Dear Investment Banks / Brokerage Firms / Insurance Cos,

The way the cookie has crumbled has resulted in your employees rushing for jobs on workosaur. The recruiters who use our services have started complaining about their inbox being flooded with resumes of your employees. Many of the recruiters have started using your firm’s name as a filter for detecting spam.

So, please get back in shape. Shift to economy class flights. Move your offices towards the city’s outskirts. Build a leaner and smarter business. Use the extra money to retain most of your team.

And, allow me to pacify the recruiters on workosaur.

Sincerely, workosaur.com

This is a guest post by Mr. Yash Asher – Online Marketing Specialist. He also blogs about Online Media at Asheresque.
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Who is the most efficient employee in your office? The one, who remembers everything, can pull out old mails in a jiffy, the kind that makes the rest of us look like monkeys attempting to play chess. You want to kill him but not before finding out his secret.  Have a look at his email inbox. I have a hunch you will find levels of organization an army general would be proud of.

For the rest of us mere mortals there are 2 options
• use Gmail as mail client (not allowed in most companies)
• or use Xobni (inbox spelt backwards, currently works well with MS Outlook)

Xobni allows you to
• Search your mails super fast (it will index your mails to be able to do this)
• Find documents exchanged in a jiffy
• Find contact details in a jiffy, no 4-5 right-clicks any more, you don’t even need to create the person’s profile in your mailbox, Xobni extracts this information from emails automatically
• Be aware of the network people operate in. No more “what’s the name of this guys boss?”
• And all this without navigating away from the mail you are currently focused on. Hence, you can reply to anyone with complete knowledge of your past interactions.

Plus the killer app as far as I am concerned is the analytics engine. With Xobni you can know what is the time of the day a person mail to you regularly, what is his her standard response time, how many times have you had to mail him, and how often does he respond, speed of his response, etc. Just a look at this information can help you schedule your conversations with everyone better.

It even allows you to integrate your Linkedin account with your inbox and build professional networks beyond the office emails.

While this will not solve all of your work problems but definitely give you a much larger degree of control over your mailbox and will free up your time.

For more information and to download the app check out Xobni.com.

PS: Check our list of Internet Tools for the Workplace.

Peter Drucker (1909-2005) – the leading founder of the field of management and the most influential management thinker in the second half of the 20th century was also a prolific writer with his body of work spread over 39 books. Reading a small part of his body of work has, by far, been a more productive exercise than the 2 years I spent at a well-renowned b-school.

For those who wish to make a start, I recommend ‘The Daily Drucker‘ – a book that comes very close to being a blog. In the book, Drucker has assembled his most powerful ideas in the form of 366 readings, one for each day of the calendar year. Culled from his lifetime of writings, each writing comprises of an insight, detailed in 200-500 words, accompanied with a call to action, and space at the bottom of the page for the readers to scribble their comments. And as Drucker himself writes about the book,

“The most important part of this book is the blank spaces at the bottom of its pages. They are what the readers will contribute: their actions, decisions, and the results of these decisions. For this is an action book.”

As I read and re-read The Daily Drucker, I am convinced that if Drucker was alive, he’d have had a blog by the same name. Each day, the RSS feed would have populated our Feed Readers with one insight from the great man. Also, just like he urges his readers to use the white space below each reading, visitors to his blog would have been urged to contribute with their comments.

Note:
This article was originally written by me on my personal blog in November 2007.

This is a guest post by Mr. Hari Joshi – Director, Foreign Languages Institute (Bangalore). They offer courses in Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Russian, Dutch, German and Chinese. In this post, Hari talks about the benefits of learning a foreign language – especially for managers who are and want to be a part of organizations with a global workforce.
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As the world becomes flatter, back-end processes from countries all over the world are being moved to India. Latin America, Europe and Far east countries are now as important as the United States to the Indian economy. If we wish to seize this opportunity, Indian managers must step out of their comfort zone and familiarize themselves (you don’t have to be an expert) with foreign languages like Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French and German.

If you are a manager and working for an multinational, chances are that you will come in contact with foreign clients or language specialists working for foreign clients. In such a scenario, knowing the basics of a foreign language will stand you in good stead, both with the clients as well as with your language team.

Traditionally, French and German have been the two most popular foreign languages amongst Indians, the bigger opportunities lie in geographies where the language of business is Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

Japanese: Given it’s strength technology and innovation, Japan is the second largest consumer of Indian software services. And anybody, in the Business Development or Technolgy function of an IT firm, with a moderate knowhow of Japanese stands to gain fantastic international exposure in Japan. Most of these stints are longer term, given that the language is used only mainly in Japan. Interestingly, a recent survey has revealed that savings made by professionals working in Japan are higher than those made by their counterparts in United States and Europe.

Portuguese: Portuguese is spoken in Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Macau. The most noteworthy of these is Brazil (2.5 times the size of India) which has eneterd into several bi-lateral business agreements with India. Evidently, those who know Portuguese, get to work at some of the most exotic locations. Well, you can even flaunt it on your trip to Goa which was earlier colonized by the Portuguese.

Spanish: Spanish is the world’s third most spoken language, and more than 50 crore people worldwide speak Spanish. This includes the whole of Latin America (apart from Brazil) and Spain. Also, those who know Spanish would find it easy to converse across most of Europe.

So, fellow workosaurs, I would like to end this article by appealing to all of you to pick up a foreign language. Along with the language, will come better business development opportunities and the chance to know more about the cultures prevailing in different geographies.
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Note:
Those of you interested in learning Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Russian, Dutch, German or Chinese, can contact the author at +91.9886373048.

On most occasions, when we read a business book, we are introduced to an idea – a new perspective or a new concept relevant to the way we do business today. The book is intended to change our perspective and thus our behaviour. But seldom do we actually internalize the concepts OR change the way we do things – based on what we’ve read. Marketing guru Seth Godin dwells at depth on this issue and tells us How to Read a Business Book. Here’s what he has to say.

So, how to read a business book:

1. Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.

2. If you’re going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It’s simple: if three weeks go by and you haven’t taken action on what you’ve written down, you wasted your time.

3. It’s not about you, it’s about the next person. The single best use of a business book is to help someone else. Sharing what you read, handing the book to a person who needs it… pushing those around you to get in sync and to take action – that’s the main reason it’s a book, not a video or a seminar. A book is a souvenir and a container and a motivator and an easily leveraged tool. Hoarding books makes them worth less, not more.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 26 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. It is also the largest online business network in India with 1.1 million Indian members. Recruiters are actively looking at LinkedIn to weed out profiles that are not active on the popular jobsites. We strongly encourage workosaurs to create a profile on LinkedIn and use the following steps to leverage LinkedIn for better career opportunities.

1. Complete your Profile & Make it Searchable
• You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include a professional summary, specialties, current/past positions (with descriptions), education, affiliations and activities. This makes you appear in more search results as well as gets you more connected (as explained in the next step).
• Upload a professional-looking profile photo. This will also help people identify you quickly.
• Create a public profile with a customized URL that includes your name. Enable “full view” of your public profile. Also, LinkedIn enables you to make the profile information available for search engines to index.

2. Get Connected with Contacts already on LinkedIn
• Search your webmail contacts for people who are already on LinkedIn.
• Search your past or present colleagues: If you have filled your past and present employment details correctly, then LinkedIn shows you other people from the same organization who are on LinkedIn and also alerts you when new members from the organization join LinkedIn.
• Search your classmates: If you have filled your employment history correctly, then LinkedIn allows shows you other people from the same school who are on LinkedIn and also alerts you when new members who are from the same school join LinkedIn.

3. Make your Profile more Saleable
• Have colleagues, clients, teachers, and partners speak up for you – get recommended for the work you do on LinkedIn. Obviously, the more recommendations you have, the better. Also, make sure you have some solid recommendations all-around i.e. from your managers, your peers and your subordiates.
• Be a serious participant on LinkedIn Answers for topics related to your career. If your answer is chosen as the Best Answer, you are shown as a domain specialist by LinkedIn.
• Join 3-4 relevant LinkedIn Groups. These groups are displayed in search results and serve as a good visual cue to draw attention to your profile.

4. Promote your LinkedIn Profile
• Add a link to your profile as part of your email signature.
• Display a LinkedIn badge leading to your profile on your blog (if you maintain one).
• When you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature or in the URL field.
• Publish your LinkedIn profile on your resume (for the recruiters to verify the veracity of your resume and to show off your recommendations/specialties)

5. Be Active & Contactable on LinkedIn
• Log in to LinkedIn and check your Inbox (messages / InMail / Introductions / Invitations / Q&A / Recommendations) on a daily/weekly basis. You will then be more visible in the Network Updates feed that your connections see when they log on to LinkedIn.
• Edit your status message to reflect the current activity you are involved in. You’ll be surprised at the number of LinkedIn connections who would chip in with suggestions when you let them know what you are doing.
• Add the Answers Application for a regular feed of Q&A in your domain of expertise. This ensures that you are able to participate in relevant Q&A discussions.
• Add the Jobs Application for a regular feed of relevant jobs that fit your profile. When something interesting comes up, you can apply without the hassle of e-mailing or uploading a resume.
• Edit your contact settings and grant permission to be contacted for different opportunities. Also, ensure that you provide your phone number here.

Adherence to these steps will soon show results. If you need any inputs relating to your LinkedIn profile, do send a mail to nimish [at] workosaur [dot] com and I shall make my services available.

PS: Check our list of Internet Tools for the Workplace.

This is a guest post by Amit Bhagria, a Recruitment Consultant at one of the oldest and largest recruitment companies in India. This post was originally published by him on November 14, 2007 on his blog titled Global Trends in Human Resource Management and is being published here with his permission. The post talks about how blogs are proving to be a medium for recruiters to spot prospective employees.
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A blog is more than just a tool to vent our feelings. It has also become an excellent medium to communicate, share ideas and most of all, spot prospective employees.

Blogs: a Helper’s Hand
Recently, I learnt of a position being closed thanks to the candidate’s blog. When the HR Manager met the candidate, he found her to be shy and reticent, and he wasn’t sure if she would be a fit in the advertising agency. However, on reading her blog, he realized that she could express herself extremely well in the written form. The candidate ultimately joined as a Research Executive and proved to be an excellent performer.

Though this practice is still in its nascent stage, corporate recruiters are surfing blogs to unearth candidates and expanding their candidate pool as well as gaining insights that they can’t get from resumes or interviews.

Blogs: do we, don’t we?
Blogs help employers probe further into the qualifications of Potential Hires. Now that HR Managers feel that blogging for new recruits helps, does this mean organisations in India should start reading blogs?

Well, blogging can give several insights about the candidate like:
How passionate the candidate is about his/her present job profile?
How innovative is the candidate?
How does the candidate deal with criticism?
Is the candidate able to bring others to his/her point of view?

The recruiter rarely gets such insights in the interview with the candidate. On the other hand, such insights are easily available on one’s blog.

However, there are various aspects about blogs which can lead to dire consequences. As a company and as an HR professional, one should be very specific rather than gauging all aspects of the candidate through their blog. One should take into consideration the conext in which the posts have been made by the blogger and also the fact that most blogs are not updated consistently.

So its just too early to decide if blogs will be the next-generation recruitment tool. While companies do agree that they are helpful, candidates can’t be hired based on their blogs only. But one does get a unique perspective of the candidates’ personality that otherwise would have been difficult to assess.

So if you’re in the market for a job, well, blog away and let the recruiter know you better!

Update (June 4, 2009): Starting a blog with a domain and design of your choice isn’t an expensive proposition.  You can do it under $100. Read this article to know how.

A warm welcome to all of you. I am thrilled to have launched Workosaur today. The launch was a family affair. All of us at home visited a nearby temple in the morning after which I got my grandmother to delete the .htaccess file and launch the site.

Just in case you are wondering what workosaur.com is all about, it is a naukri.com for high-paying jobs (Rs. 10 lac p.a. and above).

To know why the word workosaur, go here.