Job Readiness Programme
A programme built on guesses fixes the wrong things
Every college is told its students need better communication and better resumes. Some do. Others need something narrower: help with one interview round, a clearer idea of which roles to target, or simply practice. This first step finds out, with an anonymous student survey, a conversation with faculty and a reading of real resumes, so the sessions that follow are aimed at your students rather than at a generic list.
Explore this page6 sections
Generic training fixes generic problems.
A placement cell usually knows a great deal about its students: which rounds they drop out of, which departments struggle, which companies stopped coming. That knowledge rarely reaches the people who are invited to train them, so the training is pitched at an imagined average student.
Students know things too, and will say them more honestly in an anonymous survey than in a room. Putting the two together takes an hour of faculty time and ten minutes of class time, and it decides whether the rest of the programme is useful.
Nothing is scheduled until this is done. If the needs check shows that the college already handles something well, we leave it out.
What the needs check looks at
33 topics across 6 areas. Six sources, each answering a different question.
An Anonymous Student SurveyTen minutes, in the language students are comfortable in.6
Run in class time where possible, so it reaches more than the students who already attend everything.
- Which roles they are aiming at, if any
- Whether they have a resume, and when they last changed it
- How many interviews they have sat, and where they stopped
- What they find hardest: the test, the technical round, the HR round
- Which job portals and platforms they use
- What kind of help they would actually turn up for
Anonymous answers are more honest, and honest answers are the point.
Faculty and Placement CellThe people who already see the pattern.6
- Where students drop out of the hiring process
- Which departments or batches need the most help
- What has been tried before, and what worked
- Feedback companies have given the college, where they gave any
- Exam dates, lab hours and placement season
- Who on campus will coordinate the programme
A coordinator on campus is the single thing a programme cannot run without.
A Sample of Real ResumesTwenty resumes say more than a hundred opinions.5
Shared with the students' consent and read by a reviewer who reads resumes at work. Individual resumes are not commented on in the summary; patterns are.
- Whether a target role is clear
- Whether projects are explained or only titled
- Whether listed skills are ones a student could defend
- Contact details, length and layout
- How many students share one copied template
Practical ConstraintsA good plan that does not fit the timetable will not happen.5
- How many students, and in which years
- Languages students are most comfortable in
- Whether online sessions are realistic for them
- Rooms available for small-group clinics
- The weeks to avoid
Students Who Are Easy to MissThe ones who do not come to an optional session.5
- Students with backlogs who think placement is not for them
- Students not registered for campus placement
- First-generation graduates without a working relative to ask
- Students more comfortable in a regional language
- Students with a disability who may need adjustments
A programme planned only for the students who volunteer will help the ones who needed it least.
What We Send BackA short document, not a sales proposal.6
- What students said, in summary
- What faculty and the placement cell said
- Common patterns in the resumes
- The three or four gaps that matter most
- A proposed sequence of sessions, with dates to discuss
- What we suggest leaving out, and why
What the college provides
- A faculty or placement coordinator
- Ten minutes of class time for the survey
- A sample of resumes, shared with students' consent
- An hour with the placement officer and two or three faculty
- Whatever placement information it is comfortable sharing
What we do not do
- Collect students' names in the survey
- Share individual answers with anybody
- Rank departments or students
- Sell a course or a paid follow-on programme
How the needs check runs
It takes one to two weeks before the first session. Students fill in a short anonymous survey, a GullyFuture coordinator meets the placement officer and a few faculty members, and a volunteer reviewer reads a sample of resumes. The college then receives a short written summary and a proposed programme, which it can change before anything is scheduled. The same survey questions are asked again at the one-month follow-up, so the college can see what moved.
What your students leave with
- A plain picture of where your students say they struggle
- Faculty and placement-cell experience recorded alongside it
- A reading of real resumes, with the common problems named
- The three or four gaps that matter most, in writing
- A proposed sequence of sessions you can change before it is booked
- A baseline the one-month follow-up can be compared against
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Ask first. Then teach what is missing.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.