Right Attitudes » Ideas for Impact » by Nagesh Belludi

A people that values its privileges
above its principles soon loses both.
* Dwight D. Eisenhower

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
* Victor Borge

Physical courage, which despises all danger,
will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage,
which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.
* Charles Caleb Colton

A local politician was once enmeshed in his own oratory. Said he: Build a
chain-link fence around the winter’s supply of summer weather; skim the
clouds from the sky with a teaspoon; catch a thundercloud in a saucepan;
break a hurricane to harness; quiet and soothe an earthquake; lasso an
avalanche; pin a napkin on the crater of an active volcano-but never expect
to see me false to my principles.
* Anonymous

Life breaks us all, but afterwards,
many of us are strongest at the broken places.
* Ernest Hemingway

Creativity can solve almost any problem.
The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.
* George Lois

The average person thinks he isn’t.
* Larry Lorenzoni

There is only one corner of the universe you can be
certain of improving and that’s your own self.
* Aldous Huxley

Those who seek faultless friends, remain friendless.
* Anonymous

If you’re enthusiastic about the things you’re working on,
people will come ask you to do interesting things.
* James Woolsey

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*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

The terms résumé or curriculum vitae (CV) are near-synonyms and often used interchangeably. The sense of these terms, however, may differ in certain geographies.

Usage in North America

In North America, there is a difference between the terms résumé and curriculum vitae in terms of the target audience, purpose and length.

The term résumé refers to a concise summary of a candidate’s credentials for the purpose of seeking employment in industry or the non-profit sector. A résumé, therefore, primarily summarizes the candidate’s educational background and professional experience. The preferred length of a resume is one or two pages.

A curriculum vitae is a more exhaustive record of a candidate’s qualifications and achievements primarily for seeking positions in academia and research. A curriculum vitae may include publications, fellowships and scholarships, invited lectures and talks, research grants and patents secured, etc. Some curriculum vitae contain personal details as well. Generally, there is no page-limit on a curriculum vitae. For an example, see the curriculum vitae of Donald Knuth, computer science pioneer and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.

Usage in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth

In the United Kingdom and members of the Commonwealth, the term curriculum vitae is used for seeking employment in industry, the non-profit sector, academia or research. The term résumé is not traditionally used. The format and length of the curriculum vitae depends on the target of the curriculum vitae (industry/not-for-profit or research/academia) as in North America.

Usage in Other Countries

In some countries–India and Australia, for example–the terms résumé and curriculum vitae may be used interchangeably. In India, the term ‘bio-data’ refers to a résumé as well.

Choice between Résumé and Curriculum Vitae

Write your résumé or curriculum vitae to suit the preferred style and format of your target audience (industry or academia) irrespective of what the document is termed.

Do not include the word ‘Résumé’ or phrase ‘Curriculum Vitae’ at the top of your document — use the valuable space to enhance your document either by adding further details of your accomplishments or by increasing white space around various sections of your résumé to make it more visually appealing.

Further Reading

• The One-page Résumé Rule
• Fonts and Text Size for Résumés

***See other articles related to resume tips, resume, job search, career, interviewing

To follow without halt, one aim;
there is the secret of success.
* Anna Pavlova

They always say time changes things,
but you actually have to change them yourself.
* Andy Warhol

In no direction that we turn do we find ease or comfort.
If we are honest and if we have the will to
win we find only danger, hard work and iron resolution.
* Wendell Lewis Wilkie

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
* Alfred North Whitehead

What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those
whose life is one burning love, selfless. That love will make every
word tell like a thunderbolt.
* Swami Vivekananda

In the final analysis there is no solution to
man’s progress but the day’s honest work,
the day’s honest decisions,
the day’s generous utterances and the day’s good deed.
* Clare Booth Luce

Fortunate is the person who has developed the self-control to
steer a straight course toward his objective in life, without being
swayed from his purpose by either commendation or condemnation.
* Napoleon Hill

Life may not be the party we hoped for
but while we are here we should dance.
* Anonymous

If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the
Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth and
worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you.
* Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
* Alan Kay

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

Google’s Marissa Mayer on Perfection

In an interview with the Fast Company magazine, Marissa Mayer, Vice President of search products and user experience at Google, compares two product launch strategies:

Some [programmers] like to code for months or even years, and hope they will have built the perfect product. That’s castle building. Companies work this way, too. Apple is great at it. If you get it right and you’ve built just the perfect thing, you get this worldwide ‘Wow!’ The problem is, if you get it wrong, you get a thud, a thud in which you’ve spent, like, five years and 100 people on something the market doesn’t want.

Others prefer to have something working at the end of the day, something to refine and improve the next day. That’s what we do: our ‘launch early and often’ strategy. The hardest part about indoctrinating people into our culture is when engineers show me a prototype and I’m like, “Great, let’s go!” They’ll say, “Oh, no, it’s not ready.” … They want to castle-build and do all these other features and make it all perfect. I tell them … to launch it early on Google Labs and then iterate, learning what the market wants–and make it great. The beauty of experimenting in this way is that you never get too far from what the market wants.

By releasing new products and features before they are completely refined, as ‘beta’ releases, Google and other technology companies can gain significant advantages over the competition. The products can be marketed earlier and initial users can identify problems with unfinished products and suggest new product features. A case in point: Google’s popular ‘Gmail’ or ‘Google Mail’ application has remained ‘beta’ since April 2004.

The approach of releasing ‘half-baked’ products is limited to certain industries and products. And, for sure, these ‘beta’-products are expected to include all the critical functional features expected of the product. Airlines will not fly a new aircraft that has not yet passed comprehensive tests and regulatory certification.

‘Perfect’ Is Often THE Enemy of ‘Done’

When you aim for perfection, you discover it’s a moving target.
– George Fisher

On our personal and professional initiatives, we tend to wait for the perfect time, the perfect team, or the perfect conditions. The end-result is that we never get started on the initiative. If we do start and then aspire for a perfect design, we may never get done.

Some of us, yours truly included, are chronic perfectionists. We tend to be excessively self-critical and demanding of ourselves. Our struggle for perfection habitually turns into an endless quest for making ‘better’ a ‘little better.’ Any state of perfection ceases to exist when we question the perfection–when we ask how perfect the perfection is.

Make ‘Perfect Enough’ the New Perfect

We need to accept the prospect of compromises to our goals and aspirations. We need to acknowledge that our expectations are often excessive and uncalled for. When we develop a ‘good enough’ or ‘perfect enough’ mindset, we realize that imperfection is, after all, a negotiable outcome. There will always be a chance to improve.

Recommended Reading

• Overcoming procrastination using the “10-Minute Dash” technique
• Jack Welch on acting quickly

Credits: Marissa Mayer’s photo courtesy of Google

***See other articles related to perfection, perfect enough, excellence, productivity, procrastination, execution, getting things done

Introduction

Behavioral interviewing is a popular approach to assess the past experiences of a candidate to judge his/her response to identical situations on a future job. Essentially, behavioral interviewing is based on the premise that “past performance in comparable circumstances is the best predictor of future performance.”

In place of asking hypothetical questions (E.g., “How will you handle …,”) interviewers ask specific questions (E.g., “Describe a time when you had to …”) to elicit concrete examples of desired behaviors from the past. For further details and sample questions, see my earlier article on behavioral interviewing.

6 Steps to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Listen to the question carefully. Commonly, behavioral interview questions tend be longwinded and may sometimes sound vague (blame an overuse of adjectives, adverbs and trendy language.) Here is an example: “Good problem-solving often includes a careful review of the substantial facts and weighing of options before making a decision. Give me an instance of how you reached a practical business decision by an organized assessment of the facts and weighing of options.”
2. Ensure you understand the question before you begin to answer. You may paraphrase the question and ask the interviewer if you understand it correctly. If necessary, ask the interviewer to repeat the question. Do not, however, ask the interviewer to repeat every question — the interviewer may question your ability to listen and comprehend.
3. Organize your answer. Allow yourself five to eight seconds to collect your thoughts and structure your answer. Interviewers appreciate this break — they could use this time to drink some water, review their notes or rest their hands from note-taking.
4. State your answer. Attempt to conclude your answer in about three minutes. Three minutes is long enough to relate a story comprehensively and short enough to hold the interviewer’s attention.
5. Do not digress from your plan. Resist the temptation to think of new details as you state the answer. By sticking to the details and structure you had planned for, you can provide a consistent and well-reasoned answer. Be concise. Do not ramble on.
6. Answer follow-up questions. In response to your three-minute answer, the interviewer may pose follow-up questions. These questions can be confirming questions that require simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers or clarifying questions that require brief answers.

Answering a Question: Use the STAR Technique to Narrate an Experience

In behavioral interviewing, every answer should specifically address the skill being addressed. Your answer should relate an experience from a previous job assignment, project, academic studies or community work.

Present a diverse set of experiences. Suppose that you are asked six behavioral questions during a thirty-minute interview. Using a distinct context and/or experience for each question will help you portray a diversity of skills, interests and experiences.

Begin by examining the question: what is the purpose of the question, what specific skill is the question trying to address? Then, pick an experience that you could describe to address the question at hand. In your mind, recollect specifics of your experience. Structure your answer and narrate your experience using the four steps in the ‘STAR’ technique.

1. ‘S’ for Situation : Commence your answer with the background to your experience. Detail the circumstances of your involvement. Provide sufficient detail to develop a context to the rest of your narration.
2. ‘T’ for Task: Describe the challenge at hand: what needed to be done, what should have been done. Detail the outcome that was expected, constraints or conditions that needed to be satisfied.
3. ‘A’ for Action: Elaborate your specific action in response to the challenge. Specify analytical work, team effort or project coordination. Use ‘I’ and ‘we’ statements as appropriate [more details here.]
4. ‘R’ for Results: Explain the results of your efforts: what did you accomplish, what did you learn, how did your managers and team respond, how did your organization recognize you. Wherever possible, quantify your achievements and improvements — e. g., “20% improvement in …” or “reduced manufacturing costs by 1.5 million dollars per year … .”

An Example: Using the STAR Technique to Narrate an Experience

Consider a question suggested by authors Jack and Suzy Welch in a recent Business Week article on recruiting for leadership positions.

• Question: “Have you ever had to define yourself in the midst of criticism, and did you succeed?”

Below is a concise four-step ‘STAR’ answer to this interview question. This question illustrates the ability of the interviewee to listen to feedback, adapt as a manager and lead teams well.

1. ‘S’ for Situation: “My first job after business school was to lead a product development team at ABC Corporation. One of my responsibilities involved participating in weekly product planning meetings that decided on product features. After the meeting, I would meet with my staff and delegate the programming tasks. Since I am an experienced programmer, I would explain details of how each feature needed to be programmed. I expected my staff to write the programs in C++, test and debug. We seemed to work very well as a team.”
2. ‘T’ for Task: “Three months later, my manager had collected feedback from my staff. In my performance review, my manager observed that I could improve my delegation skills. I was surprised to receive this feedback. I had believed that I was good at delegating given that I would detail my expectations of each staff-member and list every step he/she needed to work on. It believed my staff was productive and continually gained knowledge from my coaching. I thanked my manager for the feedback and promised to reflect on my delegating style and consider a change.”
3. ‘A’ for Action: “I reflected on my delegation approach and realized two problems. Firstly, I assigned work to my staff only in terms of steps to take. I had habitually failed to describe the background of product features we wanted to develop and explain how their work would improve the overall product. My staff would do just what I had asked them to do. Secondly, in telling my staff how to complete each assignment, I was micromanaging. This may have tended to limit my staff’s initiative and reduced opportunities to advance their programming skills. During the next staff meeting, I thanked my staff for the feedback and acknowledged I would change. Then, each week, I explained the context to every product feature we wanted to develop, described the task in terms of outcomes and asked my staff how we could approach each task.”
4. ‘R’ for Results: “My staff was very excited about the opportunity to propose ideas, brainstorm and choose a preferred way of going about their work. It was no longer my idea they would work on; it was their own idea and their own approach. They were more enthusiastic about their work and realized they were an integral part of something bigger than themselves. During the next quarterly meeting, my manager praised me for empowering my team.”

Concluding Thoughts

In answering interview questions, the best way to impress an interviewer is to discuss your credentials and accomplishments in terms of personal success stories. The ‘STAR’ technique is probably the best method to structure answers to interview questions. By following this simple technique, you can narrate direct, meaningful, personalized experiences that best identify your qualifications.

Recommended Reading

• Introduction to behavioral interviewing and sample questions
• Avoiding second-person answers in interviews
• Avoid too many ‘I-I-I’ or ‘We-We-We’ answers in interviews
• Delegating outcomes, not just tasks

***See other articles related to job search, job-hunting tips, interviewing, hiring, recruiting, job interviews, interview questions, behavioral interviewing

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.
* Eleanor Roosevelt

Man, know thyself.
* Socrates

We have always held hope, the belief, the conviction that
there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.
* Franklin Roosevelt

He who loves the world as his body
may be entrusted with the empire.
* Lao-Tzu

Undertake something that is difficult;
it will do you good. Unless you try to
do something beyond what you have
already mastered, you will never grow.
* Ronald E. Osborn

The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up,
and not down; aspires and not despairs.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson

We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year.
But we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in five years.
* Peter Ferdinand Drucker

God will hold us responsible for all the
wonderful things that we have refused to enjoy.
* Anonymous

If I were to begin life again,
I should want it as it was.
I would only open my eyes a little more.
* Jules Renard

Nothing is more endangered in the modern world than the powerful
combination of hard work toward meaningful goals joined with an
exuberant embrace of the present moment.
* Tom Morris

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

For SUCCESS, like HAPPINESS, cannot be pursued,
it is the unintended side effect of one’s personal
dedication to a course greater than oneself.
* Victor Frankl

Good taste is the enemy of creativity.
* Pablo Picasso

Are you excited because things are going well,
or are things going well because you’re excited?
* Anonymous

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.
* Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Perfection does not come from belief or faith.
Talk does not count for anything. Parrots can do that.
Perfection comes through selfless work.
* Swami Vivekananda

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.
* Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I had no vision of the scope of what I would start.
But I had confidence that as long as we did our work well
and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us.
* Sam Walton

Seek self-discipline with all your soul.
Devote yourself to worship and save your soul.
Be grateful that God gave you the gift of self-discipline,
for you had no power over it.
He inspired it within you with the command, “Be!”
* Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

I love you, not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.
* Roy Croft

Do not waste yourself in rejection,
nor bark against the bad,
but chant the beauty of the good.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson

Visit www.Inspiration.RightAttitudes.com for my compilation of inspirational quotations by author and topic. You may also subscribe to the weekly newsletter of inspirational quotations by sending a blank email to iqml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

*Keyword(s): Inspiration, Quotations

“The eyes are the mirror of the soul.”
- A Yiddish Proverb

Our eyes play a major role in our interpersonal communication. The eyes express our moods and reactions more overtly than does other body language. By and large, observant people can attempt to understand our attitudes through the nature of our eye contact, our facial expressions and body language.

When we meet other people, we usually observe their eyes first. When we speak, we tend to look other’s eyes. And, in return, we expect our audience to look at our eyes and pay their undivided attention. Hence, making and keeping good eye contact with others is an important habit.

Trick used by President John F. Kennedy

The Reader’s Digest guide ‘How to Write and Speak Better’ notes a technique used by President John F Kennedy.

When people look and listen they tend to focus on one eye rather than both. Kennedy, however, would look from eye to eye when he listened, softening the expression in his own eyes at the same time, and so giving the impression that he cared greatly about the speaker’s feelings.

Trick: Make a Mental Note of Their Eye Color

The ‘Success Begins Today‘ blog cites a technique from Nicholas Boothman’s book, ‘How to Connect in Business in 90 Seconds or Less.’

Eye contact and smile … it’s a simple courtesy and leads to a relaxed conversation. If you tend to be a shy person, this may be somewhat difficult for you. You may tend to look down or away when greeting someone. This can break the conversation right away.

When you meet or greet someone for the first time, just make a mental note of their eye color. This simple technique is amazingly effective. If you are looking for their eye color you’ll automatically make eye contact for a second or two.

Keeping Eye Contact in Conversations

When people maintain eye contact during a conversation, others usually interpret the eye contact as a sign of interest, confidence, honesty, compassion and sympathy depending on the nature of the conversation. Failure to maintain eye contact may be interpreted as signs of suppression of emotions or truth, distraction, disagreement, confusion, reticence or lack of interest. Further, when people react to blame or accusation or are provoked into defensiveness or aggressiveness, their eye contact increase considerably—often, their pupils dilate.

Individual Differences

Many people, due to innate shyness or cultural background, tend to evade or curtail eye contact. They do not realize that, even if they are sincere and confident, their lack of eye contact could inadvertently communicate insincerity and lack of self-assurance.

Cultural Differences

The amount of eye contact varies dramatically in different cultures. In Asian cultures, for instance, where formal social structures (age, experience, social status, etc.) exist, eye contact with somebody superior can be offending. In some parts of India, men and women do not keep eye contact with their in-laws, out of respect. In most cultures, a longer eye contact while interacting with the other gender may be read as a sign of intimacy and expression of interest.

Gender Differences

• Between men, prolonged eye contact may signal aggression or intent to dominate–especially so during acquaintance or if the men are not completely familiar with each other’s expectations. Although more contact is tolerable as a relationship grows, eye contact needs to be broken often.
• Women tend to maintain better eye contact in conversations with other women–more so with friends and family than with strangers. Generally, women interpret eye contact as a sign of trust and compassion.
• Prolonged eye contact, an intent-look in particular, between men and women may quickly be interpreted as a sign of intimate interest. In the absence of romantic interest, concentrated eye contact must be avoided.

Avoid Staring and Gazing into Somebody’s Eyes

Staring or gazing at other individuals is typically awkward, sometimes intimidating. Never overdo an eye contact. Break eye contact often.

Call for Action: Keep Eye Contact

People who keep good eye contact are usually seen as personable, self-assured and confident. In the context of cultural backgrounds of the people around you, consider what messages your eye contact and body language may be unconsciously communicating about you. A firm handshake and a smile at the onset of a meeting, and eye contact throughout your conversations can establish a good impression of you.

Recommended Reading

• Personal Spaces for Social Interaction: Intimate space, casual space, social space and public space

***See other articles related to Body language, etiquette, personality development, cross-cultural interaction, interaction, interpersonal skills, people skills