Getting a job and to continue as a Winner

Job seekers unintentionally make some common mistakes during interviews, which reduces their chances of getting hired. Here are some major interview blunders that you need to avoid:

1. Arriving late: Never be late for your job interview, because it is just inexcusable. We suggest you rather arrive 10 minutes early so that you have enough time to settle in and ease your frayed nerves. Also arriving late means that you are going to enter into the interview looking all sweaty and disturbed hair. So make the most of those extra minutes to present your best self.

2. The wrong dress code: It is very important to be dressed right when you go for an interview. But make sure you find out what the work culture of that organization is like and dress accordingly. Your dress code will also differ according to the post you have applied for. For instance if you have applied for a middle management post, make sure you wear formals with a tie. You don’t need to wear a blazer. Ladies may keep away from loud colors, junk jewelry and revealing clothes.

3. Avoid one-liners: There are some common questions you should be prepared to answer like: What kind of work were you doing in your previous job? Why do you think we should hire you? How can you value add to the company? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your salary expectations? Make yourself comfortable and be sure to elaborate on your experience, skills, and background. Don’t give monosyllable answers like ‘yes or ‘no’ One-liners are conversation stoppers. Your interviewer will not have gleaned any extra information that what you have penned down in your resume.
4. Poor body language: Remember that body language always speaks louder than words. At times an interviewer may pay more attention to how you react to a particular question than to what you actually say. So never ever:

a) Slouch in your chair: The interviewer will think that you are not interested in the job you have applied for.
b) Avoid eye contact: We are not asking you to stare at the interviewer like a psycho, but at least don’t look around while answering the interviewer. Instead maintain eye contact while replying. It shows how confident you are.
c) Sit with your hands crossed.
d) Interrupt the interviewer.

After getting the job it is not the end of the world. One has to be a winner meaning successfully achieving the organization’s tasks while getting the cooperation of peers and where applicable subordinates as well as clients or customers. Given below are some suggestions to achieve this:

Believing in your self when nobody else does is truly difficult but not impossible. So, the first quality needed to be a winner is to believe in yourself and respect your decisions in no matter what you do. Never think negative before you take up a task. Believe in yourself and do good.

While working on an assignment, you need to have a positive attitude. There are chances that you may be criticized for doing good in life. There are equal chances of you being criticized when you do bad. So just do good in life and don’t worry about criticism that ensues.

The fact is winners have better attitude than losers. Also, winners always form the habit of doing things that losers don’t like to do vice versa. Moreover, a winner’s attitude is characterized by his/her self-esteem, a positive outlook of life, a willingness to learn, self-discipline and self-control. Remember, winners persist, losers desist. So decide which category do you fall in. Have a winning attitude.

Commitment is the key factor to be a winner. You should take charge and establish a course of action that will help you achieve your goals. You should be determined not to be side-tracked by outside influences and stay committed towards your goals. Remember, whenever you put your heart and mind in whatever you do, nothing is impossible to achieve. So be serious in life, be committed and you will surely be successful.

A true leader is someone who realizes that there is absolutely no substitute in life for hard work. If you want to succeed in life, the quickest way is to be prompt in volunteering responsibility. You will become a leader soon.

Instead of being upset and harming yourself after you have been rejected, think positively and resolve to reverse your failure into success. Sit down and think about what went wrong and if you manage to lay hands on your folly, try not to repeat that mistake again. Remember, making a mistake is not the end of the world, but realizing and repeating the same mistake is the end of the world. So, take charge of your life and happy winning. Learn from your past experiences.

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Suggestions for improving Performance Evaluation

The performance evaluation process is a potential minefield of problems. For instances, evaluators can unconsciously inflate evaluations (positive leniency), understate performance (negative leniency), or allow the assessment of one characteristics to unduly influence the assessment of others (the halo error). Some appraisers bias their evaluations by unconsciously favoring people who have qualities and traits similar to their own (the similarity error). And, of course, some evaluators see the evaluation process as a political opportunity to overtly reward or punish employees they like or dislike. Although there are no protections that will guarantee accurate performance evaluations, the following suggestions can significantly help to make the process more objective and fair.

Use Multiple Evaluators: As the number of evaluators increase, the probability of attaining more accurate information increases. If rated error tends to follow a normal curve, an increase in the number of appraisers will tend to find the majority congregating about the middle. We often see multiple evaluators in competitions in such sports as diving and gymnastics. A set of evaluators judges a performance, the highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the final evaluation is made up of those remaining. The logic of multiple evaluators applies to organizations as well.

If an employee has had 10 supervisors, 9 having rated her excellent and 1 poor, we can safely discount the one poor evaluation. Therefore, by moving employees about within the organization so as to gain a number of evaluations or by using multiple assessors (as provided in 360-degree appraisals), we increase the probability of achieving more valid and reliable evaluations.

Evaluate Selectively: Appraisers should evaluate only in areas in which they have some expertise. This precaution increases the inter-rater agreement and makes the evaluation more valid process. It also recognizes that different organizational levels often have different orientations towards those being rated and observe them in different settings. In general, therefore, appraisers should be as close as possible, in terms of organizational level, to the individual being evaluated. Conversely, the more levels separate the evaluator and the person being evaluated the less opportunity the evaluator has to observe the individual’s behavior and, not surprisingly, the greater the possibility for inaccuracies.

Train Evaluators: If you can’t find good evaluators, the alternative is to make good evaluators. There is substantial evidence that training evaluators can make them more accurate raters.

Common errors such as halo and leniency have been minimized or eliminated in workshops where managers practice observing and rating behaviors. These workshops typically run from 1 to 3 days, but allocating many hours to training may not always be necessary. One case has been cited in which both halo and leniency errors were decreased immediately after exposing evaluators to explanatory training sessions lasting only 5 minutes. But the effects of training appear to diminish over time. This suggests the need for regular refresher sessions.

Provide Employees with Due Process: The concept of due process can be applied to appraisals to increase the perception that employees are being treated fairly. These features characterize due process systems: (1) Individuals are provided with adequate notice of what is expected of them; (2) all evidence relevant to a proposed violation is aired in a fair hearing so the individual affected can respond and (3) the final decision is based on the evidence and free of bias.

There is considerable evidence that evaluation systems often violate employees’ due process by providing them with infrequent and relatively general performance feedback, allowing them little input into the appraisal process, and knowingly introducing bias into performance ratings. However, when due process has been part of the evaluation systems, employees report positive reactions to the appraisal process, perceive the evaluation results as more accurate, and express increased intent to remain with the organization.

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Careers available in the field of geography

Geography is one of those subjects we all studied in school, but it’s a rare few who actually dreamed of making a career in it. Today, however, expertise on locations and climatic conditions can land you a well-paying job. The avenues in geography have opened up not only internationally, but also in our country. Below, here we have given careers available in the field of geography today.

GIS (geographic information systems) is the new knowledge source in these times when the travel is getting easier. GIS captures, stores, analyses, manages, and presents data about any given location. The GIS specialist works at mapping the location according to the requirements of the projects. For example, GIS can enable disaster management planners to calculate response times in the event of an emergency. GIS can help identify locations that need protection from pollution. It could be used by a company to best situate a new business so as to take maximum advantage of a previously underserved market. A GIS professional needs to remain up-to-date on the latest software in the field. The earnings would more than pay back the effort put in.

At present, there between 15,000 and 20,000 geographers in the country. More than 80% of them are in academia. But for those with a penchant for exploration, there are more possibilities than before to go back to the traditional geographer’s path. Studying nature and relating and interpreting interactions of physical and cultural phenomena can yield enough good research material to fill up a book. One can conduct research focused on the physical aspects of a region, including land forms, climates, soil, plants, and animals. The resulting data could be of use to private or government bodies. Likewise research on the interdependence between regions on scales ranging from the local to the global can be undertaken. This job profile would require extensive travel, and the ability to be out in the field for long periods-ideal for those who love the outdoors.

Environment conservation is already a high priority, and it will only rise in the future. It has spurred thousands of government and non-government programs. If you combine a geography honors degree with a qualification in environmental studies, you can be part of those efforts. The job profile would call upon you to plan strategies for working with existing assets in an optimal way. There is a demand for such expertise in the private sector, too, as environmental concerns become increasingly integral to business strategy. As an environmental management expert, you would focus on resource management, natural area management, and environmental issues in policy and implementation.

As a geography major, you could focus your training and skills on preparing for emergency management. As India becomes more conscious of the need to have extensive disaster management plans in place, this emerging field is in constant need of new recruits at the national and state level. The job would call on you to plan for emergencies by charting disasters that could potentially affect a given location, and in formulating a plan to avert or respond to them. Preparedness, response and recovery would all benefit from a geographers opinion. Disaster management is a concern of most governments and many private organizations and a geography major can expect to be involved at the higher levels of planning and management.

Bureaucrats opt for geography at the post graduate level-to improve their prospects for the civil services. Civil services also demand planning abilities. A sound understanding of your region in terms of environment, location and livelihood issues would stand you in good stead as a bureaucrat.

The role of an urban planner is to try to avoid or minimize congestion, and to ensure that all sections of the population have access to parks, recreation, and open space. Planners work closely with builders to ensure that cities develop within the limits of the master plan. A lot of geographical information is necessary to do all this.

With combined qualifications in geography and tourism, you would be able to better prepare travelers about what kind of clothes to wear, what sights to see. Travel agents also need to be knowledgeable about the unique features of various destinations, such as mountains, valleys, and glaciers, as well as potential dangers to travelers.

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DUBAI – PROJECTS

The following are some of the world class projects in Dubai

PALM ISLAND

Three artificial islands in the shape of palm trees will shelter nearly 500 apartments, 2 000 villas, 25 hotels and 200 shops of luxury.  Palm Jumeirah, the most advanced, will be completed as of the end of 2005.  Hundred twenty-five kilometers of coast additional will be thus created.

THE WORLD

The World. With broad of Dubaï, nearly 300 artificial islands, seen sky will form a planisphere.  If you want to acquire one of these islands, it will cost some to you between 6,2 to 36,7 million dollars.  Work of fill, already begun, should be completed at the end of 2005.

DUBAI WATERFRONT

Advancing on water of the Gulf, this whole of islands in the shape of crescent will extend on 81 square KMs.  Becoming the greatest sea front in the world, it détrône thus the island from Manhattan in New York

OLD TOWN

It is the final district of the building site located at the foot of the tower Burj Dubai.  This great real complex will include the highest tower of the world, the greatest shopping centre of the world as well as a gigantic residential district.

HYDROPOLIS

Entirely assembled in Germany, this underwater hotel will be immersed with broad of Dubai at the end of 2006.  It will comprise 220 continuations whose panoramic windows will give on sea-beds.  The price of a room for the night would rise with 500 dollars.
www.crescent-hydropolis.com

BURJ DUBAI

This phenomenal tower from which construction began last January and will end in 2008 should reach the 800 meters height.  The building, built in three parts around a central column, finishes in spiral.  It will count 160 stages.

MADINAT AL ARAB

Here the representation of the one of the districts of the future greater sea front in the world, Dubai Waterfront.  This sight accounts for the architectural ambition and the spectacular development of real constructions with Dubaï.

DUBAI MARINA

The new city, of a total cost of 10 billion dollars, will be built on a way of artificial navigation of 4,5 km.  It will be able to lodge 120 000 people.  Three principal towers will be set up and will bear the name of      Arab perfumes.

DUBAI  SPORTS CITY

This immense sporting complex of 7.5 km² will accomodate sports such as the cricket, the golf, Rugby, football, the sports of ground, track, and interior (tennis shoe, handball, volley ball).  Hotels, residences and villas are also envisaged.

GOLDEN DOME

With its 455 m height and its 2,2 million m² of total surface, it will be one of bulkiest and higher buildings of the world.  It will shelter 500 000 m² offices, commercial spaces like 3 000 residential apartments.

DUBAI LAND SKI DOME

This ski resort indoor, will comprise inter alia a directional ski piste and tracks of snowboard (with 6 000 tons of true snow).  “Pinguinarium”, aquariums four seasons, spa cold and hot… are also envisaged
with the program.

SPACE SCIENCE WORLD

Space is one of the subjects exploited in the immense park with topics of Dubailand which has the ambition to become the largest tourist park and of attractions in the world.

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