What is the first question that you get to here from an interviewer?

“Tell me something about yourself”.

Most of the interviewers start with this question and most of the interviewees take it the wrong way and respond to it. A poor first impression!!

Why is this question the favorite of these interviewers? What is the response that they expect from an interviewee? When everything is clearly and legibly written in the CV that is in front of an interviewer, why does he ask this question?

The BPO and Call center culture has brought about quite a lot of changes – some positive and some negative. Though critics and well-wishers are right in saying that there the changes are more of negative, especially in India, there would be no denying the fact that there a lot of changes that are positive as well.

One such welcome change was the tobacco-free revolution that brought about a change in the smoking habits of quite a few BPO employees. Smoking had become a fashion statement for these employees working in BPOs, majority of them youth. What started as a reason to stay awake in the night shifts that, they had to work in, soon became an addiction that was [...] Continue Reading…

What is the cost of a smile? We often do not realize what a smile could do to somebody’s day. Though it doesn’t cost you a thing to smile, we are reluctant to this one gesture.

That day was frustrating for me. I was already late to office and I had a very bad road rage verbal altercation with another driver and was cursing everyone I found on my way as I drove into the basement parking in my office. I knew the day would be a terrible one for me. As I reached near the door of the lift lobby, I saw the security-guard sitting there. With a gloomy face I leaned forward to open the door and suddenly, [...] Continue Reading…

You have an impressive resume, you know how to present yourself well in an interview, you know what kind of position you are best suited for. . .now all you need is a chance to get your foot in the right door. Just what can you do to make that happen?

Make sure you write a knockout cover letter, advise career planning specialists. “A cover letter is your chance to explain to an employer why he or she should consider you for the job,” says Jennie Z. Rothschild, Ph.D., executive director of Jewish Vocational Service on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville. “The best cover letters are specific and give examples that directly relate to the job you are trying to get.”"Your [...] Continue Reading…

As was being expected, Barack Obama finally fulfilled his promise of formulating policies that will discourage “Outsourcing”, so that there are more job opportunities in the United States. So what is this policy?

Barack Obama finally initiated a bill that is still pending approval at the US Congress, is aimed at providing tax-cuts to companies that operate within US and imposing higher taxes and removal of tax benefits to US companies that outsource business to countries like that of India. While announcing this President Obama did not forget to make special mention of Bangalore. But is this policy going to work?

How can you enhance performance within a team? Businesses in BPOs and Call-centers are more of team-work and less of individual efforts. So when it comes to the success of the business, the focus is more on TEAM BUILDING. Why is team-building important?

It is said that TEAM means “Together Everyone Achieves More”. The most important word in this sentence is the word “Together” and this is the most difficult thing to do. Teams often fail in their objective just because the team members are busy working individually and the togetherness is nowhere to be seen.

Finally there is some respite for the employees of Satyam. They were hanging in imbalance till about a few weeks back. All of a sudden TechMahindra came in and won a bid for their takeover and breathed fresh and new life into the otherwise dying organization.

What had happened to Satyam? Was it so weak that it would disintegrate, just because one Mr.Raju decided that he had made enough fool of everybody. Satyam is not that weak an organization. When Mr. Raju set up Satyam he gave it a meaningful name, but he couldn’t live upto it. Still he had built a huge organization on the foundation of truth which is why it was able to acquire huge businesses from [...] Continue Reading…

The most ignored part of a job application is the covering letter. It is normal for an applicant to spruce up his resume and stuff it with everything he has done during his employment tenure, in the hope that it would catch the attention of the recruiter. But little does he focus on the covering letter because that was never the area of attention for him.

With the growing use of emails to send in applications for job vacancies, the use of covering letters became were given less importance. All that is required in an e-application for a vacancy was an attached CV. The body of the email would just be a one liner stating that the CV is attached. [...] Continue Reading…

Should you get your resume written by professional resume writing services? The importance of a resume cannot be undermined when you are gearing yourself for applying for a job. The competition is so fierce that every job that is advertised gets more thousands and thousands of applications. In such a situation, it becomes a difficult task for the recruiters to conduct an interview to screen the candidates.

It is here that your resume plays and important role. A lot of applications are rejected at the resume-screening exercise itself because they just don’t look like what a good resume should.