my dreamz: July 2012

Thursday, 26 July 2012

How to Shine at an Interview …

Interviews, interviews and interviews…they are the launch of a new job or a career. But most of the times, they are neither uncomplicated nor very pleasing. A job interview is the perfect example when a person faces excitement and pressure at the same time. This strange combination of sentiments can cloud our judgment and tie our tongues.

Perfection is not a man’s trait and many recruitment managers often over look puny interview mistakes. It is, however, important to be prepared to the greatest extent. There are some slip-ups that you can’t afford and there are some ridiculous mistakes that can cast a bad shadow over your abilities and future career.

On the day of your interview, remember to look good and confident and say all the right things. The rest will be fine. Don’t fret and try to think a little before uttering each word.

How to Avoid a Disastrous Interview

Don’t be late:

Make proper arrangements beforehand to ensure that you reach the designated place on time. Getting up earlier than usual for a single day won’t hurt! Don’t leave your dress un-ironed till the eleventh hour; you never know about electricity!

If something unexpected happens and you can’t avoid being late, whether it be a traffic jam or your alarm clock didn’t beat on time, immediately call ahead and inform them that you will be late. Don’t keep them waiting, they might adjust you at some other time or reschedule the meeting for some other day.

Don’t forget your CV and other important material:

Perfectly dressed to please and accompanied with your work bag, you accidentally left the file containing your impressive resumes, well crafted work samples and portfolios in the kitchen. That is bad but can be managed. You must have the CV and portfolios in your email. Try to get them printed before hitting the office for interview.

Handling a Wardrobe Malfunction:

Nearly everyone has faced some wardrobe malfunctioning before important events and moments. Such circumstances are sometimes beyond our control. One might get splashed by a passing by car on the way to the interview. It is quite possible that your crisp shirt ends up looking idiotic as you reach the office. The best thing to do in such circumstances would be to continue with the interview and at the start of it, explain what happened. Your interviewer would rather like you for your sound experience than loathe to your mud speckled shirt.

Be Prepared and Deliberate:

Do necessary research about the company and the people you are about to encounter. Any misinformation regarding them might suggest careless attitude on your part. You just can’t forget the interviewer’s name but if it skips your mind out of sheer nervousness, try to be smart and look at the nameplate on the desk for a clue or search for certificates or credits that might be adorning the walls. In this way you might get through the situation.

If You are a Young Professional…

If you are a fresh graduate, you are not a seasoned professional with decades of experience on the resume and employers are well aware of this fact. They know that your lack of experience will be compensated by the knowledge you have about the current trends and technology. Be confident about who you are. During the interview, you should emphasize on the fact that how enthusiastic you are about learning from the industry leaders on board.

Things Not to Say During an Interview:

When Asked to Introduce Yourself…

This is one of the trickiest yet interesting questions asked during the interview.

Upon this question, you do not need to ruminate on your life. The interviewer is least interested in your life’s intricate particulars. Don’t blurt out the following details.

A brief synopsis about your childhood.
How badly you want this job.
The details of your unstable marital life.
Your religious and political beliefs.

The potential employer certainly is interested in your professional capabilities and not in your personal life. All he wants to make sure is that you can diligently handle the task at hand.

I Hated My Last Boss:

Your last boss was a living misery and the sole purpose of his life was to make the lives of his subordinates miserable. You know this but you potential employers don’t know! Trash talking is a highly frowned upon habit. People do not like back biters in their team. Even if you are rightly speaking, you would not be liked for cursing your boss.

I Don’t Know Anything About the Company:

This is part of the homework that you should be accompanied with while going to an interview. If the interviewer asks why you are interested in this job and you come up with this sort of reply, then it could be easily assumed that all you are after is money and not a career. With today’s swift technology, there is no excuse for this kind of reply except slackness and irresponsible attitude. Google the company’s profile and grab all the important information so that you can justify the reason for your application.

Don’t Talk About Promptness…

Punctuality is a sought after trait. You show up 10 minutes late; most probably it is going to be fine. It is not going to be nice if you suggest afterwards that promptness is your strength. Avoid any such contradictory statements.

Yes, Yes, Yes, No, No!

One word answers are never persuasive. At an interview, it is your task to convince the interviewer that you are the perfect person for the post and you can do a fine job. Even if the question is vague, try hard to answer it in the best possible way. Don’t drone on and on, but avail every chance to prove that you are the person they are hunting for.

Don’t Embellish Your Experience

Don’t go too far on the road of convincing. Be truthful and honest. If you don’t know something the interviewer asks for, fess up and tell him how much you are looking forward to learn the new things. If you brag about qualities you don’t have, chances are that sooner or later the employer will find out. This situation will lead to even worse circumstances; you will certainly not be liked and you might get kicked out!

I’m Going to Need to Take These Days Off:

We all are committed to our personal lives and we all need to fulfill our responsibilities. The potential employer is clearly aware of this fact. Don’t bring up your personal life during the first interview. If you make it to the offer stage, talk about your personal issues and hopes. Talking about your life prior to a job offer will make an impression that either you are self obsessed or too confident that you will get the job.

And Another Thing I Hate…

Don’t scorn in front of a potential employer. Most people want to hear it all sweet and cutesy. Do not present opposing views on subjects that do not matter. It seeds ill feelings and you might get a rejection in the mind of the interviewer. If you don’t agree upon certain things, either say it politely and respectfully or just let it go. After all you want to score this job and have a good working relationship with your boss.

Most Common Interview Blunders:

According to a survey, the following are the errors job seekers make most often:

Using cell phone: 77 percent
Appearing disinterested: 75 percent
Dressing improperly: 72 percent
Appearing haughty: 72 percent
Talking disapprovingly about current or previous employers: 67 percent
Chewing gum: 63 percent

During a job interview, the interviewer seems vicious. Believe me, he does not want to humiliate or mortify you. He just wants to make sure that he does his job flawlessly by choosing the right person for the company. He is certainly not a sadist; his job (recruitment) makes him appear so!

Thanks & Regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
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Tuesday, 24 July 2012

10 predictions for Windows 8, revisited

Back in 2011, I made a series of educated guesses about what we could expect from Windows 8. At the time, there were almost no concrete details available about the new operating system, and I had no inside information. Now that Windows 8 is about to be released, I thought it might be fun to look back at my predictions and see how I did.

1: ARM Support

This one was kind of a gimme. Microsoft had announced that Windows 8 would run on ARM long before I compiled my list of predictions. Technically, however, it isn’t Windows 8 that runs on ARM, but rather a Windows 8 variant called Windows RT.

2: Separation from the server

My second prediction was that Microsoft might have to get away from developing Windows desktop and Windows client in parallel. My reasoning was that the two operating systems were becoming too different, especially with Windows 8 beginning to support ARM processors. Obviously I got this prediction dead wrong. Microsoft designed Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 as a part of the same development cycle.

3: OS on a diet

For as long as I can remember, people have complained that Windows is an overly bloated operating system. In fact, one of the reasons why Windows Vista never caught on was that it was bloated and ran slowly. My prediction was that Microsoft was going to dramatically reduce the size of the Windows 8 operating system. I based the prediction on the idea that the OS would have to run on PCs, ARM devices (such as tablets and phones), and run from a USB flash drive.

We won’t know for sure how large Windows 8 will be until it is released. But I decided to compare the contents of the Windows folder on a machine running Windows 7 Ultimate against the same folder on a machine running the Windows 8 Release Preview. The Windows 7 machine’s Windows folder consumed 21.25 GB of space. That same folder on a Windows 8 machine consumed 10.94 GB of space.

It is worth noting that Microsoft’s stated system requirements for the Windows 8 release preview are 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) of disk space. These are identical to the system requirements for Windows 7.

4: Goodbye to 32-bit support

Pretty much every computer that’s being sold today includes a 64-bit CPU, and this has been the case for quite some time. So I predicted that Windows 8 would not run on 32-bit PCs.

Although I haven’t heard any official confirmation, it seems that Windows 8 will be available in 64-bit and 32-bit editions after all. The public betas have all been available for both 64-bit and 32-bit systems. I have to admit that Microsoft really disappointed me with this one. I thought that we had surely moved past the days of 32-bit computing. On the upside, at least consumers with older systems may still be able to take advantage of the new operating system if they choose.

5: Virtual plugins

My fifth prediction needs a little bit of explaining. I said that Windows 7 was actually a model for Windows 8 in some ways. As you will recall, Microsoft offers something called Windows XP mode in some editions of Windows 7. With Windows XP mode, Windows XP runs as a virtual machine, but in a rather unique way. Users can either use the Windows XP desktop or they can run applications transparently through the Windows 7 desktop, even though those applications are actually running on Windows XP.

My prediction was that Microsoft would use the same model for Windows 8. I thought that instead of providing backward compatibility to legacy operating systems within the Windows a kernel, Microsoft would create virtual instances of legacy operating systems that function as plugins to Windows 8.

Microsoft chose not to design Windows 8 in this way. Instead, it is including Hyper-V in the desktop operating system so that users may use it to run virtual machines.

6: Heavy reliance on the cloud

My sixth prediction was that Windows 8 would be heavily focused on the cloud. After all, over the past couple of years Microsoft has gone all-in with its investment in cloud technology. I predicted that Windows 8 would enable cloud applications appear to users as if they are installed and running locally.

Actually, I feel almost guilty for making this prediction because it was a bit of a no-brainer. It’s also one of the few predictions I got correct. Microsoft is even referring to Windows 8 as a “cloud-enabled OS.”

7: Native support for virtualized apps

My seventh prediction was that Windows 8 would feature native support for sandboxed applications. For example, I predicted that Internet Explorer would run in a sandboxed environment as a way of preventing malicious Web sites from infecting the system.

But rather than designing Internet Explorer to run as a sandboxed virtual application, Microsoft introduced Enhanced Protected Mode and a number of other new security features. One of the big reasons why Microsoft decided not to completely sandbox Internet Explorer was that it wanted to preserve Internet Explorer’s ability to interact with other desktop applications.

8: A bigger distinction between the consumer and the enterprise versions

My eighth prediction was that Microsoft would make the professional version of Windows 8 small and lightweight but would load up the consumer version with lots of extras that aren’t found in the professional version.

In actuality, Microsoft is making a big distinction between the various versions of Windows 8 and Windows RT, but aside from the fact that Windows RT will include Microsoft Office preinstalled, it is the Windows 8 Enterprise Edition that will see the vast majority of the features that aren’t included in other editions. For more details,

9: Hardware to drive software sales

My ninth prediction was that Microsoft would use support for specialized hardware to woo customers back to PC environments. I fully expected Windows 8 to have native support for the Kinect sensor, for example. Even though I seem to have gotten that prediction wrong, one could say that Microsoft has used hardware to drive sales in the form of Microsoft Surface tablets.

10: A new name

My final prediction was that the operating system would not be called Windows 8. Every few years, Microsoft’s marketing team likes to switch things up and rename products, and it just seemed like it was time for Windows to be rebranded. From a PC perspective, I got this prediction wrong. However, the ARM version of Windows 8 was named Windows RT (for Windows Run Time), so I guess I wasn’t completely off base.

Conclusion

I think that the one thing this article proves is that I am not a psychic. By my count, two of my predictions came true, at least four of my predictions were very, very wrong, and the others fell into a grey area somewhere in between.

my dreamz