5 tricks for spotting a bad boss during a job interview

A job interview isn't just about what the employer thinks of the applicant. Job applicants have to make sure they feel comfortable with their prospective boss, too.

The most significant cause of workplace unhappiness isn't salary or vacation days, it's having a bad boss.

A bad boss, according to leadership experts, is often unkind, micro-manages employees, is a bad communicator, is absent, doesn't really seem to care about employees' well-being or is guilty of all of the above.

Here are five things to look out for in a job interview that can help you spot a bad boss:

1. You had a bad gut feeling

Psychologist Amy Cooper Hakim, an expert on employer-employee relationships, encourages professionals to pay attention to their innate reaction.

"Go with your gut," she tells. "If you feel uncomfortable during the interview, there's probably a reason why."

"Does she not make direct eye contact when speaking? Does she appear 'too busy' for you?," says Hakim, co-author of "Working With Difficult People."

Managers who come across as arrogant or say things like "that's the way things are done around here" may very well end up being micro-managers or impolite, she says.

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Tips To Get Your CV Noticed By Recruiters

In order to help you make your resume stand out among others, here's a list of rules that can guide you in building the perfect CV:

Any candidate, irrespective of experience, usually comes across that one tedious task of updating their curriculum vitae (CV) or resumes while looking for a new job. Most of them take the easy route by following a standard template taken off from the internet, and try to fill one or two pages with everything they have accomplished in life. They put all their hopes in actually getting called for an interview and then getting a chance to explain everything they have done so far.

However, in reality, it does not work that way. Nowadays, with rampant competition seen across multifarious sectors and industries, it has become extremely important for job aspirants to stay au courant of latest hiring trends, and update their CVs to improve their chances of securing a good job.

Consider this: If you were to visit any good job portal in the country and find a suitable job, there will still be a strong possibility that over hundred other job seekers may have already applied for that job role. In such cases, what is the incentive for the HR at that company to even look over your resume, let alone call you for an interview?

In order to help you make your resume stand out among others, here's a list of rules that can guide you in building the perfect CV:

Get the basics right:

Ripping off that standard template for CVs from the internet is perfectly okay as long as you keep it simple and to the point. Avoid using fancy designer resume templates unless you are actually applying for a job in graphic designing. Make sure you use a simple format with a simple font, bullet points, readable font size, bold headings, and perfect indentation. Double check to remove any spelling or grammatical errors.

Remember, nothing puts off a recruiter more than a resume that doesn't have these basics in place. Do this well, and we assure you that unless someone has already been hired for the job you want, the recruiter will definitely give your CV a quick glance.

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Job Surge For People With Niche IT Skills

People with certain niche tech skills can expect a surge in opportunities at startups, with more than 5,000 jobs likely to be created this year, according to estimates from Nasscom, placement firms, startups and venture capital funds. 

The demand for data analysts, machine learning/artificial intelligence experts, UX/UI (user experience/user interface) designers, cybersecurity and product development experts is outstripping supply. Salaries for these roles are rising, in some cases by up to 50%. 

“Building talent pool with critical tech skills is a priority at startups as they are now focused on building scale and value,” said Nasscom senior vice president Sangeeta Gupta. “With over 1,000 startups being created every year, the demand would be about 5,000 to 8,000 (jobs) for techies.” 

Pay is up as talent is scarce. “This year, the salaries for tech talent at startups would see an upward revision of at least 50%,” Gupta said. However, raises will be limited to product and technology teams at startups, said Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice president, TeamLease. “Salaries for non-tech/general skills at startups would remain flat,” she said. 

Those in demand are people with four-six years of work experience with annual salaries of Rs10-20 lakh. Companies are looking at engineering resumes with that sort of experience in the software development space across functions, said Siby Joseph of ManpowerGroup India. 

At the top end, say for big data scientists, salaries can exceed Rs 1crore. The trend was confirmed in conversations with executives at half-adozen startups and a few venture capitalists. 

Startups such as LimeRoad, BankBazaar, MobiKwik, Razorpay, Voonik and InMobi are busy hunting for such workers across all levels while VCs like IvyCap Ventures and White UnicornBSE 0.00 % Ventures are helping their portfolio companies hire such people. Placement firms including ManpowerGroup, Kelly and TeamLease echoed this theme. 

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How to Explain Employment Gap to Future Employer?

Landing a dream job is a daunting task in itself, and when there are employment gaps on your resume, needless to say, it becomes even more challenging. Explaining employment gaps in a resume is probably one of the worst nightmares of job seekers.

However, it is also a universal fact that many employees do have gaps on their resumes. And this gap can be owing to several reasons – family problems, health issues, being laid off or may be a sabbatical.

Whatever be the reason, explaining employment gaps in a resume is a bummer for job seekers, and it must be taken note of. While of late perceptions have started changing and in many cases, employers do not always enquire about employment gaps, but job seekers should always be prepared to answer questions about gaps in their resume if any.

So, as a job seeker, how do you do that? What convincing reasons do you come up with while explaining the gaps in your resume? Described below are five tips. Have a look:

1. Emphasise why you left your previous organization

Instead of focusing too much on the employment gap, try and focus as to why you left your last company. The reasons can be varied—right from company issues to personal matter and sometimes, unusual cases like—you did not gel well with your manager, or the job role did not suit you. Whatever be the reason, make sure you can answer convincingly and confidently. Understand, the employer would rather be impressed by your confidence more than being put off by the real employment gap.

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Xiaomi To Create 20,000 Jobs In India

Chinese technology major Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun on Monday said India was one of the important markets for the company and it aims to create 20,000 jobs in the next three years. In his address at the Economic Times Global Business Summit 2017, Lei said that the company has made major strides in a very short time. He also spoke about China’s “Internet Plus” policy which “the Chinese premier started in 2015″.”

“Internet plus action plan is a new form of economic plan where internet is integrated with traditional industries encouraging to the spirit of excellence in these industries and drive economic growth,” he said, adding the policy elevates internet to become the most important engine of growth for China’s economy and Xiaomi is one of the companies to adopt it.

Earlier on Monday, Lei said after its success in the online market in India, the company wants to take its offline presence much higher by increasing its market share to 50 per cent of Xiaomi’s total sales.

Xiaomi’s current portfolio in India reveals that about 90 per cent of its sales are from online channels, while less than 10 per cent is offline.

As of today, Xiaomi ships its products to around 14,000 pin codes — close to 40 per cent of the country’s total — every single week.”

“This clearly highlights our presence in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. As we increase our focus on offline sales, we will further increase our penetration in these markets,” Xiaomi Vice President and Xiaomi India Managing Director Manu Jain told IANS.

“We are now present in more than 8,500 stores via our innovative offline distribution network. Last year was indeed a great year and we achieved several milestones while building our India story,” he added.

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JKPSC Medical Officers Recruitment

Jammu and Kasmir Public Service Commission has come up with government jobs opening of Medical Officers in Department of Health & Medical Education. The candidates who are looking for JKPSC Medical Officers should apply online through the online format available at the official website of JKPSC. The aspirants are advised to go through the detailed advertisement for checking out the eligibility details for online registration.

The registration form will be available from April 1, 2017 and will close on May 1, 2017. The candidates who find themselves interested and eligible for JKPSC Medical Officers Recruitment 2017 should not miss the chance to apply online. The interested candidates should have required educational qualification and age limit, which has been mentioned in the official notification. Candidates should apply online before the last date.

Important Dates for JKPSC Medical Officers Recruitment 2017

Start Date to Apply Online: 01-04-2017

Last Date to Apply Online: 01-05-2017

Last Date for Submission of fee/bank challan: 03-05-2017

Details of Posts for JKPSC Medical Officers Recruitment 2017

Total No. of Posts: 371

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5 Networking Tips For Beginners

Getting your career off the ground is not easy. When you’re new to a job, a company, or an industry — or maybe all of the above — there is a lot to learn. But, what you lack in experience you make up for in effort and enthusiasm. Still, beginners often struggle with networking, and it’s an important part of launching your career and building your professional identity in earnest. So, here are some quick tips to help you get started.

1. Always be polite, humble, and professional.

You need to demonstrate the right attitude and observe proper etiquette when forging new professional connections, especially when you’re first getting started. You might feel excited to try to impress higher-ups and veteran colleagues with your ideas and perspectives, and that’s great. But, you also want to do a lot of listening. Demonstrate humility. Say thank you. And, be sure to be professional throughout your interactions with potential new members of your network. You want others to take you seriously; so, demonstrate that you take them, and the work, seriously too by projecting a professional attitude and energy whenever you interact.

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