Blog# 2 — Group 5 — Mega Project

8 min readJun 4, 2021

Progress:

Till now we have received 18 Resumes of students from different cities and universities of Pakistan and 14 of them have already received their feedback till now. We developed a strategy to schedule resume on the basis of first come first serve to avoid any chaos and it went very well. We used Microsoft Excel for that purpose as you can see below.

It’s very important for any team who is working on a project to set some KPI’s for their project to measure their performance which definitely helps to stay on track, improve if needed, help measure your targets/goals, boosts morale, and make critical decisions on the basis of that report to meet objectives. So, it was very important to have one we decided on some KPI’s which are shown in the excel sheet above.

At first, we were only sharing feedback but we realized that the students who are new to this (Resume writing) really don’t know much about it how to make one as we didn’t know before the fellowship. For these students, we are not only giving feedback but we are also sharing related material with the feedback as well, for example, industry acceptable templates, videos, etc. To increase the effectiveness of this project.

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS:

Challenges are a part of every initiative this is what helps you learn and grow. If you are on a smooth plain road with no bumps you can’t learn well to drive. So, it is important to face challenges with courage and take those as an opportunity to learn and grow. We have tried the same took challenges very calmly and came up with possible solutions which is a great learning experience. Some of the challenges faced and their solutions are mentioned below:

Communication: As we know that we are operating through an online platform where effective communication is far more difficult than physical communication. It can cause serious problems if possible actions are not taken timely. Solution: What we have decided to do in the initial weeks as I knew it can be difficult and can have serious consequences in the coming weeks. We suggested and encourage circle members to at least look over in Whatsapp group daily after 2–3 hours for any updates or problems. So, that you can cope up with the pace and join weekly meetings for sharing progress and action plans for the coming week.
Project Model: At the initial stages, we were thinking to only restrict the project to our team which means feedback from our team members only but we’ve realized that this will not be much effective and people will not trust a person who’s not experienced. Solution: We decided to collaborate with industry professionals which include HR professionals and successful job personals in the corporate sector to volunteer. It went well, for now, we have 4 professionals on board who are here to give feedback to interested individuals on their Resume’s and this is our USP as well.
How we will find or reach out to the needy: This was a big challenge for us to let the needy find us or we find the people who are in need of this service to achieve our goal which is to help as many people as possible through this platform. Solution: We decided on 3 strategies to how we will be reaching out to prospective people. Firstly through Social media the easiest way to reach a large number of people. Secondly, by reaching out personally to our networks and asking them if they need guidance they can contact us. Lastly, by sending a proposal to our University teachers and asking them to announce in the class if anyone needs help they can reach out to us.
Meeting deadlines: At the beginning of the project we haven’t made any system to meet the deadlines effectively because we were not expecting much response but after a great response everything messed up deadlines were not clear and sometimes we were unable to share feedback on time to the clients which cause a negative impact. Solution: After this, all happened we realized that we need to do something and then we came up with a strategy that by using excel we will be scheduling the coming Resume’s on a first come first serve basis and it went very well. Now every day we have 1 resume we collaborate and come up with the final feedback which is to be shared very easily.

CHANGE IN APPROACH:

At the initial stages, we were thinking to only restrict the project to our team which means feedback from our team members only but we’ve realized that this will not be much effective and people will not trust a person who’s not much experienced.

As we did courses in Amal Fellowship which polished our skills of Resume writing but to further enhance those we’ve decided to do some research and to find out any free online courses available on the internet, then we came across Coursera who was providing a course “Create a Resume and Cover Letter with Google Docs”, two of our circle members completed the course. Rest did some research, watch several videos regarding Resume writing from some HR Professionals of reputed organizations of Pakistan like, Engro focused to find out exactly what they are looking for in a Resume at this time.

Youtube Lecture Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxWG-BA3i3E
Coursera Course Link: https://www.coursera.org/projects/create-resume-cover-letter-google-docs utm_source=wa&utm_medium=page_share&utm_content=pdp&utm_campaign=banner_button

To further enhance the effectiveness of the project we decided to collaborate with industry professionals who are working in the corporate sector and are ready to volunteer their time for this project. It went well, for now, we have 4 professionals on board who are here to give feedback to interested individuals on their Resume’s and this is our USP as well. The profiles of those four professionals are given below.

IMPACT:

Before going live me and my circle members were not expecting that much good response from the target audience but the day we went live we started receiving Resume’s through our Social Media and even from our Batch fellows as well because they were seeing the value we are giving free of cost to the audience. We haven’t planned before that we will be scheduling the coming Resume’s but after the response, we have to do that to overcome any chaos and to systemize things.

When we share the feedback with the clients we also requested them to share their feedback also about how was their experience if it really helped them or not, and their updated resume with us also helps us not only to improve but also use that content for marketing purposes like posts on social media.

The feedback till now has been amazing and people really think it has helped them. Some of the feedback is given below.

We are not only gauging our performance or Impact from the feedback but also by analyzing how many students got selected for an interview in any job/internship after our feedback. So, two students from our batch Areej and Rabiys who got the feedback through our initiative and updated their resumes accordingly were selected for the PepsiCo internship which also shows the effectiveness of our project and we are hopeful that many can make it to the interview after the assistance.

SUSTAINABILITY:

We are seeing a bright future of this initiative ahead because of 2–3 reasons. Firstly, after the response, we think that this is something people are really looking for and need assistance with. Secondly, because of our USP which is feedback from industry professionals. A person who has gone through this process can guide much better than any other individual. Lastly, online interactive sessions with the audience where they can interact and even ask questions.

For the sustainability of this initiative, we are planning:

To increase the number of professionals on board who can volunteer themselves for this project. We would have a diverse group of industry professionals from different fields and specifically HR professionals as well.
To call for volunteers for our team who can help us to run this project smoothly.
In the future, we are also planning to not only restrict this platform to Resume Feedback but also add Interview preparation, and Online sessions on the essentials of getting a job which will make the project more effective and sustainable also.
As it is free of cost. So, we don’t think we need to have any strict policies for the sustainability of this project. The only thing we demand from our volunteers is time and it is obvious many people do charge a lot for their time but we select those who really want to help and payback to the community.
Track performance continuously with the help of identified KPI’s and improving our operations accordingly will also help us in being sustainable.
By keeping the team involved in research and identifying what are the current market demands. For example, after the pandemic digital got boom and everything went online so as interviews as well which are different from in-person interviews. The purpose is to be updated which can be helpful in sustainability.