Packaging Jobs - Challenges And Solutions

In whichever industry we are – fmcg, pharma, automotive, household, home care and personal care and so on; we constantly strive towards next opportunity and a career jump (be it only for financial reasons or profile or both). As packaging professionals, we often crib that we don’t get to know about openings and they are filled by word-of-mouth many a times. But did we ever try to understand the basic challenges or restrictions in keeping us updated about the new opportunities? I’m sure most of us would say “yes i’m well networked with industry friends / colleagues / seniors”. But is it enough to achieve the job you ever thought of?? Noooo. We often end up joining a company for a profile which we never liked. Ofcourse, there is nothing wrong in this – we all have personal likings and strengths. Some packaging students can do very well with supplier companies while others prefer testing and quality. Of-course we have to have such spread since only a particular profile can never accommodate all. So it is crucial to understand the profile or company’s requirement first rather than just applying blindly for a generic packaging job (this is true especially for freshers). On the same terms, judging a candidate that suits a particular job is very important. However both are challenging and have their own restrictions.

  Candidates say –

• it is difficult to know about new vacancies
• company’s don’t prefer hiring a fresher
• we don’t get correct job alerts from existing job portals
• job security??

  Similarly company level challenges are –

• resume collection, multiple level sorting and interview process
• profile mapping?? it is a really important to get the right candidate for the right job requirements –
• job hoppers??

    Just to move a bit ahead in this discussion –lets talk about the role of “correct guidance”. We appreciate that getting to know about packaging jobs is essential. But just knowledge about jobs is not enough, you also need Mentors. But where are they? Seniors/Alumni often conduct seminars or short lectures that are really helpful in guiding fresher to get a good job and excel in his career. But the numbers of such trainers are at miniscule (when packaging is concerned). To comprehend the issues of jobs and mentoring, a small survey was conducted by PackagingConnections team, to understand the needs of packaging jobs as well as mentors. The survey received an excellent participation we got very interesting results. The analysis has been comprehended in a report which can be downloaded from this link - http://www.packagingconnections.com/content/packaging-jobs-and-mentoring As a solution to these challenges, we have launched “Packaging Yoga” and we hope the concept of a “packaging dedicated job portal” will be great help to packaging professionals. Join us at www.packagingyoga.com