(Click here to sign-up for a workshop on Managing Successful Career Transition)

Anjali Sidhu is a results-oriented Talent Acquisition specialist with vast years of progressive experience in Information Technology industry. She works on managing relations across businesses and Talent Acquisition teams, establishing ongoing relationships with hiring managers in order to understand their business and recruitment needs and fill their open positions in a timely manner. She is also works on effectively building talent communities through various channels; Social Media (LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs).

She will be speaking at the IIT AGNE Women’s group workshop on Managing Career Transitions.  She will be providing in-depth advice to preparing yourself for a career transition and outlining thought processes, dos and donts. 

Sidhu talked to Lokvani about her work and gave a sneak peak into the hiring process

What does a talent acquisition specialist do? “ We work on hiring people with right attitude, great culture fit and excellent technical skills, which will grow our organization,” says Sidhu.

Sidhu started her career in the software industry in India. “I am a software engineer by education and joined the Indian job market as asp.net developer,” says Sidhu. When she was expecting her first she decided to quit her job and become an entrepreneur. “When I was expecting my first child I wanted life to be on my terms.  I started my software company called “Coding People” with a group of free lancers. Given my entrepreneurial nature I also started small kids grooming school called “Super Kids” and Aerobic fitness center” 

What made her give it all up and come to the US? “My husband’s company wanted him to move to the US. It was a big decision to give everything up. It was not an easy decision to make, but we did it,” says Sidhu. 

What did she do career-wise in the US? “I was on a L2 visa and could have worked but I took it easy and enjoyed raising my kids thoroughly. After a break of 5 years I decided to re-enter US job market.  When I started the search, I took a step back and re-evaluated my strengths. I looked at different options and decided to go into the Human Resource field instead of software. With help of my friends, I applied to Virtusa and got through. They positioned me in recruitment. I am very happy to be a talent acquisition specialist,” says Sidhu.

  

When people are looking for jobs, what would be the most important three things they should do? " The top 3 things, which I would advise them to do are :

1.     Study the market and current trend of technologies 

2.     Get the relevant certifications done and put them on your resume

3.     Build your strong resume with powerful LinkedIn profile"

 

How important is social media for job search? 

 

“Social media plays a big role in job search as company recruiters are posting jobs on social media. The most popular social media sites used by recruiters are LinkedIn, Facebook twitter Instagram etc.  It is also important to be aware of your social face i.e. to be careful of what you are posting on the social sites as this becomes public and can go against you when you are going for your interviews"

 

Sidhu believes that in the IT field the high demand areas are Cloud technologies like Amazon Web Services, Salesforce, Devops etc.

 

Does she have special advice for people who are looking for special training to re-enter the job market? “ I would strongly encourage looking into certifications especially in the IT field. It’s a vital factor to have number of certifications in the field in which you are trying to enter” says Sidhu

 

What advice do you have for people who may consider a career in HR?  â€œIf you are a people person and great in building relationships then HR is for you,” says Sidhu.