The Perfect Boss!!

There were about 70 scientists working on a very hectic project. All of them were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone were loyal to him and did not think of quitting the job.

One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him - Sir, I have promised to my children that I will take them to the exhibition going on in our township. So I want to leave the office at 5:30 pm. His boss replied "OK, You're permitted to leave the office early today".

The Scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch when he felt he was close to completion. The time was 8.30 PM.

Suddenly he remembered of the promise he had given to his children.

He looked for his boss, he was not there. Having told him in the morning itself, he closed everything and left for home. Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children. He reached home. Children were not there.

His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive; any talk would boomerang on him. His wife asked him, "Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry.

The man replied "If you would like to have coffee, I too will have but what about Children?"

Wife replied "You don't know? Your manager came here at 5.15 PM and has taken the children to the exhibition"

What had really happened was ... The boss who granted him permission was observing him working seriously at 5.00 PM. He thought to himself, this person will not leave the work, but if he has promised his children they should enjoy the visit to exhibition.

So he took the lead in taking them to exhibition. The boss does not have to do it everytime . But once it is done, loyalty is established.

That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss even though the stress was tremendous.

By the way, can you hazard a guess as to who the boss was..?

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He was none other than the mastermind behind India 's successful nuclear weapons and missiles program.

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India.

The "Less than Perfect" Resume

These classic tidbits were taken from real resumes and cover letters and were printed in the July 21, 1997 issue of Fortune Magazine:

1. "I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience."

2. "I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0 computor and spreadsheet progroms."

3. "Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year."

4. "Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave."

5. "Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions."

6. "Failed bar exam with relatively high grades."

7. "It's best for employers that I not work with people."

8. "Let's meet, so you can 'ooh' and 'aah' over my experience."

9. "You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time."

10. "Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details."

11. "I was working for my mom until she decided to move."

12. "Marital status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments."

13. "I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse."

14. "I am loyal to my employer at all costs...Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail."

15. "I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing."

16. "My goal is to be a meteorologist. But since I possess no training in meterology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage."

17. "I procrastinate, especially when the task is unpleasant."

18. "As indicted, I have over five years of analyzing investments."

19. "Personal interests: donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far."

20. "Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store."

21. "Note: Please don't miscontrue my 14 jobs as 'job-hopping'. I have never quit a job."

22. "Marital status: often. Children: various."

23. "Reason for leaving last job: They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 a.m. every morning. Could not work under those conditions."

24. "The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers."

25. "Finished eighth in my class of ten."

26. "References: None. I've left a path of destruction behind me."

Ego And The Career!!

An "I am right" attitude imposes a barrier on assimilation of wisdom from others and the environment

The dictionary meaning of ego is "I; self of any person; self esteem". However, "egoistic", means conceit and an exaggerated sense of self!

On a day-to-day basis, we come across various forms of ego -- whether it is at home, on the streets or at the office. However, putting up with someone else's enormous ego for a long period of time can be unbearable!

We often notice other people's ego and blame it for things that can go wrong in our lives. For example, if your boss is egoistic, you hold him responsible for lack of your career advancement. You fault your peers for delaying team effectiveness if they have large egos. And, finally, you accuse subordinates of hampering your efficiency if they have inflexible personalities. But, how many times do we actually introspect and recognise the limitations set by our own ego?

Egos are relative. Your ego maybe small in comparison to some and your self-esteem maybe too high. What is vital is, whether you are allowing your ego to get in the way of your development. This is not easy, especially since it involves making an honest assessment of your pattern of reaction as well as your ability to get past yourself and sacrifice your ideas for the sake of others. The influence of ego on a career can be seen in various forms:

1. Inability to accept your mistakes -
This is the most common result of an exaggerated ego! When we refuse to accept our own follies we think that is because we are right! When others do it, we naturally tend to attribute it to their ego. Step back and judge whether you are being adamant because self-esteem is not letting you acknowledge your own errors. It is not easy to be objective and, at such times, seek help from a colleague or trusted friend to observe whether there is a repeated pattern in your conduct.

2. Inability to see another's point of view -
Even if you claim to have a realistic self- image, consciously put yourself in another person's shoes and reflect. We have a tendency to be intolerant during disagreement and dissent. A sizeable ego only amplifies this and it becomes difficult to incorporate another person's judgement into one's own. Your character traits can be an obstruction in tolerating attitudes and ideas that oppose yours.

3. Inability to work in a team -
The natural fallout of the above is the inability to foster successful teamwork and cultivate team spirit if you cannot get past the sense and love of yourself! Team effectiveness is usually sensitive to the behaviour of its members and leaders. Any display of self- rightousness or arrogance is bound to affect the unit and create an atmosphere of discord with low or no cooperation from its members.

4. Influence on decision making -
Often, the ego gets in the way of gathering views and ideas. Increase in work pace, sometimes forces managers to take instant and independent decisions, getting caught up with constraints and circumstances without accommodating divergent thoughts and feelings. But if one is unable to acknowledge one's inadequacies or lack of capability in some ways, conclusions and judgement can be impaired. Impartial resolution on matters requires one to be open minded and not self centred!

5. Limits learning -
Personality characteristics have a huge influence on one's learning. To gain knowledge from others, it is imperative to study how your individual qualities influence your ability to learn. An "I am right" attitude imposes a barrier on assimilation of wisdom from others and the environment. Be aware of how you let yourself be disadvantaged by your rigidity and inability to admit your shortcomings!

Dealing With An Insecure Boss!!

It is natural for managers to be difficult with their subordinates. Here is how to handle this tactfully

Recently, a senior executive from a large corporation was pointing out the pains of working with a highly egoistic boss. She said, "Since I am performing well and have been noticed by other seniors, my direct boss seems to be threatened by me. He controls everything and doesn't part with pertinent information without difficulty. Nothing I do these days is right for him."

It gets harder to work with someone who is suspicious, distrustful, and difficult to please. Professional life can be made miserable by an insecure or self-absorbed superior.

In day-to-day functioning, it is stifling to be directed by a leader, who is easily threatened. Many CEOs complain about how lack of self-confidence in a supervisor ruins team spirit and erodes organisational culture, not to mention jeopardising productivity.

How many times have you felt that your bosses' weaknesses and gaps have directly impacted you? What manifestations of your supervisor's low self-confidence do you deal with regularly? Do the following ring a bell?

1. Continuous discouragement of your initiatives and very little appreciation of your work.
2. Year on year lame excuses for lack of promotion or low bonus.
3. Public mockery of your ideas, but private appreciation of your abilities.
4. Rejecting your input only to later represent them as his/her idea.
5. Constantly reminding you of your shortcomings and slip-ups.
6. Denying you of the more challenging assignments without giving you the benefit of doubt.

Of course, these are generalised stereotypes and every trait need not necessarily imply a boss lacking in self-esteem or considering you as a potential threat! There should be several other indications to conclude that your manager is sceptically watching you.

1. Diagnose, don't overread -
It is essential not to get carried away by a rebuke or debate and term it "conspiratorial". Make sure you detect whether the hard time you are subjected to is for a personality lapse in your boss and not a genuine correction of blunders.

2. Respond, not react -
In a situation where you feel your boss is behaving immaturely, take a sharper view and respond rationally, not impulsively. Try to ignore the smaller issues and focus on those things that impact you or your professional progress directly.

3. Communicate -
If a situation continues to deteriorate with time, it's a good idea to communicate your discomfort to your manager. It is important for him/her to know that you recognise a pattern and will not stand up for professional unfairness. Dig deeper to understand what emotions and feelings your boss is coming from before you swoop down to get even!

4. Involve others in your work -
If you are being seen as a danger to your supervisor's position, you should make sure that your work and ideas are known to peers / colleagues / subordinates. This way, it does not allow your manager to play foul and gives you alibis or witnesses to your efforts. Build allies so that you do not feel vulnerable and cannot let your superior position you poorly within the team.

5. Other mentors -
Don't rely on your boss being your sole mentor and coach. It is good to have mentors other than your boss, who can guide and help you strategically build your career in an organisation. The mentoring process can get diluted with an advisor playing havoc if he ceases to see you as a protégé and begins to view you as his competitor!

To begin with, the boss-subordinate relationship is a highly tested one. It is almost natural for managers to have negative illusions of their subordinate's intentions. However, when the work environment is made tougher because you are being seen as a risk to your boss' career, then it is better to start appropriately dealing with the differences.

Preparation of A CV and its Importance!!

A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the mirror which gives a company complete picture of the candidate. CV is a medium to market yourself.

Most people underestimate the importance of a CV (resume). Many of us put off writing our CV until last moment and do an inadequate job. Others feel that they know it all and treat the job of writing a resume far too casually. Actually, you would be well advised to ensure that both your resume and covering letter are so well prepared that they stand out among a thousand others, not only in content but also in presentation. Any compromises at this stage and you may not be short listed for the interview.

CV -Crucial in getting an Interview
Your CV is your first communication with the perspective employer. It serves as personal advertisement for you and must therefore, be organised in such a manner so as to make it interesting, attractive, brief and informative. Whether the interview is granted or not depends to a large extent on the impression created by the CV. If you wish to be one of the few to be called for an interview, you must ensure your CV is distinct from the hundreds of other CVs of candidates who may be as experienced or as well qualified as you. Today a good 20 to 30 per cent of candidates get rejected because they have not presented their CVs well.

Moreover, your perspective employers do not have the time or the inclination to meet all the people who may be interested in an opening, that makes it more important that among the other thousands of CVs, yours must stand out; not only in contents but also by the way it is formatted.

Essential Information must be Mentioned
There are certain items which must be included in every CV. Other items may or may not be mentioned depending on whether they are relevant or not. The items which must be included are given below:

• Personal Information: Name, date of birth, marital status, language known, address, telephone number.
• Educational Background: Institutions attended with years, marks obtained, qualifications, achievements, computer literacy.
• Employment History: Name of organisation( s), years, designation( s), responsibilities, achievements and training programme attended.

Include any part time or summer employment if you do not have any full time experience.

Stick to the Basic Rules

Stick to these proven guidelines for writing a CV:
• The term "Bio-data" is out. Curriculum Vitae (CV) has replaced it.
• Do not make a mistake of beginning your CV with the title "Bio-data" especially if you are applying for the managerial position.
• Before writing your CV sit down and think through what information you want to highlight. Include your achievements, your hobbies and interests, academic qualifications, details of your work experience (if any) and your job objectives. Don't write a final CV without including all these.
• Begin your CV with a section on personal particulars.

Exclude family background.
• Write your date of birth and not your age. If your CV were to go in a databank, only to be retrieved 2 or 3 years later, it would be difficult to make an estimate of your age.
• You must give your phone number even if you do not have your own phone. Give a phone number of your friend or a relative who can pass on a message to you quickly. This is very essential as many vacancies have to be filled urgently and interviews have to be set up at a very short notice. Always mention the STD code of your town of
residence if applying outside the city and remember to mention country code as well when applying abroad.
• Don't clutter your CV with irrelevant information. Mention your nationality only when applying abroad or when specifically asked to do so.
• Mention your father's occupation when applying for a position at the entry level or a junior level non-management job, or when specifically asked.
• Try and give maximum possible information in minimum space.
• You may include a job objective at the beginning. Your objective should be as specific as you can make it or it can be tailor-made to exactly correspond with the requirements of an advertisement to which you are replying.
• Make sure that the reader is quickly able to assess your accomplishments. If you have had work experience, start with your most recent experience and then the experiences that you have had with the organisations you were previously in. Your most recent experience will be the one most relevant to your new job. So mention
it first and your previous experiences later.
• Similarly, start your academic background with the most recent qualification.
• Make sure that your CV is not longer than two pages. It should, at the same time, not be so short that your prospective employer does not know anything about you after going through it. It must be concise and should be informative.

Presentation
Make sure your CV looks good. Presentation is of the atmost importance. You must:
(a) Avoid spelling mistakes.
(b) Use good quality paper.
(c) Do not send curriculum vitae with spelling errors corrected by whitening fluid or by hand.
(d) Use proper margins and spend time formatting it properly.
(e) Send the printed laser outputs instead of photocopying. It may cost you more but it says a lot about you.

Don't lie even if it is a small lie. Usually such lies are about achievements, grades and marks or summer projects. The personnel departments in most companies do take pains in verifying claims.

References
You may include references at the end of your CV. These are names, addresses and phone numbers of two or three people who could vouch for your character, competence and commitment. Ideally, these should be people who have worked with you, or your college professors. Many job seekers starting out in their careers feel that important people's references will impress prospective employers. Nothing could be further from the truth. A big name will communicate that you are a name-dropper who gets by on his father's contacts rather than achievements. An experienced interviewer will be far more impressed with the references of people who know you professionally. In any case, your prospective employer will check with referees, so make sure you ask your referees' permission before putting their names in your CV.

Use one or at best not more than two typefaces while preparing your CV. If you are looking for visual relief and highlighting then you can use block capitals, italics, bold type, underlining, varying font sizes, or any combinations of these. Choose a font that is simple and easy to read. Do not go in for a fancy typeface. It will take away legibility of your CV.

Don't leave gaps in your CV. If you have lost some years between your +2 and graduation or after your graduation, explain the gap.

Special Tips for the Freshers
Even if you have a professional degree from a prestigious institution and are looking for a position at entry level, you need to market yourself effectively to get a plum offer. If you are not from a coveted institution your task becomes that much harder because a number of top recruiters may not even visit your campus.

Your basic task is of communicating the fact that your skills, school and college education work experience, achievements, projects and extracurricular activities - all add up to make you the right person for the job.

Don't underestimate the value of your summer jobs, and your extra curricular activities. These are opportunities to use skills related to the job. They are often more job related than the academic qualification itself. The skills that you can demonstrate through any project or extracurricular activity include leadership skills, an ability to negotiate, plan and organise. In the absence of any direct organisational experience these add real meat to your CV. In other words, they help to differentiate you from the crowd and are often the most interesting part in your CV. Be sure to include all projects that you were in either alone or as a team and anything 'extra' you did.

Let us take a look at some of these in more detail.

Summer jobs: Normally any interview will include questions on summer jobs to test whether you understand the industry, the organisation and area of relevance. You are expected to be an expert in the area directly related to your training.

Extracurricular activities: These usually demonstrate interpersonal, communication organisation liaison, coordination and leadership skills. Were you elected to various offices? Did you organise any college festival? Were you instrumental in organising symposia? Did you contribute to the college magazine? Quite often any projects or
extracurricular activities, are the most interesting part of you. If these are presented and defined well these activities can be a useful marketing device to land you with the right job, at right time.

Many companies have standardised application forms on the basis of which they shortlist candidates. Typically, the application form may be required to be filled in two or three methods before the interview and would include a statement of purpose. Many a candidate has slipped up in the interview even when all was going well in the interview. It is simply because what he said during the interview was inconsistent with the application form. Therefore, we would recommend that you keep photocopies of all your completed application forms carefully, especially of the statement of purpose, till the interview.

Building an employment brand: Responsibilities of a HR executive

A great work place is where each one of us wants to find ourselves in. But which is the right place? Your prospective employee will also have this question in his mind. If you want your company name to pop up in his mind, get ready, you have a great deal of work to do - Build an employment brand for your company.

Employee brand is a relatively new coinage but definitely a critical factor, which will help you resolve most of your recruitment hardships. It is all about being a company where people will want to work. And definitely stressing on literally "being a company where people want to work", because unless you have a great workplace you cannot create such an image.

How can a good employment brand help me as a HR?

You will surely love it if you do not have to struggle in convincing your prospective employees about the positives of joining your company, right? Having a brand image as a good employer will help you:

• Keep ahead in the talent war
• Attract and induce the right kind of people you are looking for
• Enhance your ability to get quality resumes to choose from
• Retain your existing employee pool
• Subsequently see a dip in employee turnover
  
  How can I help in building the company brand?

Being in the HR space, you have the most potential to drive the company towards building its brand. Perhaps you should be the spearhead of this project. Before you start, remember that building a brand cannot happen overnight. It is a long term strategy which needs a complete relook at the way your organization works.

So, where do I start? Once you get your top management convinced about your strategy, go ahead with setting your brand objective. Be clear as to what is the employment brand image that you want to achieve. This is the first step and you proceed with your internal strategies and slowly move into external promotional activities.

Encourage your senior management to support best practices in HR :

Value, vision and practice have to start with the key strategy players - the top management. Get their support to implement best HR practices in your organization and you are sure you can head start to create a great work place.

Build a great work place :

If salary is not the only measure of good work place anymore, then what are employees looking for?

• Freedom of work
• Good work culture
• Leadership opportunity
• Recognition for good work
• Learning and career growth
• Flexibility of timings
• Challenges and responsibilities
• Job Security
• Good work life and social life balance

In simple terms, be a good employer and give your employees the maximum reasons to reject another job offer and stay on with you.

Most valuable! Make your employees speak good about you :

Make them feel good and they'll speak good. There is nothing like a satisfied employee who spreads the goodwill of the company by word of mouth. He is speaking from his experience and he is the best brand ambassador you can find.

Help your company develop a space in the recruitment industry :

While calling for resumes, word your advertisement in such a way that you build your company brand on terms of credibility and employee welfare.

Create a public image through PR :

Public relations can help you build a credible brand image through newspapers reports and magazines. Getting listed in those 'best employers' surveys will add a lot of value.

Online strategies like press releases, newsletters, articles are also a powerful media for spreading the word of your company. Have you considered writing for blogs? You can yourself take up the PR job by blogging about your company and its HR strategies. Also make the best out your corporate website.

Resume Writing Tips and Strategies

1. Keep It Focused and Businesslike
A resume should be specific and all business. Don't try to be too smart or too cute. After all, you are asking an employer to invest significant time and money by choosing you over many other similarly qualified people. Employers mainly want to know whether you are appropriately qualified and experienced, and if you have the ability to "deliver the goods."

2. More Than Two Pages Is Too Much
For students, recent graduates, or people with just a few years of experience, try to keep your resume to one page,two as an absolute maximum. Even a resume for someone with20 years or more of extensive working experience, should not exceed three pages. In some cases, one or two "optional"pages can be referred to as "available upon request." These would be such optional annexes as a list of references or an inventory of recent projects and/or publications.

3. Get The Words and Punctuation Right
Make sure the grammar, spelling, and punctuation in your resume are perfect. Any obvious mistakes will hurt your credibility. Also, be sure to keep the language clear and simple. If you draft it yourself, have someone with excellent writing skills do an editorial review and a careful proofread of it. If a professional prepares it for you, such reviews are the responsibility of the resume preparation firm. Use an accepted English language "style guide" if you want to be sure of the finer points of word usage, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, etc.

4. Read Between The Lines
Customize the resume to match the stated requirements of the job that you are applying for, without being misleading.Review and analyze the job advertisement carefully. Look for and itemize the key qualifications, skills, and abilities the employer is seeking. Then identify certain key words that are usually repeated in such ads. Make sure that the wording and sequence of points in your resume reflect and address these "corporate terminologies" and"code words" as much as possible. When possible, study the company's annual report and Web site, and weave the themes and terms found there into your resume and cover letter.

5. Make Sure It Looks Good
Use a crisp, clean, simple presentation format for a professional looking resume. Just a bit of simple line work and/or shading, done with standard word processing software will do the trick. If you don't have the aptitude for this,there is most likely someone among your friends or in your office who can help you achieve a professional presentation.If not, seek professional advice. It won't cost much for a good simple layout, but it will make a world of difference to the product.

6. Show What You Can Do Today
Focus, first and foremost, on your recent experience that is most relevant to the position at hand. Less relevant and/or dated experience should be either eliminated or summarized in brief point form near the end of your resume.When reviewing your resume information, a prospective employer wants to know what you are doing now, what you have done recently, and how that relates to the job requirements of the post they are trying to fill.

7. Be A Straight-Shooter
Be completely honest. When people lie or "creatively exaggerate" on their resume, they are almost invariably exposed, sooner or later. Think about it - who really wants to get a job based on a lie(s) and then have to live in fear of eventually being found out? We often read in the newspaper about high-profile folks who get caught in are sume falsehood or exaggeration, and it isn't very pretty.

8. Follow The Instructions
Submit your resume in exactly the form that the prospective employer requests. If they say e-mail or fax is okay, do it that way. However, if they ask for it by regular mail, send it the way they ask. They must have reasons for requesting it in such a form and they are geared up to process it that way. If your resume is to be sent by snail mail, use the complete address that they specify, or it could go to the wrong office, especially in a large organization.

9. Don't Get Lost In The Mail
Be careful to respect certain conventions that the potential employer may require in your resume. For example, make sure that the cover letter mentions the exact name of the specific position you are applying for, and the competition number, if applicable. Sometimes an employer will request that the job title and/or number be printed on the outside of the envelope. You would not want to miss out on a job because you didn't follow minor administrative requirements.

10. Keep The Cover Short and Focused
In the cover letter, don't repeat what is already detailed in the body of the attached resume. It is a "cover" letter.It should be short and to the point. Introduce yourself first, and then briefly summarize why you believe that you have the qualifications and experience to fulfill the duties of the position better than anyone else. Express enthusiasm about the job and the company. Close by stating how you are looking forward to hearing more from them soon,and that you will follow-up if necessary.