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Showing posts from September, 2022

Career Counseling: Learning from the job interviews that could not be cracked

  [A] Introduction: It is not possible to succeed in everything one does. The same applies to the employment / job interviews. And as we already know, the failures contribution to our learning is immense. Fundamentally, it is a tacit form of learning. The successful people convert it into the explicitly form of learning. This article gives out some tricks and tips, that you help the job seekers (primarily freshers) can use to learn from their mistakes in GD/PI. [B] The steps to learn from the interviews you could not crack: 1. Write down everything right after the interview: The first thing you need to do is to write down everything right after the interview. The memory is generally fresh on the day of interview and it is important to put the whole experience, like how you entered the room, how you greeted the panel, what types of questions were asked, and what types of answers you gave, what dress did you wear, how was your body language (in your own eyes) etc. Make sure to write EVER

The Middle Ground: A Story (Dilemma) of a 'Win-Win' Decision

Once upon a time, there was a company. It was a very good company and was flourishing well. The employees were happy in general. Mitresh was an officer level employee in this company. He was with the company for more than a decade. His performance record was good. His boss was also very happy with his attitude and performance.  But then every good story gets a twist. A twist in the tale. Mitresh was trying for a PR of a foreign company. He got it! But the condition to convert that offer for PR into actual PR was that Mritesh was required to fly to that country the very next month, along with his family, which, in his case, included his 5 month old pregnant wife.  The problem in front of Mitreh was that he had not informed his employer about this. And, as per the terms of the service, he was required to serve three years' bond before leaving the job. Or, he would have to pay three years' salary, which was unaffordable to him. Mritesh was really in a big trouble. He decided to ap

Tips to young start-ups for selecting the right candidates

  if you are a young start up, here are some inputs for selecting candidates These are long term measures. Hire good consultants if you can't manage. 1. Thoroughly check background. Talk to the company where the student did internships in UG/PG. 2. Thoroughly check Instagram and LinkedIn profiles and dig out things likes comments, posts, photographs etc. 3. Try to talk to the placement team of college for each identified candidate. 4. Use a lot of behavioral questions in an interview. They are good at digging out the hidden aspects of candidate's real job behavior. 5. Not easy, but check credit history, if possible. 6. Enter the name of the student in Google and see what comes out. 7. Position your company as one of the best companies to work for in campuses of your choice. 8. Selecting a candidate is like investment. You take risk and hope he will perform well. But, there is always a risk reward ratio at play. So avoid taking blind risk i.e. only considering his talent will be

Cognitive / Behavioral Biases in Investment Journey- Part - I

[A] Introduction: The book - 'The Psychology of Money' has a wonderful message - wealth creation is a function of both - luck and risk. One needs to be 'reasonable' to manage the risk. One should not be over rational, neither should one be too casual with their investments. It is more of an error and trial (semi scientific and semi artistic) process, where one keeps on learning with experience and try to increase the risk adjusted returns, while keeping a margin of safety. None of us is rational and emotions are all around and in us. No one can run away from them. The same emotions, pre occupations and beliefs also affect our investment decisions. In this article, we will try and explore the biases that do not allow us to take 'reasonable' decisions related to investment.  [B] What is a bias?: According to dictionary.com, " a strong feeling of favour towards or against one group of people, or on one side in an argument, often not based on fair judgement o

CTC and Bond in Jobs: Some Pros and Cons

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[A] Introduction:   I have come across two burning issues, as far as the recruitment and selection are concerned in India. There are a lot of opinions (misconceptions) and strong emotions associated with the areas or practices like CTC, take home salary, bond in the jobs, regarding the morality and legality of the same. In this blog post, I will try to create an awareness regarding these practices, and hopefully, will empower the reader to arrive at his/her own conclusion. [B] What is CTC?:   CTC stands for Cost to the Company. It includes all the direct and indirect expenditures, that a company incurs on a particular employee. For example, basic salary, various allowances etc. Here is one example from Wikipedia: In other simple words, it is the total amount that an employer spends on an employee. Ideally, it includes everything, something as small as, the bill of a cup of tea, that an employee will receive, while traveling as a part of the job.  Some companies also include the perform