Category: Human R

Today our HR Manager shared a good presentation with us. Click http://www.stservicemovie.com/ to visit the presentation. Even one of our staff who takes care of our office inspires others to stay back and work more as he takes care of all other things from food to a hot water bath. Every good person is an asset to your team, respect good people to create more good people, and create good people to create a good company and a good company will always provide the best services. A very good morning to everyone.

I was reading Penelope Trunk’s post “4 interview questions you should never ask“,

Most interviews reach a pause when the hiring manager says, “Do you have any questions for me?” In a world of workplace transparency the most common response to this question would be, “No. I have no questions. I am sick of job hunting. Give me a job.” But alas, you must play the interview game. So ask three or four questions as a way to convey that you have options, even if, in fact, you do not.

Your questions should convey: “I’m trying to find out more about this position to decide if I’m interested.” But you cannot say that flat out without sounding like an arrogant pain in the butt.

Very interesting post, so I thought I will put few questions I will be asking my employer or the hiring manager (apart from doing a good research on the company, job profile, working culture, products/services, market review, boss, vision)

1. Can I know a little more about my team members and more about my team leader. (Very very important question, if you can get a right team then you can win the world)
2. Do you have small teams?
3. How independent are those small teams?
4. What is done to keep the teams updated with the latest happenings (since I am into tech field it is a very important factor for innovation)?
5. What are external affairs a team member is involved with like conferences, group discussions, panels, interviews, article writing e.t.c?
6. How empowered will I be to make decisions?
7. Do we have company gatherings to discuss about company affairs and culture? Who all attend it? (may be, may not be)

WILL I GET ALL SATURDAYS OFF? I will be framing more questions soon :). If someone can hire me for INR 50k per month with 4 working days that I can do research on other 2 days (just another dream :)).

They’ve got the smarts and the confidence to get a job, but increasing numbers of the millennial generation — those in their mid-20s and younger — are deciding corporate America just doesn’t fit their needs.

says USAtoday.
It is not much different in India, it is catching here too. My batchmates are gearing up for restaurant leaving all the six sigma consultancy. No one feels a job has enough. My immediate seniors have already started they ventures http://www.redhorns.com/products.php (there are more but I do not have the URLs).

The article further says

Experts say these children of the baby-boom generation, also known as Gen Y or echo boomers, are taking to heart a desire for the kind of work-life balance their parents didn’t have. They see being their own boss as a way to resolve the conflict. So now they’re pressing ahead with new products or services or finding a new twist on old-style careers. They’re at the leading edge of a trend toward entrepreneurship that has bubbled for decades and now, thanks in large part to technology, is starting to surge.

“It is a fun-loving generation,” says Ellen Kossek, a Michigan State University professor in East Lansing who has spent 18 years researching workplace flexibility.

In the similar lines I also started a discussion at Webmasterworld on Google policy allowing 20% time to work on personal projects. I think that is a great way to retain the best talent in any company. I have also exchanged some mails with Jason Warner of Google about these policies.

I also liked the post by Ryan

Boss said, “If you’re going to be successful you need to start putting your career before your life.”
Her mother said, “If you don’t put your life before work you will never be happy.”
Hearing this conflicting advice from two of the most influential elders in your life is confusing. What does Niki’s boss say to his kids when he gets home? Does he tell them to put work before life? What would Niki’s mom say to young people she works with? Would she tell them to go home early?

After reading all these I decided to listen to some Bryan Adams and John Denver today (after really long).

I am true believer of energies, the right energy can help you enjoy the work. People talk about Vastu and other things but I have no idea about it. I strongly believe that the people are the major energy producer, both positive and negative. In my last audio post I talked about battle of energies, that how different rooms in your company can have different energy levels and thus different success stories. Many liked the audio post and wanted to know more about it (Sorry, I wish I had more time, I will try to pen down it in detail).

Another interesting article by Late Professor Sumantra Ghoshal caught my eyes with similar theme. The more I read the article the more i agreed. The article says,

You cannot change an organisation without revitalising people.

The theme of the article.

Revitalising people is an attitudinal change. People’s attitudes have to change. There is a new word every time these things come up and the new word now is ‘mindset change.’

So company after company is launching expensive, large scale, culture change program with the object of changing the mindset of their people. But then you ask: how likely is that? Can you really teach an old dog new tricks?

So every year, in July, I used to come to Kolkata for almost a month. Why July? Because that is the only time my children had a sufficiently long break. The whole point was to keep them in touch with my parents. Think about it — downtown Kolkata in July. The temperature is over 100°F with humidity of 98%.

The reality was that I felt very tired during most of the vacation. Most of it I spent indoors and a lot of it simply in bed.

Most large companies in India and abroad end up creating ‘Downtown Kolkata in Summer’ inside themselves.

What does ‘Downtown Kolkata in Summer’ look like in most large companies and I relate to this in the sense of the phrase, ‘the smell of the place.’ We intellectualise a lot in management.

Complete article at http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/10bspec.htm

We are gearing for the next big hiring campaign, keeping the company small is a dream but in reality you need more people to handle the increasing work (not pressure). Hiring more people is not the right solution but hiring the right people is. Hiring a bad programmer is like having a talented digger on your fast sailing ship, who will keep digging holes on your ship (You know what I mean). Hiring good programmers is as simple as beating Australia in 40 overs (Cricket fever is catching up). One of the best posts a recruiter should read before hiring a programmer, this says it all. Hiring the right programmer is very important for companies like Grmtech, do read Paul Grahams point #6 under his article on “The 18 mistakes that killed startups“.

Know the programming talentosphere,

• 199 out of 200 applicants for every programming job can’t write code at all but still everyone thinks they’re hiring the top 1% – “In fact, one thing I have noticed is that the people who I consider to be good software developers barely ever apply for jobs at all”. Also read the later clarification.
• How Do I Copy Thee? Let Me Count the Ways – Over the years I’ve interviewed a lot of programmers and one of the questions I’ve always asked is for the candidate to implement the strcpy function.
• Survivor – Development – “I once heard of a development group where every three months a vote was taken and the bottom ten percent of the group were replaced by newcomers. It sounded a bit like Survivor – Development.”
• A way to separate programming sheep from non-programming goats in computer science classes
• Why Johnny can’t program
• you don’t bury survivors – “So, Jeremy, tell me a little about yourself. Because they’ll roll and they can’t fall down the hole. And because manholes are round.”
• Johnny can so program
• How To Get Hired — What CS Students Need to Know
• Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding –
• Don’t Overthink FizzBuzz

Did few crazy things today like making a PPT for Inferno Blog hunt (soon it will be available of the website) and creating this audio post free of cost, thanks to Hedir. I tried few services but all are costly affairs (currently not in mood of investment). This is a slight tweaking with Hedir Music files (I have sent an email with details to Hedir admins). Do let me know your feedback (the voice problem may be due to bit rate, I need to check).

This post is about Battle of Energy Zones:-

• How one room/project of your company can be a positive energy zone and other a negative one.
• Organization structure based on Energy zone points. How is more important a Senior Tech leader or Facility Assistant or cook? A whole new approach to organization structure.

It was really difficult to do an audio as I had no script. Somehow I have managed. Sorry for the voice (THATS NOT MY VOICE, but then it made it sweeter 🙂 ). http://www.idealwebtools.com/audio/ – Enjoy my first audio post.