The best part about my job profile is that I fight with each client to ensure they push themselves to land in their dream country fighting against all the odds. A few necessary and a few utterly unnecessary odds. My role is that of a Doctor or a Lawyer because no client approaches us without having their research done on some partial subjective knowledge. It is more like a patient going to doctor and consulting, “Hey Doctor! I know I have a fever and I have checked online, it says I can take a crocin or Xyz… but it also asks me to consult a Doctor for further advice.” I can understand what a doctor’s reaction would be to this. After all, even I have behaved as a typical patient during one of my visits to my Doctor. I asked her “Dr. Reddy, I have read about this online.. so would you recommend me to follow it?” The only instant sarcastic reply I got from her was “Pooja, the problem with you is, you are not smart, you are over smart. So leave the Doctor’s work to the Doctor and follow what I prescribe, should be apt and beneficial for both of us” I wish I could say the same thing to my clients (with due respect, I know I cannot). So this was just about an online research on a subject matter. But it gets interesting when clients approach us with something they have read online about our company which doesn’t favor them to initiate their process through us. This, I feel is the most exciting, challenging and interesting part of my job, since I learn the most out of it. There was a client who was about to initiate his process with me for his Australia PR, the evaluation was done and it was just on the final terms of negotiation and registration and he came up with an issue of a negative review posted online. There was a lot of discussion on this which wasn’t concluding on a positive note. While talking to him, I opened his resume and checked on his company details, through which I got to know that his overall work experience of 9 years was with 2 companies. Let’s name them Company A and Company B (Both were the fortune 500 companies). While he was completing his bit of discussion on the reviews part, I interrupted him and asked: “Sir I see that you were working with Company A for almost 4 years and for past 5 years you are associated with Company B right?” He answered, “Yes that’s right!” I questioned, “So how is this company, Sir?” He answered, “It’s good, I received a good appraisal last year, and I was onsite for a project and since then I am planning to apply for PR so that I can settle down permanently in Australia with my family.” I continued, “That sound great Sir! so in case if this company offers you to work with one of their clients in Australia after you get a PR, would you work with them?” He answered, “Yes of course! Why not? It is a good company and I am happy with it, I have a good rapport with managers and the HR here.”(For obvious reasons it is one of the fortune 500 companies) I continued, “Sir so precisely I understand that you want to get associated with a company which is reliable and is genuine, right? He answered, “Yes, but why are you asking me about this?” Finally, he realized that the topic was diverted… I continued, “Sir the reason why I am asking you about this is, while I was talking to you or helping you understand that my company is reliable to which you were disagreeing, I was surfing on the reviews of your company to check, what it has in store. After all, you have given 5 years to the company and still are associated and you are also ready to serve the company in future, so I wanted to check if the online reviews of your company project the same. And to my surprise Sir, there are a lot of negative reviews I see about your company online. A few are put up by the clients may be and a few by the employees who claim that the company is not reliable or downsizing and is laying off people without prior notice. But I wouldn’t go by it, rather I would rely more on what I hear from you since I know that you are still a part of your organization and I am sure you do not want to take a chance with your career by working with a non-reliable firm.” Of course! there was a bit of pause from the client’s end... The ball was in my court, I continued…. “Sir, you name me a company and I will show you negative reviews on the company no matter how big or successful it is. Even the US President have negative reviews online, but that doesn’t stop him from working. Neither does it stops any company from what it is. And like you are serious about making your career with a reliable company, I would also not work with a company which is not reliable enough since it’s a matter of career for me too…” Of course! the registration was done and I am glad that the client got his visa stamped for Australia. The only reason I could get this client registered is because what I was talking was fact and hence I was confident about it. None of the online reviews can authenticate the work of any company since it is an individualistic point of view which most of the times is non-relevant. There are many clients we come across who talk about online access to information, reviews, checklist etc… but at the end, the role of an expert can only be done by an expert and that is where we come into the picture.