Seven Things Never, Ever To Say In A Job Interview

While it is difficult to find a job, the tougher task is to crack the interview. Interviews can be a nerve-racking experience for most of the job seekers. The very thought of facing a panel of professionals throwing up one question after another can give jitters to some.

While it is important to know what to say in an interview, equally essential is to know the statements that can be the ultimate deal-breakers.

1) Overconfidence is a big no-no

Overconfidence is a big no-no during the course of an interview. While exhibiting confidence is very important, you should also know when and where to draw the line as showing overconfidence will only annoy your interviewer. Experts say one must not seem arrogant during an interview.

2) Don't bad-mouth about the people you have worked with

There is no harm in expressing your thoughts, but do think once before making negative comments about the people you have worked with previously. There might be a need to refer to a person in various contexts, in pleasant or unpleasant ways, but make sure to not sound negative in your actions words. Bad-mouthing will only ruin your chances at the interview.

3) Say no to distraction

While appearing for a job interview, make sure you look sincere. Getting distracted by answering calls or texts will not leave a good impression on the interviewer. Distraction makes a candidate appear uninterested in the job.

4) Beware of a negative attitude

Complaining is never considered worthy. A job seeker should never talk negatively about their previous organisation. It is regarded as unprofessional and sets off an alarm bell in the mind of the next employer, prompting them to wonder whether the candidate may have difficulty in workplace relationships.

Candidate should only focus on what they have learned in their previous organisations without painting the employer in a negative light.

5) Do not mark a false impression

Remember the saying 'the first impression is the last impression'. This holds true in a job interview too. Experts believe that few companies' heads still believe in first impressions.

Candidates generally end up answering the questions thrown at them, what matters to the employer is your passion for work, details, skills and experience. Market yourself better to get the best deal.

6) Don't slip into altered behaviour

Those who put in an extra effort during the interview to please and appease the interviewer may end up modifying their responses and not being who they are.

The stress of not having a job in hand can cause this altered behaviour. This is a major mistake because this way you are trying to be someone else and ultimately end up losing the job to someone else.

7) Don't try to retrofit yourself to the role

One thing people do is ask for the role and declare themselves as the right fit for the role. Many people tend to do this across functions and levels, usually because of their anxiety. It is not for the candidate to ask about the role and then prove they are the right person for the job.

The expectation from the candidate is to present a clear picture of their adaptability and core competency. Do not try to retrofit your previous experience with that of the role you are interviewing for. Roles and their execution change from organisation to organisation.

Focus on the skills and competencies you bring to the table and leave it to the interviewer to assess whether it is the right competency for the role.

UBS to hire 3,000 people in India

Swiss money-management giant UBS will double headcount in India to 3,000 people by the end of this calendar year, group chief financial officer Kirt Gardner told.

The world’s largest wealth manager is shifting its strategy from outsourcing to setting up captive centres in India to house key processes in functions as crucial as finance and accounts, branding and marketing, and human resources, Gardner said. “India is a significant part of our talent and technology strategy. We are setting up more captive centres here with the addition of a new one in Pune.”

UBS already has two captive centres in Mumbai and Pune. The bank is also ‘studying’ regulatory developments that could pave way for it to re-establish a wealth management presence in the market, according to Gardner, though he did not elaborate on the timing or the construct within which it could offer these services.

Stock market regulator Sebi, through a circular on February 15 titled “easing access norms for foreign portfolio investors”, said it would allow wealth management arms of private banks to invest in securities on behalf of their offshore clients.

“We are impressed with the ease of doing business in India in the past three years and consider this to be a strategic market for us,” Gardner told. To be sure, he cautioned that while the overall outlook on India remained positive, the outcome of general elections next year was being closely monitored by investors.

“We went through an exercise in 2012 to streamline our capital footprint. We pulled out of a lot of structured and fixed income businesses and streamlined our rates footprint and credit footprint,” Gardner said.

The bank, which manages more than $2 trillion of assets for wealthy individuals and families, said it was noticing key trends that included wealthy Indians diversifying investments globally, showing interest in buying blockchain companies and becoming conscious about sustainability and philanthropy.

UBS expects near-term volatility in equity markets to continue due to economic as well as geopolitical factors such as protectionism.

"Asia will continue to remain the engine of global economic growth", Gardner said, backing his claim by saying that the Asian region had become the second highest contributor to profits for the bank’s global wealth management unit, beating Europe.

JobBuzz Launches Workplace Index to Rank Indian Employers

Company review and rating platform JobBuzz announces the launch of its monthly workplace assessment index – JobBuzz Workplace Index which studies critical workplace elements in India Inc.The index will assess the top new-age employers on critical workplace factors. This monthly report will mirror the aspirations of employees from their employers versus the workplace that employers provide them with.

Commenting on the conceptualisation of the JobBuzz Workplace Index, Sanjay Goyal, head of product, technology and marketing. TimesJobs said, “The survey and their answers reflect the sentiments of corporate India. It hints at the critical pieces that employers should watch out for when communicating with employees. We hope, that in the coming times, this report becomes an essential tool-kit for both the employers and employees.”

The JobBuzz ‘Best new-age workplace’ study revealed that there are top 5 factors which matter most to employees while joining an organisation including brand name; company culture; competitive salary; diversity and inclusion and rewards and recognition.

The index is the definitive benchmarking tool for employers to measure their progress on various workplace aspects, such as salary, work-life balance, career growth and workplace culture. It also serves as an employer assessment tool for the job-"s and serves as a ‘best place to work’ guide to them.

The report for August 2017 names the automobiles sector as the best employer. It scores well across all the critical workplace aspects. However, the sector scores best on the work culture aspect.

Infrastructure and manufacturing sector have a tie for the second position, while, telecom and retail sectors ranked third on the workplace index in August 2017.

"The need to understand the evolving workplaces better with the aim to provide meaningful information to both employees and employers was critical in creating the JobBuzz Workplace Index. The Workplace Index benchmarks the key elements of a workplace and recognises those sectors which are creating an inclusive workplace for the new-age job" said Goyal.

The JobBuzz Workplace Index is a compilation of employee ratings from across a selection of companies varying in size, geography and industry on various critical workplace parameters. The index value has been kept at 100. The percentages are an indicator of ratings being provided by the employees on JobBuzz for their respective companies. These percentages are an indicator of happiness quotient of employees. 

Tata Communications to hire 400 people to cyber security services

Tata Communications the provider of telecommunications solutions and services, will hire 400 people and invest $50 million in its cyber security services business in the next three years, as companies look to combat the rise in cyber crime and data theft in India.

Tata Communications puts software, appliances, hardware together to make a solution for enterprises to protect their information from cyber security risks.

“Lot of companies generate a lot more data. All of them are on social media, run marketing, digital campaigns. There is a lot more thrust for companies to be online. They have the same cyber security challenges that individuals have,” Srinivasan CR, Senior Vice President of Global Data Center Services & CDN business, Tata Communications.

It's managed security division currently accounts for less than 10 percent of revenue but is growing at more than 50 percent a year. The company expects revenue contribution from the division will be in the double digits by 2020.

“Indian market is fairly nascent because cyber security awareness is growing. It is beginning to be seen an important thing in India. Earlier it used to be after thought or was ignored. It is now being taken seriously with all the discussions happening around Aadhaar, privacy and right to data, ownership of data” said Srinivasan.

The Indian market is about $200 million comprising of hardware and software applications versus the global market of $130 billion, according to Srinivasan. Addressable market in India would be about $40-$50 million at present but is growing fast.

“Banking, financial and insurance companies are a big spender on security because banking data is the most critical data we ought to protect. Their budget allocation for security is very high. It is a big focus for us,” he added.

Tata Communications will invest in building capability in risk and compliance, cloud security, identity and access management, analytics to predict cyber-attacks and network and infrastructure security.

It will hire cyber security talent with expertise and experience in application, software development, analytics, big data and cyber security consultants. 80 percent of the 400 new hires will be based in India while the rest will help the company expand geographic footprint in the Middle East, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. At present, the company has about a workforce of 100 cyber security experts in the division.

India was one of the many countries severely hit by global cyber-attacks like WannaCry and Petya ransomware recently. The cost of cyber-attacks in India currently stands in excess of $4billion. The losses are a result of leakage of sensitive information, operational disruption, impact on brand image and possible legal proceedings.

More than 50,300 cyber security incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and denial of service attacks were observed in India last year, according to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team.

More than 60 per cent of the software used by companies in India is unregulated which poses a threat of cyber attacks, according to business practices firm EY.

Flipkart is hiring talent Engineers in 2017

After an exodus of the senior management from the company over the past year, online marketplace Flipkart is now hiring to strengthen its engineering team. The company will focus on hiring mid-management employees in three core areas for engineering including mobile experience, cloud infrastructure and personalization.

The renewed focus on hiring comes after a year of high-profile exits from the company who were recruited during 2015. Close to six senior vice-presidents and directors have left the company since January when Tiger Global's Kalyan Krishnamurthy took over as chief executive officer. Since January, the company has seen the return of old hands to helm key operations for supply chain of mobile phones, grocery among others.

The current focus is on hiring engineers with typically two to five years of experience, which is a key area of investment for the company. Flipkart will also hire contract workers to strengthen the operations of its captive logistics unit Ekart.Engineering will drive our innovation edge. The assumption is that e-commerce industry is driven by capital, but it is (actually) driven by innovation. We are proud to have a truly world-class engineering function which is a source of innovation. The first investment is to grow that," said Nitin Seth, chief operating officer of Flipkart.

We will strengthen the two to five-year experience layer, with cutting-edge expertise. They will come from both India and overseas as well," said Seth, adding that while focus on engineering did not waver over the past year, the lay-offs in 2016 were done to improve speed and efficiency rather than as a cost-cutting measure by the company

Apart from improving the experience on mobile, the teams will focus on building the company's cloud infrastructure and focus on research areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, artificial intelligence and other areas of data science to make shopping on the platform a personalized experience.

With about a billion-dollar coming its way as part of the recent round of funding, the company is also looking to strengthen its sourcing for key categories including lifestyle, large appliances and furniture as well as the new category for grocery. The company, which has a workforce of 7,800 employees on its rolls, has around 240 members in the top management. This does not include the numbers for Flipkart-owned fashion verticals, Myntra and Jabong.

In 2015, we made a big shift. There was a large influx of new leaders and it got difficult for the company to fully absorb. The Flipkart culture, which is a very distinct culture, got diffused with the size and the suddenness of the change. When I joined last year, it was about strengthening FK culture," said Seth.