this is a lovely corner on the road to mattupetty . a club patronized by the Tatas. Was suggested my my sis who visited the place a year ago.

the rain was continuous so we lazed around refreshed ourselves and went to the club house. the club folks were practising for the 15 aug programme so we took up the tt racket and started to play.

watched some squash. chatted with some pre teen boys playing a self invented game with a balloon.

went back to the room and had a large dinner of chana , roti and rice and chicken.

got up next morning around 5ish and took a walk in the rain. not a soul in site and was just a bit scared that elephants would turn up.
later realized that this was a story cooked up by the chef.

came back by 6:30am and played the guitar for a while. it was lovely – having the cuckoo for accompaniment.

to be contnued ….

target was to leave home at 4:00 AM. Put the kids to sleep by 9:30 . I got up at 3:30 even without the alarm.

left at 4:45. a quick prayer at vincent Palloti and off we went.

out of bangalore by 5:30 used the elevated expressway.

u wouldnt belive the the traffic at the tolls

took right at hosur after the flyover on the rayakotta road.

tea stop . Palacode and then to dharmapuri. 66 rs toll. A roller coaster road with nearly five bumps without any markings immediately after the toll. Huge humps. overall a bad road. and costly. on to Salem searching for the exit to tiruppur. totall toll paid 53+41.

on to tiruppur road and stopped for break. around 9Am. annalakshmi. great joint. a very helpful owner /manager. gave us a route to udumalpet bypassing tiruppur and avoiding quite a few tolls.

next chinnamalai – kangayam – palladam.

left at udumalpet. Yelanir near a school – time 1pm.
Chinar forests . Indra gandhi reserve – prayed not to meet any elephants.

paid 50+ 20+20 at the checkposts.

marayoor 2pm.

then the winding curves of munnar hills – reached HRC at 4:30pm .

to be contnued

If you decide to take an off keep your immediate Boss or colleagues informed and ensure that it is communicated to the person you report to directly or indirectly. You dont need a rule to follow this – it is just plain courtesy.

If you have agreed to attend an interview and decide or are unable to attend the same for whatever reason – inform the recruiter/client.
Basic courtesy.

so you as a Proud Salesman of this great firm – go and meet customers and talk about all the great Attributes of your firm and its Products and Service. Your brochure Talks about all the Great accomplishments and the many awards that the Firm has recd.

by any chance would there be anything negative mentioned about the company or its products in your Marketing brochure or in your Sales Talk. That surely wouldn’t mean that your Products are flawless or maintenance proof or service proof – whatever.
But, you get the drift.
You as your firms salesman speak the best about your company and its products.

how many of us take that effort to make our Resume to talk the Best about ourselves and our accomplishments. Now hold on – sometimes I come across resumes written in 3rd Person . “He studied in NIT …” He worked in … ” . that not what I mean when I say take a leaf from the Marketing Brochure of your Firm. What i mean is show yourself in the Best Possible light. that means – highlight your accomplishments – get into the specifics of achievement keeping in mind the attention span of your reader and the time constraints.

The resume is nothing but a Marketing document – an “advertisement”. It has to reveal enough in the 10-20 secs span to get a call. that is it.

Do not dwell on your negatives – don’t explain any warts in your resume. the warts can be disclosed during the interview.

So this has to be kept in mind when you are getting your resume ready.Too much info and you are risking a miss.
I come across resumes 5 page long with entire project details. My advice would be – to bullet your projects and discuss details in the telecon or F-to-F interview. Or you could do one better – prepare your project details in a separate document (expanded resume) and hand it out during the interview process. Now that would look really Professional.

Hope I haven’t digressed too far. To recap – short and crisp resumes , period.

The experience gave me an opportunity to meet a mixed bunch from across the country. Not something that you can do every day or every month for that matter.

The students came with varying levels of preparation – some really stood out in their thought clarity and approach to life. some stood out with their absolute disconnect to reality.

I met a girl who wanted to pursue MBA to setup a service firm in her town – to educate illiterate farmers about cheaper lending options.
she was married with a two year old child. and coming back to studies after a 2-3 year gap. It was not going to be easy. But, some how her goal clarity was appealing.

MBA is a fad nowadays and more than a fad – it has become a minimum criteria for getting many jobs. The bars are going higher and an MBA does make a difference in the start line – provided the student has shown some seriousness in picking up on what has been taught and discussed.

then what do you do> You have to wait for the recruiter to revert with the shortlist – however many times you call and follow up the shortlist wont happen if the resume does’nt suit. And contrary to popular belief the Recruiter isn’t the Evil out there waiting to be a stumbling block in your search for the right job. he is there to help you but he serves a different master.

So, back to the question how do you face this passive periods – periods of inaction.

For a start you should prepare yourself to this.undertand the Job search is time bound and things don not happen in a day.

So plan your search accordingly. If you are planning to move out then start applying for jobs atleast 3 months before the target time. And if you have attended a lot of interviews without any offers – relook at your search process. are your expectations rational?

Key is to not get frustrated with the delays. Because delays are intrinsic to the process and something which you have very little control over.

Hence the term Passive Activity – something which you would do well to remember.

He made a very key observation in response to a question abt employee retention for small firms.

He said that for a small entrepreneur to be able to retain employees atleast long enough to form a core team with some loyalty – he should be growing faster than his employees. And by growth he meant holistic growth not just bottomline. “If you focus only on bottom line growth you will end up with a large bottom” – his words.

bottom line Growth of the organisation has to deserved – by the increased value it brings to the Market place – it need not just be an end in itself. that kind of growth eats into the people employed with the firm.

Another key factor in being to hold employees would be seen in the willingness of the entrepreneur or small businessman to share the the substantial profits with the team whenever they occur. holding on to everything – doesn’t give a great feeling to a the employee.

All in all a great evening!!

“During the recession of 2009 my company stopped paying me salary and eventually closed down. For nearly a year I was unable to get a break which I period I used to catch up on some over seas travel and some voluntary work. In due course I landed a job ( in July 2010) that paid much less than what I was earning. I tried renegotiating my salary now – but that is not working out. I tried looking out but the problem I face is that I am being turned down mentioning very low salary as a reason. I am in a fix.”

Bit of a Tight spot to be in.

This candidate had worked in some very good companies before the recession which made the situation that much more ironic.

the way I looked at was that there was no easy solution. I suggested a staged approach to getting out of this low salary fix.

First was to apply to some medium and small companies which would consider his low salary to be a bargain. In case he got into a good medium sized firm take it and continue and maybe – try renegotiating after 6 months or so. Or get the offer negotiate whatever increase is available 20-30% is the least you could manage. Continue looking and see if you can get a better offer in another firm. The market is really booming so this is the time to cash in when your services in real demand.

Plus, in your resume if you have used your non employed time to do some travel or whatever – display it on your resume. It is n-times better than saying i was taking care of my parents or getting married or some such.

Does it help?

This phrase forms a part of a larger para which goes like this :

My goal is to transit my enthusiasm, creativity & experience into a position, where I continue to provide the strategic and tactical leadership critical to retaining valued customers of an organisation. I am certain that my presence in your team will prove to be beneficial to your organisation.

This phrase and the para – filled with abundant eloquence has gone truly viral, atleast amongst the resume touting public in India.

A random search on the phrase turned up 3300+ responses with the para sometimes – completely pasted , in other cases reproduced in part.

Sometimes if not all copy/Paste has its pitfalls. You might wonder who holds the copyright to this phrase – he should feel proud – if you go by another phrase – imitation is the best form of flattery.

But, if he (the copy right holder) floated his resume with with this para included – his resume might be received with a little less enthusiasm – than if it were otherwise ( minus the para).

Why?

you guessed it – the line is no more an original – and there is just this tinge of untruth attached to it.

Guess what – googling this phrase – turned up quite a few linkedin profiles.

So, Beware – stay away from this phrase.

A bit of digging revealed that he was not alloted any responsibility. And when he met his boss about it – our man coolly responded that what he was doing was ok – that what he was currently doing was his only responsibility.

Unique situation to be in. where not having anything to do is part of your job profile.

Well, my guess was that this candidate being highly qualified the Boss might have been jittery about sharing too much responsibility- just in case he himself was left without a job.

In such a situation – I don’t have too many options. the first is to look for an alternative opening and take it up at the earliest. If that is not happening fast enough – the person could let go a bit , take it easy – and try to build trust with the Boss. Not easy – but at some point he has to come around.

Offcourse going to the HR and lamenting your situation is an option.But,
Some how I am not too much in favor of running to the Rule book for every digression.

I may be wrong – correct me. but lets face it – in an organisation – working together involves – handling the idiosyncrasies of your colleagues and even the Boss in certain cases.

That is part of your moving up the Totem Pole..