Work Wise (Complied)

7/30/2019 Work Wise (Complied)

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Bharath Gopalan specializes in Learning & Development andworks with Madras Cements. He holds master degrees

in Human Resource Management as well as in Psychology.He is deemed as a national resource person by Training Division(DoPT) of Government of India for conducting Direct Trainers Skills course.

I am looking out for a job. The internet has so many ways to writea resume and its pretty confusing. Could you suggest a formatthat I could follow?

- Thaigarajan K, Chennai

Yes, I agree, there are myriad ways of putting together a resume.

But essentially, formatting of resumes can fall into two or at the

most, three broad types: the functional format, where you

emphasize on your specific skills and accomplishments in the

order of relevance and importance to the position you are

applying; second is chronological format, where you list yourexperience and education along with details preferably, in the

reverse chronological order starting with the recent one first; and

the third type of format is a hybrid of the first two.

Choosing the right format should depend to a large extent, on

your career history vis--vis your target job. If you have breaks in

career or have diverse work experiences that dont align to a

clear career path, then the functional format comes in handy.

Since this format focuses on competencies and

accomplishments, the career discontinuities get conveniently

camouflaged.

Chronological format is probably the most commonly used one.

Since there is complete transparency about the career history,

most interviewers prefer this over the functional type. You canalso use a combo or hybrid type, where you can highlight your

specific skills and accomplishments as in functional type and

follow it with brief listing of jobs held with dates as in chrono

format.

Though there is no hard and fast rule for formatting your resume,

you must remember that all your resume can do is to take you to

the next stage of selection process. Most recruiters, who end up

scanning hundreds of resumes everyday hardly spend about a

minute on each of the resumes. So, it is important that the right

words pop up from your resume before they decide to hit the

delete key. So, it would do you a lot good, if you keep in mind

the good old dictum of communication: accuracy, brevity and

clarity.

How much value does an MBA have these days?

-Kumaran, Chennai

Your question sounds like if an MBA is worth considering at all, a

natural apprehension probably arising out of the mushrooming of

all kinds of B-schools with different kinds of management

degrees. The value of an MBA would depend largely on what you

expect out of it, which apparently is dependent on the present

stage of your career.

If you are looking at a full-time MBA option for getting ahead-start in your career, then you should be choosy and select

a handful of probables that enjoy a good placement record and

brand name with due consideration for other factors like

affordability and your confidence to slog through the selection

grind. If you want to derive the value you expect from your MBA,

you should compulsorily do the necessary research and

introspection before jumping in to a B-school and be rest assured

that any and every MBA cant take you to where you want to go.

If you are already in a job for some years now and wondering

whether an MBA could hitchhike your pay and position, then it

would depend a lot more on you than on the MBA you acquire. If

you do a bit of survey around, you maybe surprised to find a good

number of seniors who have failed to salvage their stagnating

careers with their add-on MBAs. Your employer will be ultimatelyinterested in seeing how your new degree can contribute to the

bottom line. So, any which way you get your degree, be it on-line,

part-time or distance mode, all that matters is not what you get

but what you do with it. So, pursue a course which is not just

another tag to your name but one that can help in building your

capabilities that can manifest as visible performance in your

work.

Bharat Gopalan

PhotoCourtesy:YosWiranata


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Bharath Gopalan specializes in Learning & Development and

works with Madras Cements. He holds master degrees

in Human Resource Management as well as in Psychology.

He is deemed as a national resource person by Training Division

(DoPT) of Government of India for conducting

Direct Trainers Skills course.

If one of the best techies on my team decides to leave,how should I deal with it? Should I let him go (in this

case for a better pay) or should try to convince him tostay, even though I cannot pay him well?

Though you do not want to lose a good performer, I find an

element of comfort in saying, He is leaving for higher pay, and

not for reasons I could have helped. If you glance through the

exit interviews, the most cited reason would be higher pay or for

a better position. Do you know why? Because, its

non-controversial. But there are deeper reasons, which the

leaving employee may not like to divulge openly for various

reasons.

If you are serious about retaining him, then its not about trying

to convince him, but genuinely listening to him, knowing what he

wants and how you can help him. Maybe, you can fix a

rendezvous with him in an informal setting, where you can

engage in a one-on-one conversation. All you need to do is to beopen and friendly; ask and listen rather than talk; shed the guard

and be ready to confront feedback, however harsh and unkind it

might sound to you. This tte--tte could throw up the deeper

things, which, possibly, could be changed and could change his

mind on leaving. Even after this, if you lose the employee, you

would have gained a lesson or two, for life.

When an appointment letter says, 'Formal Wear on AllWorking Days' what exactly do they mean?

Dressing protocols are back in vogue with corporates. Dress

codes vary greatly from company to company, as different work

environments demand different styles of attire. The objective of

establishing a formal dress code by companies is to project aprofessional image without compromising on the individuals

work comfort. The dress codes are usually mentioned as formal,

semi-formal/ business casual or formal. Casual, as the word

suggests, may mean a slack shirt or a T-shirt with denims,

Semi-formal or business casual could mean a full-sleeve shirt

with an optional tie and good quality trousers and Formal is a

tailor-made suit and conservative tie. But remember, these

definitions can vary greatly from company to company and

country to country.

But given the climate in our latitude and locale (I mean both

weather and work climate of Chennai), formal wear may denote

business casual i.e. formal shirts in light hues either plain or

pin-stripes with a tie and trousers with leather shoes and a belt.

Formal wear for women in the Indian context could be salwar

kameez or saree. The company, you are joining, may have a

written-down dress code and it is better to check with the HR

guys of the company and clarify your doubts so that you are able

to present yourself professionally and confidently when you

report on the first day.

During a business presentation, if a person from theaudience looks obviously bored and disinterested, howshould I tackle it?-Sushsini Ramachandran Chennai

It can be a very putting-off experience to find that one or a few

of your audience have switched off themselves or worse, have

gone into snooze mode. It is not unusual and I have faced similar

situations. What is most important in preparing a presentation is

knowing your audience, why are they there and how you can

make a connect between their existing knowledge and

experience with what you are going to say. Make yourpresentation interactive by posing open-ended questions to

brainstorm the audience in anticipation of the next point. While

presenting, display energy and sound enthusiastic about your

topic, you will notice, it can be very infectious.

Remember, it is difficult to stretch the attention span of audience

beyond 20 to 30 minutes, however hard you have prepared to

make it interesting. If you have longer presentations, then you

must pre-plan to intersperse them with some activity or exercise

to involve the audience. If you have not planned any, then give an

impromptu break before the boredom catches on with the rest.

How to make a lasting impression at an interview?

Creating a positive first impression is more about your

exteriors like your appearance, dress, your smile,

handshake, manners etc, but making a lasting impression is more

about your inside. An impression is an effect, feeling, or image

retained as a consequence of experience. How are you going to

create that experience? Do you have a personal story that

connects with your purpose? Can you share it with others in an

emotionally gripping way? How do you stand out from the crowd?

As you introspect on these questions, you develop deeper

insights into you. Its not just for impressing in interviews, but for

developing your influential power, an essential quality of

successful leaders. So, never be afraid to take the road less

traveled; be creative and differentiate from the rest in a positive

way.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISESHOULD I FIND A NEW JOB?IF THEY ALREADY HAVE MY RESUME,SHOULD I STILL TAKE A PRINT OUT TO THE INTERVIEW?

WHATS A FIRM HANDSHAKE?


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Please define RSVP. Does it imply that without anRSVP I should not and cannot participate in the event?-

Bala V, ChennaiRSVP is an abbreviation used for the French words 'rpondez s'il

vous plat'. This phrase literally translates as 'Respond if you

please' or to put it simply, 'please respond'. This tradition was

started by the French, who are well-known for their etiquettes.

When you find this phrase on the invite, it is expected of you to

respond, irrespective of whether you are planning to attend the

function or not. It helps the host in planning out the event and it

is always good manners that the invitee responds. So next time

you see RSVP on an invitation you receive, please call your host

and respond promptly.

In formal letters, should I sign off as 'Yours faithfully' or'Best regards'? Or is there anything more

contemporary?- Shlini Nathan, Chennai.With email becoming a predominant mode of communication,

formal closings like yours faithfully/yours sincerely etc, seem to

have all gone out of vogue. I find a variety of innovative ways in

which the mails are signed off. The kind of phrase you use for

closing can help you create a personal touch or add a tinge to

your personal brand. But while choosing the closing, you need to

ensure that it is in line with the degree of formality in the

salutation as well as the tonality of the contents. While

respectfully yours is a very formal close, sincerely truly yours,

are less formal and cordially yours is a friendlier one.

Thanks for this question. This made me browse through my

Inbox for novel mail closings and I thought I would share some

of the interesting ones. Though they are bit out of the norm,

closing can be a good place, where one can try being differentfrom the crowd, albeit in a safer way.

Warm regards & best wishes,

With happy regards,

At your service

Your colleague

To your success

Wishing you the best

Enthusiastically

With kindest regards

In Gratitude

I could also find some inspirational closures like

Driven by Purpose

Onward and upward

Shine on

Blissfully yours

I run a business in the hospitality industry. I need tohire staff for all levels and the salary expectations arereally steep. Just to save costs, is it advisable to hire

freshers and interns? Kumaran Thangavel, Chennai

Whether you should hire freshers or veterans would depend

largely on how crucial the industry-specific skills sets are for the

success of your business. As long it is not something of rocket

science, you certainly can have a good proportion of freshers to

the experienced. But this talent blend has to be conscious

strategy rather than a mere cost-cutting measure. Identify thecritical roles that can impact the results a great deal and for such

positions, hire competent people with right skills sets, who will

serve as role models for freshers. It is important you handpick

them carefully to ensure that they share your business vision and

values and are capable of coaching and nurturing fresh talents.

Here dont try to be penny-wise for if you throw peanuts, you will

only get what peanuts can attract.

For the rest, you can go whole-hog for freshers. You must have

heard of the oft-used quote hire for attitude and train for skills.

I dont think there can be anything truer, since what matters most

in the hospitality industry, is the warmth and hospitability of your

people at work. Skills can be taught and what cannot be taught

is how someone feels about the job/ role, his/her motivation for

putting out quality work, feeling the pride of being on asuccessful team, pleasing the customers, etc. So hire the

candidates with spring in their toes and fire in the belly and then

groom them to win the hearts of your customers.

What's a firm handshake?- Malini Menon, Chennai

The one that is neither too supple to be deciphered as

diffidence, nor too stiff to be seen as dominance.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISE


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Could you give me simple tips or methods to improvemy spoken English skills and pronunciation while I'm

at work.- Prabhu R, Chennai.Havent you heard of the good-old saying in Tamil, Drawing

comes with practice of hand and the language with that of

tongue? So practice is the key. What comes in the way of

practice is the fear of making mistakes. But there is no other way

to learn swimming than jumping into water. There may be quite a

few like you, who would like to develop fluency in spoken English.

Please form a support group who would mutually help each other.

This is a great way to learn. Honestly, that was the way I built my

repository of my vocabulary while in school. Each of us used to

pick five new words from dictionary daily and deliberately

force-fit them into our conversations.

I have completed my MBA and am on the lookout for a

career. What are the few essential things I should lookfor while choosing a career, apart from the tangiblefactors like good salary and designation and of course, thecompanys brand? - Rajesh, Coimbatore

Though I do not undermine the importance of the tangible factors

like pay and position in making ones career decision, it is better

to start with a more primary question what you would be doing

in your job day in day out?

If you let the pay and perks decide what you want to do in your

life, you might end up doing things which are not intrinsically

satisfying to you. To drive home the point, I would take an

extreme example: Supposing, you get a job that meets your

criteria of good pay, good brand etc, say CEOs chauffer, you

keep driving that gets your needs and you become nothing but a

driver. So what you want to have drives what you want to dowhich in turn determines what you are. I would call this

outside-in focus.

Inside-out focus is the other way round. You first try to find out

what you are- what interests you innately-what are you

passionate about, when you have discovered yourself, you start

doing what you want to do passionately and constantly strive to

excel in it and eventually, achieve what you want to have in your

life. This is inside-out approach and can work wonders for

anyone. Look at the biographies of great people and you will

know. For instance, Sachin Tendulkar discovered the cricketer in

him quite early, and then the passion with which he pursued it is

now history. And we dont have to talk of what material ends he

achieved. So your questions

should be in the order of 1.

what I want to be? 2. If I

want to be that, what I

should be doing? 3. When I

excel in what I do, will I get

what I want to have? If not,

should I compromise on my

inner aspirations and do

something different? This is

a conscious choice one has

to make.

Pursuing the path of inner calling may not always lead to the

material haves, but is sure to give a sense of purpose and

fulfillment in life.

I am PR executive and I have been offered a job in an'all women' office. Except for one or two officepersonnel, the main decision makers are women. I've

heard that 'all women' offices are more gossip and confusion. Isthat true? - Preeta K C, Chennai.It would be very opinionated to jump to any judgment of that

kind. Neither have I worked, nor could I possibly work in such an

organization to venture into airing my views. But if you seek my

suggestion on whether you should join an all-women company

as PR exec, my answer is a blunt No. If I were you, I would

consider a lot of other career-related factors that a gender-bias

company can impact.

The crux of a PR job lies in ones people skills and the people you

work with matter a lot in terms of gaining this expertise. If you are

going to work in an all-women outfit, it can restrict your exposure

and could probably create a comfort zone, which would, later,

become difficult to break out from. I had always considered my

short stint of working with a lady boss as significant, since it was

a new experience for me and new experiences bring new

learning.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISE

What I wantto be

What I wantto have

What I wantto do


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Has the practice of calling people "Sir", "Madam" or"Miss" in the corporate world become redundant?-

Soumya Srinath, Chennai.I wish it were. Though calling people by their first names is

commonly seen in knowledge-based sectors like IT, the

companies I know of that operate in conventional sectors are still

holding on to the sir-culture strongly. Yes, there is more to this

simple word than what meets the ears. The way the bosses are

addressed, I feel, reflect the culture of the company and it gives

a false sense of authority to the I-say-you-do type bosses.

I still remember the first day on one of my initial jobs as

supervisor during early eighties, when one workman asked me

after introducing himself, do you want to be addressed like the

British did on conferment of knighthood or can I call you by your

name?. Highly overawed by the euphemism of his expression

(rather deeply humbled by his erudition), I simply replied call me

Bharath. But since then, I have worked in quite a few companiesin the manufacturing sector and I have always had this dilemma

as to whether I have the right to allow my people call me by name

or should I stick on to the established sir culture, lest I upset the

prevalent system.

If an organization is serious about dismantling the false-authority

structure that comes from the way the people-in-power are

addressed, then it has to start from the top leadership like the

way Sam Pitroda pioneered it at c-dot.

Retirement comes as a jolt to many people even forthose who are financially well-off and whose childrenare well-settled. How should one mentally prepare

oneself for retirement? -K R Srinivasn, Retd SBIOfficer, SalemI am glad this column has readership of diverse age groups. I

remember having read somewhere that retirement is the point in

life when you stop living on your work and start working on your

life. And if we have to start working on our life, we need to

prepare ourselves long before the d-day arrives.

As we live our day-to-day life, we become too busy handling

urgent matters irrespective whether they are really important or

not. For instance, you rush to attend a ringing phone only to find

that its just a cold call trying for a frantic sale. It is urgent, but

not really important. But, preparing for retirement calls for

looking at things not so urgent but important like how you would

like to spend your time by yourself when you no longer need to

work. If you want to find them out, I would recommend that you

work through the Mission Statement exercises suggested by

Stephen Covey in the Appendix of his book First Things First.

Taking an unplanned sabbatical from work for a while can help

you find out the ways in which you can engage yourself

meaningfully and at the same time enjoy your life. Some

employee-friendly companies offer sabbatical to their employees

as part of their policy and I recently read that Infosys employees

were given the option to take one-year sabbatical to engage

themselves in philanthropic activities, which was intended to

promote volunteerism among employees. This can help people

find new meaning in their life beyond work and could prove to be

of great value in post-retirement life.

People, particularly those holding high offices with power and

pomp or whose social circles are limited to their workgroups (like

those living in company townships) tend to live their designationseven off their work and this can pose to be a big peril. It is

important that one learns to shed the designation as one walks

towards retirement, as otherwise, the moment we retire we

might feel that we have been stripped of our identity.

Can you suggest ways to make 'orientation' for my newemployees more interesting? Murali Krishna, Chennai

Employee on-boarding is a serious exercise and a

well-thought out orientation can have a significant impact on the

employees morale and motivation. While it is important to

transmit to the new employee the organisations culture, vision,

values, philosophy etc, it is better done through some non-formal

interactions rather than though a series of sermonizing lectures.

An experienced and senior employee who is other than the direct

superior is attached to the new employee as mentor to help the

novice to learn quickly and effectively without the anxieties

usually associated with hierarchical learning. Some organizations

have buddy system where the new employee is put along with a

peer-level employee who has been into the system for sometime

and this hastens the learning and comfort level of the new

employee.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISE


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I got a call for an interview from an MNC and I am toldit will be a behavioural interview. What do they mean

by that and how should I prepare for it?Unlike a conventional interview where you get patently-routine

questions like "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" or

"Why are you interested in change? etc., the behavioural

interview questions will be based on how you acted in specific

job-related situations. The basic premise of behavioural

interview, also known as Behavioural Event Interview (BEI) is

past performance predicts future performance i.e., how you

behaved in the past will predict how you will behave in the future.

In a BEI, the interviewer will ask questions to find out if the

candidate has the skills that are required for the job he/she is

being interviewed for, by asking questions focused on past

behaviours where the candidate exercised or exhibited such

skills. Instead of asking how you would behave, they will ask how

you did behave. The interviewer will want to know how youhandled a situation, instead of what you might do in the future.

Some examples of BEI questions are:

Give an example of a goal you have set and tell us how you

achieved it.

Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your

ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?

Give me an example of a time when you went above and

beyond the call of duty.

In a BEI, the questions, posed by the interviewer, will provide you

with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and

abilities (competencies) by giving specific examples from your

past experiences. Best way to prepare for a BEI is to review the

job description, if you have one, or to look into the details in thejob posting and try to get a sense of what kind of skills and

behavioral characteristics are required for the job. Refresh your

memory and consider some special situations you have dealt with

or projects you have worked on. Prepare stories that illustrate

times when you have successfully solved problems or performed

memorably. Remember the acronym STAR, which can help you in

framing the sequence of your response:

Specific situation you were in

Tasks that you needed to do

Action you took

Results you achieved

To prepare for your future interviews, you can start maintaining a

journal to record such events as they happen so that they come

as a handy reference.

Why do they call it 'Friday Casuals'? Who started thistradition and why do corporates follow it?

Casual Friday connotes to dressing casually instead

of the usual busniess attire, as warranted by the corporate dress

code, and was probably used as way of setting the mood for the

weekend. This is known to have originated from USA during the

dotcom days and has later spread to other parts of the world as

well. Friday dressing is mostly seen only in MNCs as well as

companies operating in IT and finance sectors. Some Indian

peers with six-day week have also started emulating it with

casual Saturday.

What was initially set out to bring in a relaxed mood had

gradually moved to such a state that companies had to startissuing dress code for casual wear as well. Now Friday casual is

not that causal that you can wear anything (like bermudas,

round-necks etc) and get away with. Casualness has, now, got

strictly defined in most companies that rushed in for Casual

Fridays, a decade or so earlier. In some companies, collared

t-shirts and jeans define the limits of informality and in some

others, it is nothing short of slack shirts (of course without neck

tie), trousers and covered shoes.

As it is said you are what you wear, casual dressing cannot be

taken lightly and your image could become a casualty if you start

dressing too casually.

Generally how long should internships in anorganisation be, 1 month, 3 months or more?

An internship is a way of engaging a student in an

organisation with an emphasis on on-the-job training. Internship,

apart from fulfilling the academic requirements laid down by the

curricula, provides opportunities for students to gain experience

in their field, determine if they have an interest in a particular

career and create a network of contacts. Hence, the period of

internship should typically depend on the nature of the work/

field. Internships may be part-time or full-time; typically they are

part-time during the academic year and full-time in the summer.

Full-time internship can range from one to three months where as

duration of a part-time internship can go up to a year. Intership is

an effective tool for identifying and recruiting talent.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISE

IN FOCUS

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Should I follow the British or American spelling when Iam writing official letters and documents?- Sri Latha,

ChennaiOn the question of which spelling to follow, I leave the decision to

my laptop, since I have set the language in my system as

English(India). Whenever I tend to use different style of spelling,

my computer alerts me drawing a red wavy line below the word

(e.g color) and suggests alternative spellings. You must have

noticed that most of the formal writings in our country, both in

print and internet media, use the British spelling. However, the

usage of American spelling is also seen in less formal writings

and emails, probably because it is simpler and easier. Think who

your target audience are and that could give you an idea of what

style to use. Some organizations may have a style guide for

formal writing to set a standard for formal communication.

Irrespective of whether you use the American or British form, I

feel, what is more important is to aim for consistency, whichmeans you use the same style of spelling throughout your

content.

Can you suggest a quick team building activity I can dobefore or after a team meeting? We have 15 memberson our team.- Krishnakumar A, Chennai

It is a good idea to have some teambuilding activity as part of

regular team meetings. When you do it in the beginning of the

meeting, it can serve as a good ice-breaker and an energizer. You

have a vast number of activities and games to pick from and you

need to choose depending on the space and time available, the

familiarity level of the group members and many other factors. If

you want some energizer, you can form teams and play dumb

charade or anthaakshari. One popular energizer which is a lotof fun is where members stand in a circle and are asked to start

counting 1,2,3, but with a condition that persons getting the

numbers which either end with 7 or are multiples of 7, should clap

their hands instead of shouting out the number. The defaulters

are eliminated from the circle and the game restarts.

If you want the game to go beyond mere fun, then you should

have some purpose tied to it. Team games could be used for a

variety of purposes ranging from mere getting to know each

other little more intimately to getting an insight into the

dysfunctional behaviours of the team. After the game, its

important to spend some time to help the team members reflect

on their experience and share their insights. It calls for good

facilitation skills, apart from meticulous preparation, if you want

the team members to derive the learning from the game.

I have changed three jobs in the last four years. Willthis be considered as a negative factor on my C.V.?-Kumaran S, Chennai

Before considering whether job-hopping is a negative factor or

not, you should try to look at it from the employers angle. Every

employer would like to have long term contribution from their

employees for the simple reason of costs involved in hiring and

retraining. So he would naturally look into the job history of the

prospective employee from that perspective and see if they have

a long term candidate in him. When you get that, you must be

able to review your C.V. and see whether yours tells a story of a

job-hopper, who just keeps jumping jobs for a few bucks more or

is he systematically building his skills in the chosen line of career.

If your job changes indicate a logical progression in your career

path and if you are able to substantiate it with sound rationale at

the time of interview, then you stand a good chance of being

considered for selection. However, if you have had too short a

stint in some odd job spanning less than 3 or 4 months, then it

would be sensible to omit it in your C. V, but be prepared to

explain the gap at the time of interview.

MANAGE YOUR IMAGEImage management is not just for celebrities and PR executives.

One needs to manage ones image well to enhance ones

reputation as an effective and competent professional. People do

tend to form strong and persistent opinions of each other within

seconds of their first meeting - opinions that are, often, difficult

to change. I find the following Five Cs helpful in orchestrating

those critical few seconds that create first and lastingimpressions:

Context

Communication

Credibility

Clothing

Composure/Confidence

If you invest in conveying a positive image the first time, you

need not concern yourself with repairing a poor image later. Just

remember to maintain that positive image.

Bharat Gopalan

WORK WISE

IN FOCUS

INBOX 1305 | SEPTEMBER 2010 | 50

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