Book: 'You're Hired: How you get that job and keep it too'; Author: Nasha Fitter; Publisher: Penguin India-Books; Price: Rs.199

Applying for jobs, but don't seem to hear back from prospective employers? Maybe you're making a mistake somewhere in your application. Does your application read anything like this?

'Dear Ma'm/Sir, This is with regard to ur company posting for software engineer. Myself Dhiraj and I'm having a post-graduate in computer science and is very interested in the position. Few years back I joined similar company in Bangalore. I applied to your company last year but I didn't get the job. Currently, looking for new opportunities becoz I am very interested. I have skill that is suited for your company...

Please revert back on the same,

Thanking you,

Dhiraj'

This is an email that a human resource manager in Mumbai received from a prospective candidate. The company promptly shot down his candidature because the application was full of errors, recounts Nasha Fitter, a teacher, entrepreneur, communication expert and soft skill trainer, in her new book 'You're Hired...'

Nasha, a graduate in business management from the Harvard Business School, is currently working for Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington, where she focuses on efforts to improve education in emerging markets across India.

In her book, she reproduces copies of emails from prospective Indian candidates - mostly first-time job seekers - to suggest ways to 'communicate effectively without flaws' and points out the dos and don'ts while applying for jobs either on the Internet or through detailed mobile text messages - two new formats that have captured the imagination of young India.

The book is a small-town job-hunter's primer - the kind that applies for jobs in call centres from the hinterland 'hoping to save Rs.10,000 every month from a decent pay cheque, pick up an American or British accent, brush up the English language and advance in life'.