Business Culture Tip: The Resume

· Business Culture,Economy

I’m not sure who made the standard resume sheet that every young person in Myanmar uses to submit for a job interview. It’s awful. Basically, it tells you this: religion, fathers name, how to contact them, and their basic demographic details. What’s attached to that one page is what really shows you what people have bought into……..I must need more education to get a job. There will be maybe a dozen certificates attached to the resume of random classes they’ve taken over the previous 5 years.

Usually you’ll see dozens of these when you go staff hunting. But what you won’t see is a lot of detail. What are the interests of the person? Who knows? How much education do they have? Beats me? Job experience? Can’t tell what they’ve even done before they are meeting with you. There is occasion that you can find a diamond in the rough with these types of resumes but it’s rare.

Here’s some tips on reading a Myanmar resume:
Education doesn’t really matter yet in Myanmar but experience does. The government Universities aren’t really real universities and the private ones are still a guessing game.
Read between the lines, what exactly did they do at their previous job? You’ll find out that it may not be as complex or as good as you think.
Is there detail to the resume…..then most likely you have someone that’s good at thinking.
Thinking? Yes thinking, you are looking for people with good critical thinking because it’s still a rare quality.

The Interview
Most people are still really bad at interviews so you’ll have to look past that. They are mostly timid and will often struggle to answer your questions. If you find someone that has the right experience matched with the ability to articulate ideas back to you, then you have a winner. Remember you are looking for thinkers and education still is behind in Myanmar.

Here’s some tips for interviews:
Look past the presentation but look for well thought out answers that make sense
Experience is huge, don’t assume if they are seeking a job title that they actually know anything about it. They may just want the experience. So you’ll need to ask technical questions.
Experience and Critical thinking is what you are looking for.

Hiring Process
Usually you will need to allow someone a month to put in their notice at their previous job if they are still there. You can do a 2-3-month probation period where you see their performance. This allows you both to “date” each other and see if the job, working environment, and staff fit. Once you’ve negotiated the role, salary package, etc. they can start.

Here’s some insights in Hiring:
Money isn’t the sole motivator for people in Myanmar, environment and company reputation means a lot
There are a lot of agencies that help with finding people but most of them don’t weed people out very good.
Facebook is a great place to find people, posting the Job Vacancy will attract a lot of applicants
If you hire someone and they don’t like working their within the first week, they may not show up and not tell you.
You will need to make contracts with your staff in accordance with Myanmar Law.
Sometimes this whole process is frustrating. Sometimes you get really lucky and find a great staff that goes above and beyond your expectations. I hope you find the latter.

Written By- Ryan Russell