ask me this question a lot! Why did I make the move from urban planning to recruitment? To give you all some background, I completed my bachelor's in urban planning from School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal, which is one of India's top schools and I was awarded proficiency gold medal for securing first rank in the course. Yet I chose to continue my education and career in a completely different field. I'll explain why I did so in this article. Just because I made the switch, the soft skills I gained during my bachelor's education and my competitive nature to be on top never went away. I wasn't interested in taking a break or working for a year or two in urban planning to explore my interests. Therefore, I identified my career direction through my internships and extracurricular interests. I was so keen on knowing why I switched; I even pursued my master's thesis exploring the same (Next article alert!!). The switch was a cumulative effect of many

'The Effective Executive' by Peter Drucker is considered one of the best books for executive self-management. The reason I am talking about this book is that it finds an executive as a person who has responsibilities to do the right things and self-deploy on priorities that make the most significant impact irrespective of whether you run an organisation. I strongly believe in self-assessments; they not only help me identify areas where I need to put in more work but also boosts confidence concerning my existing capabilities. In this regard, I have identified some of the practices that make me an effective executive. Exceeding my Expectations When I am an individual contributor for a project, exceeding my expectations always pays off fruitfully. This practice also has a tremendous impact when I am working in a team. What better influencing tool than showing teammates your self-improvement through your performance? The display of your efforts towards improving the overall quality

Yes! I say this to almost all my candidates when I am interviewing them. The only time I don't mention it is when they have already quantified their accomplishments. It is crucial to do so, and I'll elaborate on the 'why' in this article. It is vital to understand that your CV is not a job description, so it's essential that you do not just enlist your responsibilities under your experience. Mention your accomplishments and most importantly, quantify them. It highlights your Value add. When my client or any organisation in the world is looking to hire someone for a role, they want a person who can best perform and bring the highest value to the position and the organisation. What best way to show this ability you ask? Show them your achievement metrics! Highlight your potential through your proven results and expertise. Show how your work impacted the business. It shows Credibility The numbers always show that you have kept track of all your work, and more than that

I work with several retailers in Ireland, and the effect of the COVID 19 pandemic was hard on most of them. Their hiring was paused, stores were closed, and they had to cut down on their working hours and costs to keep their business afloat. The solution ahead was to have a strong eCommerce plan and digital presence. For some, it was strengthening their existing presence, but for the others, it was building everything from scratch. In this article, I elaborate on three main aspects; the increase in the demand for eCommerce, how has the response been to cater to this demand and finally, my perspective as a digital recruiter on eCommerce recruitment. Increase in Demand There was a massive surge in the eCommerce activity with the lockdown and social distancing measures in place. But this has not just been restricted to the lockdown period. It is fascinating to see how online retail revenues and website traffic are still drastically up even with the easing of lockdown measures in compariso

I have always enjoyed taking overall responsibilities for any given task and even more in having an initiative of my own and turning it into a success. This entrepreneurial thirst is well-catered by my career choice. Being an agency recruiter, I get to manage my desk for digital marketing, and there are certain aspects of my role that gives me a sense of managing my own business. I have explained these aspects in detail below. These are the aspects that get me running on my feet and motivates me to hussle in a space where control over clients, candidates and the process is uncertain and unpredictable. Ownership The process of building a desk is challenging, but the best part of it is the ownership that it offers over the projects and the desk as a whole. I enjoy working on projects where I get the client myself through business development, visit them to understand their culture, negotiate my rates, terms of business and finally find them the best talent through my very own talent pool

I would never forget the second week of March 2020. I was excited to visit India after a year and a half of completing my masters and working in Dublin. Coincidentally my flights were booked for the same week the lockdown was announced. I could not amend my booking on time and there I was, on a long flight to India. Luckily, I was able to reach home safe. As the lockdown and travel restrictions are still in place, I am fortunate enough to continue working from India for Next Generation as a Digital Recruiter. I came across an article by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on People Priorities in Response to COVID-19 and wanted to unravel the events of that week to highlight my organisation's timely and supportive response covering all the key people aspects in line with the article. The link to the article is below if you would like to read (highly recommended!). https://www.bcg.com/en-in/publications/2020/people-solutions-response-covid The BCG article categorises the response under sev