Dressing for Success

Does it really make a difference how you dress for an interview? 

In many cases, it does. 

I'll never forget the gentleman I interviewed for an accounting position. He had been out of work for a few months and wanted to show me why. He took off his jacket, unbuttoned his shirt and started to pull down his pants (this is a true story) to show me the scar from a boat propeller that had injured him. He didn't get the job. Neither did the young lady in a bright red skirt so short and tight that she could hardly sit down! 

In a conservative business climate appearance do matter. In other environments it isn't as important. However, it does make sense to dress your best for the interview, regardless of the dress code at the organization. If you're in doubt about how to dress for an interview, it is best to err on the side of conservatism. It is much better to be overdressed than underdressed (or undressed). If you're not sure, check with the person who scheduled the interview and ask. 

According to Kim Zoller at Image Dynamics, 55% of another person's perception of you is based on how you look. Her 'Dressing for Success' information gives some tips on how to look your best, without necessarily spending a lot of money. 

Here's a quick look at the basics: 

Women's Interview Attire 

• Solid color, conservative suit 
• Coordinated blouse 
• Moderate shoes 
• Limited jewelry 
• Neat, professional hairstyle 
• Tan or light hosiery 
• Sparse make-up & perfume 
• Manicured nails 
• Portfolio or briefcase 

Men's Interview Attire 

• Solid color, conservative suit 
• White long sleeve shirt 
• Conservative tie 
• Dark socks, professional shoes 
• Very limited jewelry 
• Neat, professional hairstyle 
• Go easy on the aftershave 
• Neatly trimmed nails 
• Portfolio or briefcase 

INTERVIEW PREPARATION

We need to prepare well for the interview, finding out about the history of the company, its structure, market position and management style, along with details such as: how big the company is, how long have they been operating, what are their key income revenues and core areas of business, who are their major competitors, and have they had any major upheavals or successes. 

 The easiest place to start the research is the website, or calling the marketing department and asking for a company profile or press kit. This will not only help you show your enthusiasm to the company but also enable you to be more relaxed about the questions asked. If you are preparing for a specific job interview, you will need to familiarise yourself with the job description, so matching your attributes to their requested skills. You will also need to prepare information about yourself by building up a personal profile to enable you to answer questions both quickly and accurately. 

The profile will comprise of both personal and business information. For example: 

 Personal:

 'I am an ambitious, organised and highly-motivated individual who is goal driven and excels at building long-term customer relationships.' 

 Business:

 'I am an experienced sales professional with five years specific experience in the automotive industry'... go into further details. 

Be positive, if you are negative the employers will not believe in you. You need to remember that you have been short-listed, and therefore must stand a good chance. It is good to feel a bit nervous before the interview as it shows that you want the job. 

Top Interview Techniques 

The interview is not only a chance for the interviewer to assess if you are the right person for the job, but it is also an opportunity for you to see if the job and the company are suitable for you. During the interview you need to look for opportunities to be proactive and ask your own questions or try to lead the discussion where appropriate. Questions should reflect your keenness to work for the company. Generally you should limit yourself to just a couple of significant questions such as: 

•  What are the key tasks and responsibilities of the job 
•  What support and guidance is available 
•  What training will be available 
•  Other aspects to talk about are: 
•  Structure of the organisation 
•  Success of the organisation,
•  it's profitability and product portfolio 
•  Future strategies and development 

Keep your concentration levels up during the interview and make sure you listen to the responses the interviewer gives you. The worst mistakes happen when people end up asking questions about topics that have already been covered, or don't hear or understand what the interviewer has said. 

 Key points: 

• Make sure you give the interviewer your full attention 
• Wait for them to finish speaking, before you answer the question 
• Make sure you ask open questions, to ensure you get full answers 
• Check you understand everything that has been said 
• At the end of the interview find out what will happen next: 
• When will I hear from you 
• How will I be informed 
• Do you need any more information from me

 

Candidates can easily find themselves on the defensive, trying to justify themselves, rather than sell their attributes. A good interviewer will often throw all sorts of challenging questions at you, in order to see if you are suitable for the job. To help you cope with these it is best to know the possible questions that you might get asked, these can be divided up into sections: 

• Selling yourself (mention your strengths) 
• What experience do you have to benefit this job? 
• Can you work well under pressure? 
• What is your greatest strength? 
• What interests you most about this job? 
• Why should I hire you? 
• Do you have any questions? 

Questions could include: 

1. what your first assignment would be, 
2. what type of training is required or given, 
3. requesting to see a job description, and 
4. who the company's major competitors are. Information giving (information on your experience and skills set) 

•  Do you consider yourself to be a natural leader? The interviewer will be interested in your ability to lead when necessary 
•  Tell me about yourself. This is an open question, and is a good opportunity for you to reveal the strengths that you mentioned in your personal profile. This is also your chance to reveal your personality, so just be yourself. 
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• What are your biggest accomplishments? This should be job related, and is a chance to show your competency 
• Where do you see yourself in five years time? 

 Dealing with objections 

• How do you handle criticism? Try to portray the attitude that all criticism has a benefit, providing an opportunity for improvement. Also elaborate by giving an example of a poor idea that has been criticised rather than a substandard piece of work. 
• How will you cope with a change in environment? Talk about how you can adapt and learn quickly. Turning negatives into positives (change your weaknesses into strengths) 
• What can you do for us that someone else can't? If you have understood the details of the job then try to answer this with a combination of your skills/experience which others are unlikely to have. Describe a difficult problem you've had to deal with. Clearly explain how you have approached a problem, the result and how the difficult outcome was averted. This will show that you have a positive attitude to all challenges, and you were not discouraged or intimidated by the situation. 
• What is your greatest weakness? This is your chance to show that you have identified and are working on reducing your weaknesses. Turn your weakness into strength. 
• How do you handle tension/stress? Explain how you avoid stressful situations, and if not how you deal with it, for example: exercising and going to the gym. 
• How do you take direction? Show by giving examples of how you can be briefed and finish the task without unnecessary disagreements/complications 
• Do you prefer working with others or alone? Explain how you can work well in both situations. 
• How do you handle rejection? Much of today's business is commercially orientated, therefore a good answer would tend to be that you move on but take on board what has happened and use it to benefit you in the future. Always speak clearly in a controlled range of tones. Do not speak in monotone and always pause before speaking, this avoids instinctively reacting and saying the wrong thing. 

Points you need to remember: 

• Smiling is a good positive signal, as it reaffirms your good nature 
• Maintain eye contact 
• Relax do not rush or fidget 
• Mirror the interviewers techniques, if they laugh, laugh with them 
• Maintain an alert position, sit up straight, don't slump, but be comfortable 
• Always have a confident and honest attitude.

 Top Do's and Don'ts during the Interview 

• Always adopt a professional and business-like manner 
• Listen intently Use strong positive language 
• Ask the relevant questions 
• Wear a smile at all times 
• Never indicate that you're desperate for a job 
• Don't get into discussions about your personal life, and decline any bait to mention secrets of your present employer. The interviewer should respect your trustworthiness and integrity 
• Ensure that you don't smell of any strong odours, e.g. alcohol, garlic or even perfume 
• Don't fidget or play with your hair, clothing, items in your pockets etc 
• Avoid negative phrases such as: 'I don't know'. I'm not sure' 
• Be persuasive, speak in terms of what benefit you can bring to the company, rather than the other way around 
• Remain calm and don't rush your answers 

Psychometric Tests 

Psychometric means tools for measuring the mind. There are two types of test: Aptitude test: assess your abilities Personality questionnaires: which build up a profile of your characteristics.  Many employers believe that such tests give a good idea of whether you are able to do the job, and if your personality is suited to that of the job and the company. 

 Aptitude Tests: 

These test your critical reasoning skills under timed conditions. A typical test may have three sections each testing a different ability, such as verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning. The test would normally be about 30 minutes long for 30 questions. 

Personality Tests: 

Questions tend to focus on; how you relate to other people, your work style, your ability to deal with emotions (your own and others); your motivations; determination and general outlook and your ability to handle stressful situations. There are no right or wrong answers, just be yourself. top

TIPS FOR A BETTER WEBSITE SEARCH

The tips below will help you come closer to this goal, both for the keywords you think are important, and for phrases you may not even be anticipating. 

Pick Your Target Keywords. 

How do you think people will search for your web page? The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your target keywords. For example, say you have a page devoted to stamp collecting. Anytime someone types "stamp collecting," you want your page to be in the top ten results. Accordingly, these are your target keywords for that page. Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content. 

For example, say you have another page about the history of stamps. Then "stamp history" might be your keywords for that page. Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success. 

The article available to Search Engine Watch members provides additional information about selecting key terms. 

Position Your Keywords 

Make sure your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. The page's HTML title tag is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. 

More about the title tag can be found on the Build your titles around the top two or three phrases that you would like the page to be found for. The titles should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper headlines. With a few words, they make you want to read a story. Similarly, your page titles are like headlines for your pages. They appear in search engine listings, and a short, attractive title may help encourage users to click through to your site. 

Search engines also like pages where keywords appear "high" on the page, as described more fully on the page. To accommodate them, use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible. Have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page. Keep in mind that tables can "push" your text further down the page, making keywords less relevant because they appear lower on the page. This is because tables break apart when search engines read them. 

For example, picture a typical two-column page, where the first column has navigational links, while the second column has the keyword loaded text. Humans see such a page like this: Home Stamp Collecting Page 1 Page 2 Stamp collection is worldwide experience. Page 3 Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions Page 4 can be made from this hobby/business. Search engines (and those with old browsers) see the page like this:Home Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Stamp CollectingStamp collection is worldwide experience. Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions can be made from this hobby/business. 

See how the keywords have moved down the page? There is no easy way around this, other than to simplifying your table structure. Consider how tables might affect your page, but don't necessarily stop using them. I like tables, and I'll continue to use them. Large sections of JavaScript can also have the same effect as tables. The search engine reads this information first, which causes the normal HTML text to appear lower on the page. 

Place your script further down on the page, if possible. 

Create Relevant Content 

Changing your page titles is not necessarily going to help your page do well for your target keywords if the page has nothing to do with the topic. 

Your keywords need to be reflected in the page content. In particular, that means you need HTML text on your page. 

Sometimes, sites present large sections of copy via graphics. It looks pretty, but search engines can't read those graphics. That means they miss out on text that might make your site more relevant. Some of the search engines will index ALT text and comment information. But to be safe, use HTML text whenever possible. Some of your human visitors will appreciate it, also. 

Be sure that your HTML text is "visible." Some designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same color as the background color to make the text invisible to browsers. Search engines are well aware of these and other tricks. Expect that if the text is not visible in a browser, then a search engine may not index it. 

Finally, consider "expanding" your text references, where appropriate. For example, a stamp collecting page might have references to "collectors" and "collecting." Expanding these references to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner. Your page really is about stamp collecting, but edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally. 

Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks 

Some search engines see the web the way someone using a very old browser might. They may not read image maps. They may not read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages. 

Create HTML links 

Often, designers create only image map links from the home page to inside pages. A search engine that can't follow these links won't be able to get "inside" the site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside pages rather than the home page. 

Solve this problem by adding some HTML hyperlinks to the home page that lead to major inside pages or sections of your web site. This is something that will help some of your human visitors, also. Put these hyperlinks down at the bottom of the page. The search engine will find and follow them. 

Also consider creating a site map page with text links to every page within your site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate pages within your web site. 

Finally, be sure you do a good job of linking internally between your pages. If you naturally point to different pages from within your site, you increase the odds that search engines will follow links and find more of your web site. 

PLACEMENTS IN BANKING SECTOR

Just after the completion of the placement process for this year at the IIM Ahmedabad, it has been revealed that the Investment Banking sector has done the most recruitment for the year. It has also been found that salaries for both national and international levels have gone up substantially.

This year, IIM Ahmedabad had started a new process called the Cohort based placement process, under which mechanism the companies were placed in groups and placement process carried out on weekends.

110 firms participated in the placement process this year for 289 students .

The Investment Banks who participated at this year’s placement process include Deutsche Bank, Morgan & Stanley, UBS, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

According to sources, Deutsche Bank had offered the highest salary of 1.4 crore this year.

The top banks that offered the most include Yes Bank and ICICI banks, which made 13 offers each.

More than 40 firms also participated in the lateral placement process and extended more than 100 offers. It is a four-fold rise over last year.

Among the different sectors, Marketing and consulting firms recorded an increase in offers this year. However, the finance sector saw a decrease in offers with only 27 offers this year. Last year, it had got 34 job offers.

This year, the average domestic salary offered was 14.94 lakhs as compared to 12.17 in 2009. Similarly, the salaries for the international placements were 110,750 USD in average as compared to 83,000 USD last year.
POSTED BY:-
SMRITI SRIVASTAVA
PGDM-2nd SEM

MIC PLACEMENTS

Mic selection and placement are obviously very important considerations. If you're fortunate enough to have access to an expensive large-diaphragm tube condenser mic-such as the venerable Neumann U 47, the silky AKG C 12, or the divine Telefunken Elam 251-you certainly have an advantage. But even a classic mic doesn't guarantee a great vocal track.

Anyone who has recorded more than one vocalist knows that no one mic is perfect for all vocal applications. One singer will sound great through a certain mic, while another sounds like a cat caught in a blender. Why? Because all voices are different. There are certain truisms in the studio; particular mics tend to work well on female voices, while others tend to work well on deep male voices, and so forth. But given the time and resources, you should try a variety of combinations. You'll be surprised with the results.

Here are some questions you need to ask before choosing a mic. What overall sound do you want in the track-warm? clear? present? intimate? edgy? thin? Which qualities in the singer's voice do you want to accentuate, and which do you want to minimize? What is the singer's dynamic range? Does the singer have good mic technique, avoiding excessive plosives and either staying in one place so that the sound doesn't vary or moving back and forth to adjust for volume changes?

I want to dispel the myth that large-diaphragm condensers always make the best vocal mics. Sometimes they do, but often they don't. Small-diaphragm condensers and moving-coil and ribbon-dynamic mics can sound incredible on the right singer. In fact, many of the revered vocal performances of the 20th century were captured by ribbon mics. Keep an open mind, and trust your ears.

Many singers who have spent a lot of time in the studio know what mic (or mics) sounds best for them. It's a good idea to ask singers which mics they have used successfully in the past-it can save you a lot of trouble. Some singers will even ask ahead of time for a particular mic. Appreciate it when it happens, because you're likely dealing with a pro who has a good understanding of the recording process.

Otherwise, if you have a lot of experience and know the sound of your microphones, you can often guess which one will complement a particular singer for a particular application. For instance, for a singer with a nasal voice, I probably won't use a Neumann U 87 (a standard choice for vocals), because its midrange peak will tend to exaggerate the worst qualities of that type of voice. Instead I might use a ribbon mic or even an EV RE20 (which is a large-diaphragm dynamic).

Furthermore, I might not use the same mic from track to track. An intimate ballad with a detailed sound and the singer performing close to the mic calls for a different mic than the one I would use on a rock song with belted-out vocals. Some mics don't respond well to high sound-pressure levels, and many singers' voices change timbre when they change their delivery. You need to consider all the details to make the best mic choice.

POSTED BY:-
SMRITI SRIVASTAVA
PGDM -2nd SEM

WORK EXPERIENCE

Work experience is a burgeoning sector of the study abroad industry and a client requesting "work experience" might have only a vague notion about the type of programme they require.



Programmes can be divided into definite sub-sectors, depending on whether a student expects payment or not, for example.


The Global Work Experience Association (Gwea) has recently developed International Standards for Programmes available across the sector, in which work experience programmes have been categorised into four types: internships, volunteer programmes, work & study programmes and working holiday programmes.


These distinctions make it much easier for students to decide which placement is best suited to their individual needs.

INTERNSHIPS


Classic internships have traditionally been the main focus of the work experience sector. Gwea's manual defines the internship as "a temporary, supervised, practical experience programme in which a young person, usually a college or university student, carries out a training experience in a temporary position at a host company".


These placements are unpaid but usually directly related to a student's field of studies or future career aspirations, so students can gain relevant hands-on experience. Another advantage of these programmes is that it is usually easier for students to secure visa entrance for unpaid work placements in another country, making them accessible to a wider range of nationalities.


Many internship providers offer a wide range of placements. Jill Arcaro-Gordon at Best Programs in Spain, says, "The fields that we have a lot of interest in are business related, such as marketing, import/export, finance, consulting, information technology, public relations, etc".


However, placements are not limited to this area; Jean-Paul Barsoum at the Alpha College of English in Ireland, has organised placements "for a number of more specialist areas: chemical engineering, shoe design, cosmetics, manufacturing [and] microbiology". With a little bit of research and the help of an agent, students should be able to find an internship to suit their interests and aspirations.

PLACEMENT AND INDUCTION

Q1)What is placement?
Ans. Placement is a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates. It involves assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual. It implies matching the requirements of a job with the qualifications of the candidate.

Q2). Give the significance of placement?

Ans. The significances of placement are as follows: -

* It improves employee morale.


* It helps in reducing employee turnover.


* It helps in reducing absenteeism.


* It helps in reducing accident rates.



* It avoids misfit between the candidate and the job.


* It helps the candidate to work as per the predetermined objectives of the organization.


Q3). What is induction?

Ans. Once an employee is selected and placed on an appropriate job, the process of familiarizing him with the job and the organization is known as induction.

Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming an employee when he first joins the company and giving him basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily and stars work.

4). What are the objectives of induction?

Ans. Induction is designed to achieve following objectives: -

* To help the new comer to overcome his shyness and overcome his shyness nervousness in meeting new people in a new environment.


* To give new comer necessary information such as location of a café, rest period etc.


* To build new employee confidence in the organization.


* It helps in reducing labor turnover and absenteeism.


* It reduces confusion and develops healthy relations in the organization.

* To ensure that the new comer do not form false impression and negative attitude towards the organization.


* To develop among the new comer a sense of belonging and loyalty to the organization.


Q5). What are the advantages of formal induction?

Ans. The advantages of formal induction are: -

* Induction helps to build up a two-way channel of communication between management and workers.


* Proper induction facilitates informal relation and team work among employee.


* Effective induction helps to integrate the new employee into the organization and to develop a sense of belonging.


* Induction helps to develop good relation.


* A formal induction programme proves that the company is taking interest in getting him off to good start.


* Proper induction reduces employee grievances, absenteeism and labor turnover.


* Induction is helpful in supplying information concerning the organization, the job and employee welfare facilities.