Rebirth

This blog is closed now. It will be reborn, abeit under a different shade, on a different day, for a different taste..

Adios amigos :)

If

My friend said, have you read the famous poem "If" with the sixty seconds line, and i said, never heard of it. Then due to the presence of google.com, and a peg (3rd) of JD, I searched for it. Found it, loved it, and hence, blogged it :). Here it goes,

If
by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Hiring

If you ask anyone how to go about hiring people, most of them will tell you that hiring is a simple process. All you need to do is put on an advertisment that states clearly the requirements for the various job openings, mark a walk in date for the interviews, take the interviews and select the people you find suited to your needs.

Hmm, well, it isn't that simple. Not if you're a start-up without a millionaire funding your venture anyways. Just completed the first recruitment weekend, and the results are not encouraging. Come to think about it, I feel it was inevitable, maybe even its good that the event was not so good, because it definitely was an eye-opener, with a capital O..

Ok, so what have I learned? Well, they're listed below:

1. Make sure the people you invite for an interview do turn up. Even if it means confirming the date and time with the candidate a few times. On the first day the ratio of people who actually made it for an interview to the number of people invited was less than 40%. Not exactly what we wanted.

2. The interview calls should be only for people that you feel are worth coming for an interview. To give an example, none of the people who appeared for the interview on day 1, were even worth sitting for the test. Maybe, if we would have just called them up once and talked to them for a few min to just validate they actually are what they state in their resumes, both parties could have saved a lot of time and effort.

3. The venue should be easily accessible. Well, this was an issue that is easily tackled. All you need are a few signposts.

4. The office should be impressive. Now, I don't want to say that you should have a grand lobby with a stunning receptionist with the ambience of a 5 star hotel. No, not at all. Since, we're a start-up and a very recently established one too, we haven't finished shopping :). And hence, it doesn't have some of the things that are maybe good to have, or even essential for some. But, still the office should give a feeling to the people coming for an interview that makes them comfortable, impressed by what it has, rather than what it doesn't, and most essentially, its a place where it would be a joy to work at. So how can one do that? And that too without a couple of glass cabins or discussion rooms or a pool table? Well, for starters, the place should look like a office and not a room where a group of enthusiasts satisfy their hunger for good work and technology. You can make that apparent by simple things like a set of well kept, neat and clean desks, a good central discussion table, few nice posters and other articles that may show what we do in here, what we stand for. A nice book shelf with nice collection of books,magazines and newspaper creates a nice touch to the room. Make sure that there are no objects in view that are not needed on that day. A cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind, i heard somewhere. A cluttered office reflects a cluttered work environment as well I feel.

5. Have a pitch that makes every potential candidate look at your advertisment twice.. Now thats very important for new players simply due to the fact that you don't have a standing, so the name is not enough (unlike Khaitan fans). Now that is something we have to work on, and we're aware of it.

6. Introduction. How you introduce your company to the candidates is also important, maybe though not as important as the offered renumeration, but neverthelss, it is something that can make or break the interest of the candidate towards your company. Unless you can impress the person with what you do and what is the company all about, its very hard to convince him that this is the place that will help him realise his dreams. The trick is not by lying, after all, once the candidate is in and he/she finds out that all that he thought about the place is actually a big piece of white lies, you can't have a face. Thus, the right way to do it is by highlighting the USP of your establishment with flair and confidence, and win over the audience. Once you win the audience, not only they would like to join you, they'll recommend their friends to have a look, and you win free publicity.

7. Targetting the right audience. Well, this might be something to think about a lot earlier than the points already discussed, but well, its something I want to make a point about. Resumes are not an accurate reflection of a persons knowledge/ability or even potential. A resume does reflect how well a person can sell himself though :). Well, I might sound overly critical here, but I haven't really been proved otherwise, yet, so I'll stand besides it. A persons ability can only be identified by personal interaction. So the big q is how do you reach the right people? MonsterIndia or Naukri are alternatives that need a lot of effort for bare min results. The most successful mechanism is referrals, or contacts. A good person has a good chance of knowing another good person. Similarily, a good person seeking a job is very likely to know another good person who is looking for a job :). So one needs to tap into this chain of right people. The hit ratio from Monster or Naukri haven't been very exciting for us. But, its terrific when it comes from a personal contact. And here, point 5 is what works for you..

Well, I hope that by thinking over the above, and actually doing somthing about it, the next weekend is more fruitful..

Simple

I watched Forrest Gump for the nth time today. Still can't seem to get the word's of Tom Hanks, intruducing himself as 'I'm Forrest, Forrest Gump', out of my head. Or any of the other simple but great dialogues from the movie like, 'My mama says, Life's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.' or 'If you're ever in trouble, don't try to be brave. Instead run!'.

Sometimes these special sequence of words make more sense than other times. Sometimes, you can relate to something that happened sometime that day, week, or even year, with some of the scenes and dialogues from a film. And thats what touches you more than just the performance. I sometimes feel that the best actor is the one, who in between his performance in the film, can make every one in the audience, even if for a very small time, go back in time and relate to the actor's position and frame of mind, with himself. Great actors always have been and will be able to do that more than the others.

Anyways, while watching this movie, as much as thought how much I would like to be satisfied and happy, the truth is, I am far from it. And I don't even know what, if anything, will ever make me stop running, and finally say 'I am tired now. I think I'll go home'.

Those are the words I wish I will be able to say to myself someday. And say so without an ounce of regret or dissapointment in my eyes. The day I can do that, is the day I'll retire.

The need of self learning

In the competitve and ever-changing world that we find ourselves today, its almost impossible to survive if one doesn't keep learning and improving in what ever field that we may work in.


Well, its not exactly true now is it?

But I keep feeling that the only person to excel is the one who keeps himself aware of the ever upcoming technologies, tools and items that makes the job that he/she is expected to perform, both easier and faster at the same time. I need to learn the new technologies and techniques that are hitting the market in the field of software to ensure that I dont get obsolete. But there is a flipside to this argument.

If you are good at something, why not master it? Why just be a Jack, when u can be a King. Why not rule your space and be content. Because everyone was to be the master of what they do. And masters are always looked upto by the commons.

This brings us back to the initially point, should a person strive to keep learning or should he stop after a while.

I think one should do the former, and so does everybody I know with whom I've talked to about this.

But, sometimes I wonder, when do we make peace with ourselves, when do we stop running?

The Kite Runner

Redemption.

"There is a way to be good again,"


"Sometimes, I think everything he [your father] did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good."

"Maybe," he thinks, "it was a hopeless place."

"A person who can't stand up for himself can never stand up for anything!!"

"You can't bury the past, he explains, "because the past claws its way out.""

"Afghans cherish custom but abhor rules."

"Do you always have to be the hero?"

"I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid, overcast day in the winter of 1975"

"I ran because I was a coward. I actually aspired to cowardice"

"For you, a thousand times over, Amir Jan"

Amir's story is simultaneously devastating and inspiring, read it..

I am at a place..

Where ducks matter more than an human being!!