INTERVIEW ETIQUETTE

At Mumbai Municipal Corporation (India), it is the interviewers who are learning lessons in Interviewing Etiquettes, while interviewing 13,500 candidates for the post of peons.

It took 2 years just to shortlist from the hundreds of thousands of applicants.

·       Lesson # 1

         

Treat with love and compassion, toddlers accompanying their mothers to the interview room. When they tear up resumes, fling paperweights and swallow paper clips, just talk and play with the babies !

·       Lesson # 2

  

Conduct interviews standing up when ( most ) rural candidates refuse to sit down in order to express their humbleness !

·       Lesson # 3

  

Bear with bare feet candidates who leave their footwear outside the interview room. For them, an interview room is a sacred place like a temple where one must not enter wearing shoes !

  

It is about time someone wrote a book titled “ Interview Etiquette for Interviewers “

Hemen  Parekh

OUTSOURCING HAS MANY NAMES!

1 Oct 2010

OUTSOURCING HAS MANY NAMES!

Times of India (Sept. 29, 2010) carries a report about a joint study conducted by FICCI and HOSMAC on medical tourism.

They studied tourists traveling to India, for treatments of cosmetic and life-saving surgeries and found that a US citizen saves a lot of expense if he / she obtain such a treatment in an Indian hospital as compared to a US hospital.

Here is “how much“ :

Angioplasty………………………………..79 % - 82 %

Bypass Surgery………………………….92 % - 93 %

Tummy tuck……………………………….67 % - 89 %

Facelift………………………………………..44 % upwards

If a US Corporate can “ rationalize “ its outsourcing action on the basis of cost-cutting, can US citizens be far behind ?

Surely, diseases do strike even a jobless person !

500,000 patients who came to India in 2009 for medical treatment can’t be blamed !

Hemen  Parekh

POOR MPS OF INDIA !

28 Sep 2010

POOR MPS OF INDIA !

Poor Members of Indian Parliament recently agitated and got rewarded with hefty increase in their pay and perks.

But how do they stack-up vis-à-vis MPs of other countries ?

Times of India ( Aug.22,2010 ) computed salaries ( including perks ), of MPs of several countries. Then divided these with the per capita GDPs of respective countries.

To ensure an apple-for-apple comparison, salaries were adjusted using $ Purchase Price Parity.

The following picture emerged :

                           Salary ( + Perks )

                           --------------------   =

                           Per capita GDP

Kenya…………………………………………………………………..180  times

India ( before recent upward revision )……………104  times

USA…………………………………………………………………………35  times

Pakistan………………………………………………………………….17 times

UK…………………………………………………………………………….9  times

France……………………………………………………………………….8  times

Italy……………………………………………………………………………7  times

Japan………………………………………………………………………….6  times

Singapore……………………………………………………………………4  times

Other countries of Western Europe......less than…..10  times

India's per capita GDP ( in $ PPP ) is taken at $ 3,176 /  year

This hides the fact that nearly 45 % of India's people ( that should be close to 500 Million ), earn less than $ 0.5 / day as per author Rajesh Shukla ( " How India Earns, spends and Saves " )

How can you blame poor Indian MPs for not knowing that by 2020 , some 320 million Indians will be “ unemployed “, when they are debating important issues  such as who should be the captain of the Indian Cricket team ?

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH

IN SOURCED

24 Sep 2010

IN SOURCED

In-Sourcing better than Out-Sourcing ?

At least the Australian Government seems to think so.

Why else would it “ import “ from India ( under its migration scheme), 450  Plumbers / Masons / Carpenters / Electricians / Mechanics etc ?

These highly skilled “ tradesmen “ were in-sourced from the Industrial Training Institute at Aundh ( India ) which has been training the students since last year for a certification that is recognized by the Australian Government.

Their minimum annual salary package is Australian Dollar 40,000.

The “tradesmen“ are happy because this salary is approx. 10 / 15 times what they would earn in India (- if they were lucky enough to find a job !).

Australian employers are happy because they just cannot find highly skilled technicians locally.

It seems, younger Australians prefer white-collar jobs.

May be they believe that white-collar workers may not get In-Sourced.

Is there a chance that white-collar jobs may get Out-Source?

Hemen  Parekh

WHAT ARE THE " LAY – OFF " RATES ?

23 Sep 2010

WHAT ARE THE " LAY – OFF " RATES ?

Quoting a research published in the " Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology ",The Washington Post reported following ” divorce rates “ amongst different professionals :

• Casino Workers/Tele. Operators/Nurses……Highest

• Dancers / Choreographers …………………………43.1%

• Bartenders / Massage Therapists……………… 38 %

• Fish and Game Wardens……………………………25.5 %

• Detectives………………………………………………… 12.5 %

• Podiatrists……………………………………………………6.8 %

• Clergy…………………………………………………………..5.6 %

• Optometrists………………………………………………..4.0 %

• Engineers ( Agri / Sales / Nuclear )……….Lowest

The authors said that the data did not explain whether it's the nature of the jobs that lead to divorce or people prone to unstable relationships are drawn to certain professions.

In these times of double-dip depression, a much more relevant research could be :

What kind of professionals suffer the highest " Lay –off  rates “ ? Do companies trying to cut costs thru out-sourcing lay-off maximum number of professionals ?

Only problem :

Researchers may not get any journal to publish their findings!

Hemen  Parekh

GENDER IMBALANCE AT BOARD LEVEL ?

20 Sep 2010

GENDER IMBALANCE AT BOARD LEVEL ?

As reported in Times of India ( Sept.18,2010 ), a study, conducted jointly by Standard Chartered Bank and Cranfield School of Management re: representation of women on Boards of Directors of Companies, found following figures :

·                      Canada……………………………..15%

·                      USA…………………………………..14.5 %

·                      UK………………………………………12.2 %

·                       Hong Kong………………………….8.9 %

·                      Australia…………………………….8.3 %

·                      India…………………………………..5.3 %

For India, the study tells us that women held 59 out of a total of 1112 directorships in the BSE-100 group.

What the study does not reveal is :

" How many of these 59 women were a mother / sister / daughter / wife of the promoters ?

Co-author of the report Aparna Banerji says :

Corporate India clearly has some way to go in addressing gender imbalance at “ board level ".

But that would not happen till Corporate HR Managers start hiring many more girls at the “ entry level ” - and to begin with, in the HR function itself !

Hemen  Parekh

A 126 YEAR WAIT ?

16 sep 2010

A 126 YEAR WAIT ?

The rate at which India’s State Employment Exchanges are finding jobs for those who have registered, it will take 126 year to find jobs for all of them!  Here are details:

Millions of unemployed are not even bothering to “register”.

I wonder if one of these Exchanges will agree to register my, yet-to-be-born, great, great, great, great, grand child !

Hemen   Parekh

NO JOB TAKERS?

15 Sep 2010

NO JOB TAKERS?

Problem of Ashmount Primary School ( London ) is :

It cannot find enough local Math teachers even at 40 pounds per hour.

Because UK produced only 5980 Math graduates in 2009.

Tom Hooper ( Bright Spark Education ) came to rescue of Ash mount and " found " them 100 tale-marketing Math teachers at 12 pounds per hour !

From a Call-Center like remote-teaching service in India, which turned out 690,000 Maths graduates in 2009.

It is another matter that the Indian Call-Center pays them only 7 pounds per hour on a full time basis.

Ash mount assistant head teacher, Rebecca Stacy says, “The kids really enjoy it ".

Would you say, a win-win situation?

May be. But not for the 689,900 graduates who are still jobless!

They have joined the ranks of 38 + million unemployed who have registered with State Employment Exchanges of India.

Hemen  Parekh

IN SOURCING / OUT SOURCING ?

Definitions keep changing depending upon ” who “ is addressing “ whom “ !

President Barack Obama told Indian Parliamentarians ( Nov.08,2010 ) :

“ We signed deals for India to buy $ 10 billion worth of American defense equipment – which will create 50,000 jobs in USA “

In a joint press conference with President Obama, Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh of India declared :

“ When American companies outsource to India, we are not stealing American jobs ; we are actually creating jobs in America by making American Companies cost-competitive and enabling them to sell their goods around the world “.

A day earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron ( UK ) said :

“ So , as we act to bring net migration to Britain down to the tens of thousands, I want this message to be heard loud and clear the whole world over :

 In every classroom or laboratory where a bright idea is born, every boardroom where a business case is put together , if you’ve got an idea, if you want to create jobs, and if you have the ambition to build a world beating company here in the UK, we want you ; we’ll make it easy for you “.

Hemen  Parekh        

POOR MR.SEIDENBERG !

9 Sep 2010

POOR MR.SEIDENBERG !

He got only $ 820 for every employee he laid off !

Absolutely unfair compared to Robert Iger who earned $ 6346 for every worker he sacked.

Here are the details, as reported in DNA Money/Sept. 02, 2010:

If good old U.S. of A. wants to come out of double-dip recession, it should start rewarding their CEOs  $ 10,000 for every job they ” created ” .

It is about time Wall Street / CEOs / Shareholders started thinking long terms.

With regards

HEMEN PAREKH