I have come across many people who would run for their life when they get to know that they have to sell something in a job. There are numerous others who come to me asking for tips to make money and when I say that they will have to sell something, they raise their hands and say, “I cannot sell”.
This is where a conversation becomes interesting. Once I was with a mentor of mine who was talking to a couple of people, telling them how easy it is to sell something on the internet and make money. He was explaining to them that how salemen were the highest paid people and how selling can help them make good money. As he ended his dialogue, an accountant amongst the them said, “But Mr.Dixit, I cannot sell. I am not good at selling and I do not possess selling skill. It requires convincing power”. Mr.Dixit said a sentence or, two in favor of selling and stopped with an open ended question prompting the accountant to speak on reasons why he felt he cannot sell. The accountant then started off on a “convince him” pitch, trying to convince my mentor of the fact that he cannot sell and the reasons why he cannot, including a detailed description of the skills required to sell something which he apparently did not possess.
After about 2 minutes when he stopped, Mr.Dixit asked him a question, “What is it that you did right now? My friend, what you did is selling. You just sold me an idea that you cannot sell. Wasn’t this selling?”
This is how easy selling is.
An interview is all about selling yourself to the interviewer. Your success will depend upon how well you sell yourself. Just keep a couple of things in mind and you would never face failure in interviews.

• Be confident of what you are saying. But at the same time be cautious to not be overconfident. Maintain a normal pace and tone of speech.
• Use examples and instances wherever required, to add value to your responses.
• Don’t interrupt the interviewer because this shows you are either under-confident or, over-confident.
• Don’t just start off immediately as the interviewer finishes his question. Take a few seconds to think and decide on your response. About 3 seconds is an ideal pause before you answer.
• Never start your responses with “Okay”.
• Be enthusiastic and maintain appropriate posture. If you are sitting in a chair with arms (which you would be) rest your hands on the arms of the chair.
• Do not play with your fingers.
• Do not tie your arms in front of you if you are sitting in a chair without arms.

Succeeding in an interview does not entirely depend upon the responses that you give. Though there would be questions where the response is of prime importance, I should say that your success has much more to do with the way you have responded to your questions.

After quite some time there was encouraging news for the aspirants of a BPO. There was a lot news floating around in the media that there would be quite a few job cuts in the first quarter of 2009 and that the BPO industry’s growth will experience a slow down etc. But the below report from, "The Times of India", quoting the NASSCOM, has something else to say.

{Software and BPO industry body Nasscom on Wednesday said the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is not in the danger of losing jobs due to the ongoing economic downturn rather a net hirer in the current fiscal. In a statement Nasscom said,
"Media reports suggest that the Indian BPO industry will see 2.5 lakh job losses by the first quarter of 2009, in the wake of downturn in the US and other developed economies. Nasscom’s research and interaction with its member companies is not in support of this statement."
Our detailed industry performance and forecast for FY’09 will be released in the next fortnight. However, on employment the industry will continue to be a net hirer in FY’09 as a direct corollary of industry growth and fears of large scale job losses at an industry level are unfounded." The industry body’s comment comes in the wake BPO Industry Association president Samir Chopra stating that "severe job loss is expected because of recession. We are going to request for a fiscal package from the government, but if that doesn’t happen, then there be huge amount of losses in terms of manpower. I think a quarter of a million jobs will go." The $11-billion BPO sector employs about seven lakh people.}

So now that should be encouraging for everyone, I believe.

Read the entire report here – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India_Business/No_job_cuts_in_BPO_sector_Nasscom/articleshow/3819113.cms

As Satyam plunged into a deeper crisis with its founder and former chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju confessing to a financial fraud and later being arrested, the fate of thousands of employees at Satyam and its subsidiaries were hanging in imbalance. At this point of crisis there would be nothing more that general advice that anyone could offer these employees. Stay calm and monitor the situation. Things should settle down very soon. The kind of company Satyam was, with its magnitude and presence, there would certainly be a bailout that would happen.

Nipuna is the BPO arm of Satyam and has been in business for some time. It has offered stability and growth to its employees, thanks to the kind of businesses it has been handling. But what is in store for its employees is still a question without answers.

A look at similar instances from the past could give confidence to all of you who are going through this crisis situation. Satyam is a huge company to be dissolved overnight. The most viable option in front of the government and the corporate world is to put Satyam into some kind of acquisition or, takeover process. If that be the case then there is a bright future for all the employees.

So my advice like anybody else’s, at this point would be to remain calm and watch the proceedings. Have confidence in yourself. Your experience of all these years is more than enough to get you a job of your choice if you decide to change jobs tomorrow. So why go for an inferior option today, thus destroying your careers. Let the tide get over and you would see better days.

All the best to all of you.

A career is only successful if it is planned well. Planning in your career would obviously start with setting goals and targets and then running for it. But it is here that almost all planning fails and most of the plans just don’t take off at all.
I have never heard of any person setting off on a trip without knowing where to go. Similarly you need to know where you want to go to in your career. But the confusion is in the kind of goals that one should set for himself. Should you set a realistic goal or, an ambitioous goal?

Realistic Goals:-
There are quite a few who profess setting realistic goals. If I ask you to set a realistic goal, the responses that I get from each of you would be different. Some would be a starter in his career and would want to play safe. He would be of the opinion that since he is in the pre-mature stage of his career he would set a goal that he thinks can be achieved. There would be some others who would be veterans in their career but they too would want to set a goal that they think they will be a able to achieve in the set time frame. It is human pyschology to play safe. I am not one of those genuises who would be just in deciding what my achievable goal would be. Hence everytime I set a goal it is bound to be something less that what I can achieve, so that I do not miss it and I am encouraged to run after my next goal.

Advantage -
You would not be de-motivated because you would for sure achieve your goals.
You won’t give up at the beginning itself just because you lost your first race.

Disadvantage -
In this highly competitive world, you might just be too much behind your competitors who are setting aggressive goals and are consequently achieving more than what you have achieved.
Your realistic goals would actually be unrealistic, because you would have a tendency to play safe.

Ambitious goals:-
I have always preferred setting an ambitious goal for my self and I would always profess the same. The reason is quite simple – “Aim for the stars, even if you don’t achieve it you will have the satisfaction that you have at least touched the sky”.
My potential might not be to touch the sky, but because I kept on trying to touch the stars, I was able to touch the sky. If I had aimed to touch teh sky, I would probably not even have crossed the earth’s atmosphere.
Setting ambitious targets have always helped me to stretch myself and stretching has helped me achieve more than what I could have achieved, had I set a realistic goal.
But the key here is to stay motivated even if you fail. There is also a tendency to set an ambitious goal and just stop trying to achieve it, because you know that you have set a difficult to achieve goal and that you might not be able to make it.

Advantage -
You would always stay ahead of your competition because you would achieve more in less time.
Ideal for people who look for fast-track career growths.

Disadvantage -
Tendency of giving up even before trying.
You might get de-motivated if you are not able to achieve your goals.

Having said this, I would also say that, it entirely depends upon you frame of mind and will-power, as to what kind of goals you should set for yourself.

Finally there is something for the employees of Satyam BPO to rejoice about. Satyam BPO (formerly Nipuna) is recruiting people for its latest business.

As per the latest news, Satyam BPO has finally closed a deal that was in the pipeline for some time and consequently required about 5- additional heads. Hence they have started recruiting for this business that they have just bagged.

“We are recruiting as per requirement for a particular new business which we have bagged recently,” confirmed Manjula Manjotra, head of Global Marketing and Communications (GM&C), Satyam BPO Limited.

“According to the requirements of a client, who has given a new business order, a batch of freshers have been recruited by the company. The brand Satyam perhaps still sells. None of our clients have backed out,” a senior employee of Satyam BPO said.

In the midst of the crisis that Satyam was going through, the employees were staring an uncertain future. In one of my previous blog, I had mentioned that the employees of Satyam BPO should remain calm untill the tide is over. Now that Satyam BPO is recruiting, they should be fine and should look forward to their career growth.

There are also talks of the BPO arm of Satyam being up for sale and reportedly, Essar Group’s outsourcing firm Aegis BPO is on the verge of approaching Satyam Computers for a possible buyout of its BPO operations. If this happens, then employees of the company would have more reasons to rejoice.