Career Cafe- Connecting HRs @plugHR

India HR LIVE is always in the look out for great HR minds and presenting their ideas and initiatives to you all. And we are delighted to share one such initiative named Career Café, an initiative started by Plug HR to connect HR Professionals from different cities over a cup of coffee..Doesn’t that sound interesting already? Read below to know more about it as Rakshita Dwivedi shares the journey of Career Café.

Have you wondered why people drink coffee?

Well I am not much sure myself, just that coffee is an age old formula to break the ice and that works perfectly for plugHR career café too.It was 9 pm as per my watch by the time we finished a recent career café at Mumbai. A pleasant evening spend with a group of highly dynamic and passionate people who though coming from diverse industries had common agenda to explore themselves and discuss latest HR trending. We have been tagging smiling HR professionals in different cities over a coffee and its amazing how every city has its own coffee effect!!

As a host and a facilitator I have countered many ‘whys’ and ‘whats’ regarding Career Café.

Why should one attend Career Café?

So to start with former, at plugHR we have always been in the look out for seasoned HR professionals who can work in sync with entrepreneur’s expectation along with plugHR rhythms. Now meeting every individual , more or less has added to our learning but still no matter what experience ones comes from an interview is expected to be a formal meet where an individual is not sure that which step will eliminate him out of the system. So Darwin’s theory of “Survival of fittest” holds good here too. Now a different perspective of looking at an interview apart from a lost opportunity is that what has been the individual’s gain. Mostly an interview is an assessment of whether the interviewee possesses the required competencies or not and the ones not required are simply put in the negative bucket resulting in absolutely clueless candidate.

Career Cafes are a place which is for individuals to come and discuss their job achievements, failures, challenges and trends. The informal format provides a very friendly approach to the attendees to open up and speak about their apprehensions, fears and seek advice from the group.

What makes the conversation go on?

Mostly people approach us for job openings and we ask them to participate in career café. Why? Because we feel it’s is a more holistic approach to not just assess but also learn from each other. Honestly till now job hunt is just one way to see where one stands but not just it is exhaustive but the take away is not always motivating. As opposed to a career café where attendees come without any strings attached mingle with the group which helps them to open up . However for team plugHR it provides an opportunity to evaluate talent potential in any particular city and engage them for future opportunities as well.

So Career café is a platform where HR Professionals can connect with their fraternity in the most informal but yet effective manner. The discussion generally starts with a simple introduction and with every cup there is an addition of more HR concerning topics. The tone keeps varying from light to serious and then it keeps flowing. Infact it’s quite a moment to see usual corporate facilitators to vent out and talk candidly.
plugHR, a subscription based HR department , believes in exploring &experimenting to add every career café gives us new point of point and in turn helps us to evolve better. It a continuous learning, sharing and networking platform specific to the needs of today’s HR Managers who are ready to take the corporate world with their own stride.

So Rakshita, Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I am a young HR professional who enjoys writing for that is best way I can express and share my learning.
Been in the Industry since 2005 and my varied experiences in MNC’s ,SME’s and start ups resulted in widening my horizons. My cravings to learn more and experiment everyday helps me connect and network with people. I enjoy company of intellectuals for someday want to be known as one 😉

Currently I am associated with plugHR , a subscription based HR department where I handle Social Media Networking & Engagement along with Talent Acquisition. In order to keep a tab on market expectations, I host twitter chats #hrtrends every Thursday and Facebook HR chats on behalf of plugHR.

My work makes me a social media buff and when not online I mostly love spending time with my toddler. Writing however has been a hobby which now I am taking more seriously but otherwise I enjoy free hand sketching and cooking too!! Currently based out of Mumbai and I am reachable on emailto:rakshita.dwivedi@gmail.com and on twitter at @Raks_d.