Focus Group or ''Heart'?

Alright. Full confession here- for at least 20 years of my 32 year life, Shah Rukh Khan has been a constant. I have watched some terrible movies because he's been in them, disappointed friends and family who otherwise respect my "highbrow" taste by displaying more-than-seemly excitement at the songs of Om Shanti Om, and single handedly introduced SRK to at least three new nationalities by hosting viewing parties at my house.

However, when it comes to Ra-ONE, I am just not 'feeling it'.

When we Indians go to watch a Bollywood movie every Friday, we go to watch someone we know do what we know he or she is good at.

So, when we go to watch a Salman Khan movie- we expect a little bit of muscle flexing, some innuendo laden jokes, and a couple of non-dancing hit dances. When we go to watch an Aamir Khan movie, we know we will get something youthful, urban, and with a strong though emotionally manipulative story line.

With Shah Rukh Khan you know you will get rich people addressing rich people problems in rich people ways, but with an undercurrent of "heart".

How do we know this? Put in resume' terms this is a combination of their:

• Experience- last 5 movies or so, (nobody judges Aamir Khan for Tum Mere Ho anymore)
• Their Own Personality (BEI???)- the many little spicy pieces of information that their well-oiled PR machinery has been feeding us over the last several years.
• Our personal 'connection' with the actor- whether it was the fact that he made us smile during a particularly difficult break up or made us laugh with a close set of friends on the last day of colleges.
• What we think of ourselves- chances are that if you like to think of yourself as an intellectual, or someone not quite run of the mill, you watch Aamir Khan movies. Those of us who like to think of ourselves as 'in touch with our roots, or 'simple' or 'pleasure loving', watch Salman Khan movies.

So why am I not ''feeling" Ra.ONE?

Because it seems too much like a movie designed by Focus Groups, where people sit together around a table, debate over what they think we will like, and add a bit of that to the movie. In short, a movie which instead of having a 'heart', is a well-publicized inauthentic experience thought out over spreadsheets and marketing meetings.

Now lets take a look at how most employers we speak with hire.

Once again, they take a look at your experience (with the more recent experience getting a much higher weightage than what you did when you were 5 year old), they look at your personality (and perhaps do a bit of background search by looking at your Facebook and LinkedIn pages), their own "connection" with you (do you sound like someone they would like to have a cup of coffee with?), and what hiring you says about themselves. Chances are, that an IITian is more likely to hire another IITian, while a self made entrepreneur is more likely to look for that tenacity in his interviewees which he remembers in his 18-year old self.

Then why do we download formats of resumes, or even pay for resume and cover writing services, in an effort to give employers what we think they want?

Why do we tell those little white lies in our interviews and resumes, and are afraid of letting our true selves shine through?

Why do we worry so much about what the person reading our profile wants to know, and put so little trust in what we are as as a person?

In movie parlance, fakery may get you a great opening weekend (an interview call, or even-on occassion- a job!!), but it definitely won't help you build a long lasting connection (or a career)!

True connections and careers only come through authenticity- through exposing a little bit about ourselves to the people we want to work with, and through establishing a bit of "heart"