dailyprompt-2016 - Mazlan Abbas

Beyond Grades: Sifting Through Resumes

When it comes to hiring fresh graduates, many might consider academic grades as the primary sieve. Although grades indeed provide a snapshot of an individual’s academic performance, I find that the real gem often lies within their project experiences. A resume may be brimming with honors and accolades, but it’s the hands-on experience that adds the valuable edge.

The Story Your Projects Tell

The projects – assignments, group tasks, or final year projects, help me understand a candidate’s practical skills, critical thinking, and ability to collaborate. Unfortunately, resumes often fail to reveal the comprehensive story of these projects. Most list only the titles, offering scant insights into the depths of the tasks undertaken and the skills honed through them.

The Interview: Your Chance to Shine

The interview stage is where a candidate has the opportunity to articulate their experiences and skills. It is here that they can impress us by detailing their project experiences. However, quite often, the graduates fail to seize this chance. Those who outsourced their projects or didn’t engage with them deeply are the ones who struggle most, unable to lucidly articulate their roles and contributions.

The Importance of Hands-on Experience

What graduates often overlook is the immense value of project work. It’s the closest real-world work experience they gain during their studies. It’s their first taste of responsibility, an introduction to working under supervision, an opportunity to hone their presentation skills, and a trial by fire of their writing abilities through theses. They might not yet be in the league of candidates with more than a year of work experience, but these projects are their stepping stones.

Choosing The Right Projects: The Real Game Changer

The choice of final year projects is crucial. Opting for challenging tasks gives graduates the chance to prove their mettle, learn, and grow. These projects not only test their academic knowledge but also their ability to innovate, troubleshoot, and collaborate. Handling these projects efficiently mirrors handling real job responsibilities.

The Differentiating Factor: Your Ticket to Getting Hired

The interviewer always looks out for differentiators – elements that set one candidate apart from the rest. How you handle your academic projects, especially the final year ones, is a telling indicator of your potential as an employee. So, take your projects seriously. Choose them wisely. Excel in them. They might just be the key to unlock your dream job.

1. Introduction

Embarking on a startup journey is both exhilarating and challenging. Among the multitude of tasks that startup founders grapple with, understanding how to price their products stands as one of the most complex and crucial. This task turns into a labyrinth especially when there is no direct competitor for benchmarking, or the local market has distinct affordability parameters.

2. The Challenge of a Blank Competitive Landscape

One of the first roadblocks a founder may encounter is the absence of competitors offering similar products. With no direct competition, determining a suitable price can feel like shooting in the dark. Without an industry standard, the pricing strategy often rests on assumptions and estimations, which could risk customer alienation or undervaluation of the product.

3. The Influence of Local Market Affordability

Even with competitors in sight, every market has unique affordability dynamics. A pricing strategy successful in one market may fail miserably in another due to diverse purchasing power and economic conditions. Thus, a deep understanding of local market conditions and economic dynamics is critical in the pricing process.

4. Branding: The Unseen Variable

An established brand carries an inherent value in its name, enabling it to command higher prices. However, for new startups, this is a luxury they don’t possess. With the brand yet unknown, startups face the arduous task of proving their worth while also strategically pricing their products to draw customers in.

5. The Journey to Find the Right Price

Learning and adapting based on customer feedback is essential. If a product is priced too high and fails to attract customers, founders might need to implement discounts or bundled solutions. Conversely, if it’s priced too low, founders risk undervaluing their offering and could strategically raise the price over time. This highlights the need for a flexible, customer-centric approach in determining the product price.

6. Value-based Pricing: The Key to Success

Rather than solely focusing on cost and margin, successful pricing strategies often hinge on the value provided to customers. This approach not only leads to better customer satisfaction and loyalty but also helps in aligning the product’s price with its perceived value.

7. Conclusion: The Balancing Act

In the end, determining the right price for a startup’s product is a complex balancing act between profitability and affordability. It’s about understanding the market, strategically positioning the brand, and most importantly, targeting and delivering value to the right customers. This task extends beyond mere profit-making or loss prevention. It plays a pivotal role in driving sustainable growth and establishing a strong market presence for the brand, ultimately forming the bedrock for the startup’s success.