The questions that arent asked in interviews

What is it that you are looking for in your next job (pick one)?

1. More Money
2. Better Benefits
3. Different Culture
4. Growth and Opportunity

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer.  Rather, the interviewee’s answer will reveal what motivates them in the workplace.  Now, the magic of the question isn’t the answer, but how the answer matches or contrasts your company’s culture and environment.

More here

Normal Distribution : Performance grading bell curve

Yet another post bashing the Great Intellectual Fraud as Nassim Nicholas Taleb would put it.

"The problem with organizations that have only adopted the bell curve — and not the rest of the integrated process — is that they end up forcing differentiation by the numbers. Managers start with the formula instead of performance. This formulaic approach reverses the basic assumption that all people have the capacity to achieve stretch performance and continue to grow and develop. Instead, focusing on the curve gives the demoralizing message that only a few people can be successful, and the rest will be average or less. And if managers expect their people to perform at average levels (or worse), they will. It’s a reverse Pygmalion Principle: People will perform downward to meet the lowered expectations. If they know that true performance and achievement will not make a difference in their ratings and their future, why bother? And for those that do want to really achieve and make a difference, they will look for an organization that is more like GE and will truly reward stretch performance."

Link here

Coming of age

Very pleased to see India come out in full strength and get 6 medals in the Olympics.

Lots of positives. Strengthened the belief that in shooting, India is becoming a rival to reckon with. Reinforced the belief of strength in wrestling [good job Yogeshwar!. Ofcourse Sushil too], a few glaring errors in refreeing in boxing but nevertheless a medal. A surprise in badminton [honestly, I didnt expect that]

Hockey was disappointing in the sense they should have finished 6/7... not 12.

Joydeep Karmakar will take a lot of positives from this. Too bad to miss it by a small bit - but all this helps in the future competitions. He should / will take heart from this.

Surprisingly, we found 2 final entries in discus too... track and athletics - something that India has failed to do for a very long time. Brilliant there too.

Tennis was poor but it was sort of expected too [atleast I thought it wasnt a medal chance]. In badminton, P Kashyap should take a lot of confidence and positive attitude from this olympics.

Overall, an outstanding Olympic and they did surpass my personal expectation [my personal belief was this: "5 medals in 2012 and they have come of age"]. Simple fantastic.

Now for more focus and target 10+ medals in Rio. Rio, here we come.

Boucher Retires

What a guy. what a man. He is truly one of the greats of the game to ever have graced the cricket field.


"The symmetry of the numbers, too, would have intrigued those who believe in planetary alignment. The third Test of the series would have been his 150th and last, at the home of cricket. But now there will always be something slightly Bradmanesque about his record international haul of 999 international dismissals."


Link here

End of days for Gupta?

Hope he gets his 110 years in prison.

"From 3:13pm to 3:53pm on September 23, 2008, Gupta participated in a Goldman board meeting conducted over a conference call from his office at McKinsey & Co., where he had once served as CEO, Tarlowe explained.  Within seconds of ending the board meeting, Gupta called Rajaratnam’s direct line at Galleon, the prosecutor went on, which was available to a select few people.  Immediately after their call ended at 3:56pm, Rajaratnam ordered one of his traders to purchase 100,000 shares of Goldman.  A minute later, he ordered a more senior trader at Galleon to purchase an additional 250,000 shares – the combined purchases were worth about $43 million.  No one else other than Gupta called Rajartnam’s direct line during the last ten minutes of trading on that day, Tarlowe added.  And the size of the trade went well beyond Galleon’s trading parameters.  News of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment in Goldman became public well after trading closed on that day"


Link here