3 strengths that answer why should we hire you?

Almost ten years into professional life, having been answering twenty to thirty interview calls per year on an average, the question which I still feel the toughest in an interview is “Why should we hire you?” It has always been a puzzle since the time I started my career: Should I start answer it with the subject matter qualifications or should I get along explaining personal strengths I possess? I found there is no perfect answer; as it is apt to say, the situation demands the type of response. But for the most times, as I think, one should start answering this question by discussing their strengths and weaknesses clubbed with anecdotes to give the bigger picture of themselves, so that making an interviewer’s job less hectic.

In simple, I would say practice picking up keywords with respect to strengths and weaknesses that mentioned in your portfolio (to make employers know a little more on some of your important characteristics and how are they going to help their organization), which have continuously been a driving force for you while approaching a professional task. I feel those could be the best possible reasons that answer why an employer should hire you and me as well. Some of those strengths are:

Adaptability: This particular strength can possibly help an interviewer learn how easy you (interviewee) are to gel up with the working conditions and with the team. In my case, I have worked for various industries since the time I took up writing as a career.

Workplace Anecdotes: “since 2002, the year I have started my career, I’ve worked for various industries viz. Dotcom, IT, and Rich Media. The people were different. And so was their approach to arrive at a task done. Irrespective of the industry I was working for, I tried to be suitable to organization’s culture and working conditions at any given point of time and know what! I am happy with what I have been experiencing at work, so far.”

Adverbial: ‘Adverbial’ could be one of the best possible reasons why an employer should hire you as it showcases the flexibility and learning curve of you (an employee) or his/her ability to move around irrespective of organizational hierarchy. It might not be understood by all as it sounds more linguistic while reading and hence I had given a lot of thought before correlating with strengths and weaknesses. However, I am pretty sure that it fits any portfolio with ease for its best possible ability of fitting anywhere irrespective of hierarchy.

Digging deep into its roots, to my little knowledge adverb, by large, is the only section of parts of speech in English language which has the ability to move around in a sentence, refer to position of adverbs. Before the main verb; as a mediator as in between the auxiliary and main verb; and (or) after the verb used to. But wherever it is, it works hand in hand with the main verb. 

Workplace Anecdotes: Once, I was ordered to look after on-page optimization techniques of one of our employers’ website for a very short period. But my interview-time responsibilities were to take up writing related to tasks only i.e. related to content writing. Instead of being reluctant to take up the task out of my job, in a quick gesture, I took up the challenge and had proven a point to my manager that put me in any position; I will work towards the best practices of an organization.

On the contrary, I will not recommend this specific trait for everyone as some may feel that it is not wise to change your mind set for someone’s sake. Many feel, sometimes, it may mislead your career but, I would say, often times it will help you to be resourceful and could save you at layoff times. 

Go-Getter Attitude: Most times what any employer would look for in an employee is the latter’s attitude towards work; the go-getter attitude. Organizations not only look for the loyalists but also the doer’s. Show that killer act which you have achieved. It’s not such an alien thing. Everyone, indeed, has it in-built – the zeal to accomplish. You just have to show that up to your interviewer. You might have walked a tight rope while solving an issue; you might have helped someone to solve something; or, at least might have tried something against the mundane to get the work done. Just brush up your memory and put up the best possible go-getting situation you’ve experienced professionally to be productive and deliverable as well.

For instance, I would proudly say that I am deliverable looking at my track record as…

Workplace Anecdotes: A couple of years ago, while I was working with Suchirindia Group, we had to develop a microsite for a proposed sky scrapper in Sri Lanka. The brief given was nothing but a few words; about what and all the facilities would come up and on which floor. And the time we were given was just 24 hours. I must say, the task was completed with 8 hours in hand, that too with a green signal from our CEO.

Ending note: Instead of cutting the conversation right away, make it a justified one. Sum it up and try to pacify the interviewer by putting up the answer he is looking for. Give him/her the bottom-line why you have chosen those strengths to be discussed and felt that are the best reasons why one should hire you. I would probably say: “With the strengths discussed above, I am not trying to boast up my mettle but would like to assure you that my stint with XYZ (particular organization) is going to be a qualitative and fruitful for me and that particular organization as well.” 

That’s it. Have a great interview call ahead. Good Luck. Cheers!!!

My opinion on this topic might differ with yours. If it does so, I shall request you: kindly post your opinion below.

How symbolization and Iconization of human expressions pushing us back to Stone Ages?

It was relatively a difficult situation a couple of years ago - when mobile had stormed the telecommunications market - to express what exactly one was going through while texting the other person located miles away. Isn't it? Of course, it is. 

We had to type in various mathematical function keys to make up the expressions like happy ( :-) ) or unhappy (:-(). Gone were those days where we literally had to enter _/\_ these keys for simple gesture of Namaste.  

Back then, when mobile usage was still in its early days, creating emoticons wasn't that easy as one had thought of. One should got to have a lot of creativity to express their feelings through symbols. 

Intention with invention combined with permutation and combination along with logic - every calculative and creative aspect was considered to make the human expressions come alive while texting.

For example, colon, semicolon, comma, dash, individual use of parentheses brackets, underscore, greater than, lower than, and the symbol of by were used in combination to make human expressions such as happy, unhappy, sarcasm, kiss, winking. Expressions were symbolized.

Later, with the growing popularity of symbols the think tank of various mobile app creators had further expanded their creative ability to iconize the day-to-day mundane actions of a normal human being: reading, sipping coffee, jogging, listening to music, commuting, air travelling, etc.

One such beneficial action icon provider is Viber which offers almost a dozen of new action symbols with its each and every new version.  Nevertheless, the annoying factor over here is its routine remainders about app updation. Pretty good feature for younger generation who often get annoyed with routine questions from their loved ones. "where are you?" "what you doing?"

Though I personally admire these emoticons/action icons, what I am afraid of is the sense of loosing personal touch and the burgeoning sluggishness among the youth. The increased mobile usage had already impacted the human brain causing the latter's ability to remember things diminishing day by day. And with the impact of these icons and expressions, the ability to text - with proper spelling and punctuations - too, expected to be lessen. 

Gen Z, kindly be aware of the destruction just around the corner.  Our mental ability of remembering things, leading civilized and cultured life, the language and the letters may sound alien to us.

Going forth, it might even lead the entire human kind to settle down for Icon language as we did in stone ages: gesturing each action.

Find meticulously done Infograph (on some of such early-in emoticons and action icons) we have found on visual.ly. Kindly go through it.

On an ending note, we are opinionated on emoticons. If it differs with your opinion, we are open for conversation. Keep tracking us. 

4 reasons that make me go against AP bifurcation?

Following views are entirely my own. Neither I support one single region nor I am against anyone's emotion. If you feel so, kindly don't read it. I have all the freedom to put my views into my blog. I am opinionated; Andhra Pradesh (as a whole) is such a beautiful State India should be proud of, rather supporting the evil thought of bifurcating the State.

First and foremost, Andhra Pradesh is not at all an underdeveloped State. Its capital, Hyderabad, is one such a rapidly developed and developing Information Technology arena, if someone allows me in rarest of the interpretations, that it was indeed one of the destinations that made every computer engineer in the country swarm-in to build their dream careers.

With retrospection, I questioned myself (what else a common man can do in India) what on earth made one single party or an entire polity bifurcate a developed State which has a fully fledged capital developed in every single aspect: infrastructure, income, education and et al. Finally I have to a conclusion that has no conclusion except being stuffed with plenty of reasons against the bifurcation.

Water Problems: I accept, water comes through Telangana, but the other side of AP has much of fertile land. If bifurcation happens there will be disputes among the people on allocation of water resources, as it is already visible with neighboring States. The main loss is to farmer. Employees, they have all the options to shift their places but framer can never relocate and hence may foresee self-annihilation as the only option.

Tax burden: The ruling party has already declared (if bifurcation goes forward) a new capital is on the cards for Seemaandhra. Practically, is it that simple to come up with a state-of-the-art capital within a decade? Developing a new capital seems to be as easy as developing a SEZ!

Okay, take for granted that a new capital would be developed, but with whose money? Won't that be mine or yours? I have stayed in Hyderabad for almost 20  years and paid all the taxes responsibly and now they say it is not mine. Again for the new capital also I will have to pay only to see after many years that my tax goes to mere waste politicians. Gosh! Exploitation at its best. Am I ready to pay tax again and again just to develop one more capital only for the sake of ? Nope. I am not at all a game for that.

Emotional front: When in business there is no emotion. Neither I'm in business nor I foresee myself to come up with one. Almost two decades ago, I came to Hyderabad with a feeling that the city is mine (my State's capital). Had I been informed that it will not be mine if any random political party says so, I would have opted the next or at least the best option Chennai at that time. I felt Hyderabad is mine, and I still feel the pearl city is so cool with all of us. No one (neither the ruling party nor the alliances) has heck of an authority to throw us out.

Career options: Professionally, too, I am not able to convince myself that I will have a great career in Hyderabad post bifurcation. Being rotten up with all possible agitations either pre bifurcation (Telangana Udyamam) or post division announcement (Samaikyandhra Udyamam), Hyderabad has come down to certain level that any investor started thinking twice to go forward. Irrespective of my two decades stay in the city and my very innate feeling of favoritism towards the city, I feel bitter to hear (some of my Telangana friend's suggestions) 'don't come to city, the job market is very bad'. Lot of IT companies have their apprehensions about the status of Hyderabad.

Whatever you say, apart from so called emotional/tribal wishes, Andhra Pradesh bifurcation is totally against my wish. God forbid, I get to see that in near future.

We, all together, should grow as global citizens only for the goodness of our future generations. But should never end up thrashing each other with hated speeches and views for a piece of land.

3 key factors to devise Content Marketing plan

As the demand for redundant content is high on rise every minute, the production of the same should be abundant preferring quality over quantity, strategy over urgency and should be reactive over proactive.  It is not how vast one’s web portal is, but how accurate the information it provides will decide the longevity of any web portal in this internet-ruling era.

Amid many content-rich web portals – irrespective of the metrics they are basking in, marketers apparently seem comfortable in pushing their message into the mind-sets of mouse-potatoes like never before, but does their (marketers) processes en route, actually, qualified enough for a nonpareil content marketing conduct?

Perhaps, a big NO would pop up without a doubt. Of course, having so much of yellow journalism, so dreadful nick-of-the-moment developed materials (articles, write-ups), and so unplanned content generation and so and so - there are many issues to pin-point on.

Where it went wrong? Well, as it is asserted by Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute (CMI), only 5 percent of marketers had any sort of content marketing mission statement.

With that statement, it is made clear that hardly anyone (in this grab-the-market-in-no-time era) uses or stress on a proper planning and implementation of impeccable content marketing process.  Irrespective of the nature of the business, either eCommerce portal or a news publishing treadmill, one should foresee their content marketing plan, with the best vision and mission, at regular intervals. 

Such an intricate plan starts with a very basic step of ‘thinking ahead’ leading to ‘sorting ahead’ and followed by ‘moving ahead’ (creating awareness, sales pitch and loyalty programs – for product oriented/eCommerce web portal). As it goes on:  

Strategy – Thinking ahead

'A plan without a strategy is like sailing without a compass.' Stressing on that belief, one shall try to be equipped with a better strategy prior to the task of full-fledged content marketing; defining the requirement and purpose of particular task – either content marketing or social marketing.

Devise a blueprint:

-       Set definite goals – vision and mission (to bring up just the traffic or to create a brand image, goodwill and thus to increase life-time loyal netizens),

-       Be customer driven – either purchases or impressions,

-       Design time frame (short term or long term): long-term (blog posts, articles or press releases), short-term (opting social media conversations, being informative through product updates) or conversation oriented (link sharing, discussions, commenting etc.)

-       Think ahead over competitors’ trends, and conduct clear-cut algorithm (Google) studies to stay unaffected to market updates (if it is to be SEO driven).

No doubt, a big ‘WHY’ would help you shatter the future obstacles. A well-defined strategy may sure bring up better results in future, but only with a stringent execution.

Solution – Sorting Ahead

If the path is set, isn't selecting a vehicle to ride on it EASY!? The next best thing to spice up the content marketing plan is to sort out things: in simple terms, to say, chalking out the ways to make the path viable for a smooth ride towards success.

Perhaps, one can consider 5 Ws (who, what, when, where and why (see strategy) and a H - how to set the path to be sailed on.

What – the content type (news just-in or opinionated articles, videos, app-driven content, gaming sorts etc.),

When – the time slots, festival bound, holiday bound

Where – the platforms (blogs, social media, mob access)

Who – the target audience (netizens’ demographics),

How – the implementation, awareness (e Mail marketing, online advertisements, press releases)

Having adequate information about target audience - their mind-set, and the apt time frame to reach them – while publishing the content, one could possibly come with a solution within no time. The more the knowledge you have about your reader the crisp & clear the content would be.

Success – Moving Ahead

By saying move ahead, we mean, in one way, to build up relation with the end user or let’s put it up as link building sort of things. Channelizing your content isn’t just enough; build up relation with the reader/customer. Be alive through different forums and query answering techniques as that is the only way to develop loyalty among readers.

No plan is failure proof. Come what may, just move ahead in all the endeavours. Though it sounds bias to co-relate; finding a relation is easier than maintaining it.

God forbid the loss or failure, but be equipped with a second plan always. Either with failure or success the in-thing should always be getting off the ride and change the gear. We don’t expect you to change up the business, but to modify the execution plan as it has been done with many entrepreneurs while adopting social marketing techniques in a way to get rid of traditional marketing.

All said and done, Strategy, Solution and Success, the three Content marketing techniques, if properly taken care of, could strengthen the content credibility of your website, provided competitive SEO practices in place.

How cost effective is a Social Media Marketing Plan Vs Direct Marketing?

A need arises

The time is completely recession proof, but the business is not – for being a reeler through the financial meltdown. In this scenario, the best possible solution or in fact a challenge for any organization was cutting down the costs and expenditure; operational and personnel as well. During these unexpected doldrums, putting up oneself against the changing market conditions, either adapting new technologies or embracing the competitive efficiency, has also been an immediate requirement to safeguard one’s business targets. How cost-effective companies confronted this situation is our discussion here.

A marketing tool evolves

Within a tight budget that too targeting a technologically advanced target audience, though it took a little momentum get on with new improvements, marketers have started being with audience round the clock not at their door fronts but on their fingertips. With the social networking on rise (thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin), marketers eyed the target’s digital personal space. Availing all search based recognition techniques, profile (age, gender, and demography) based targeting methods they have stormed into customer’s personal digital space. Eventually the process is named as a new marketing tool called Social Media Marketing. To the organizations’ delight, the new tool has turned out to be cost-effective in reaching the customers with in a specific budget and within very short time making it a best deal to salvage the businesses from financial meltdown.

How cost-effective is this new marketing tool vs digital marketing?

That said, how cost-effective is a social media marketing plan when compared to digital marketing could be your query. In brief, we can say SMM reduces the cost of employing more number of personnel than in direct marketing, it encourages cost-effective online discussions than high-spend focus group gatherings, and with analytics’ fact assessment social media marketing proven to be faster in gathering response/feedback thus can roll back a failed product or process in time and be damage preventive. Let us dig more deep into these cost-effective factors.

The Buzz Word within the pocket range

Gone were the days, where we had to knock every door, literally, to let the prospects aware of our products/services. The time is not the same, so are the prospect’s preferences. With a 3G enabled smartphone in almost every hand, the well-versed (online) gen Z generation are more responsive digitally than in direct.

No one is interested in entertaining a personal conversation specifically sales oriented (exceptions include corporates). The reason might be anything but the influencer is one - the ever-changing technology. The new-age consumer prefers to turn dynamic than being victimized to lagging sales discussion at gunpoint.

With social media has become a need in every part of the world, it should not be any big task for an organization to create the buzz.

Thus, instead of shelling out more on 10 traditional marketers, it is, indeed, a better idea to employ a few digital/social media marketers to get the business done. All you need is a better-contented web portal –properly optimized, adequately informative and with regular product/service updates. However, an informative web portal in coordination with social media marketing plan might not bring-in exceptional results overnight, but, for sure, could reduce the promotional costs of an organization, helpful in come off unnecessary allocation of working capital.

Virtual discussions Vs Focus Groups

On the same lines of Ernest Dichter's idea of organizing focus groups for a qualitative research in order to conclude people's perceptions, ideas, beliefs and attitude towards a product, Social Media Marketing plan too equipped with user polls, discussions and many such online activities to keep track of the end-user’s respectful opinions on the brand and the product.

While the age-old focus groups could cost you much in finding out accommodation for mass gatherings, the new age Social Media Marketing needs just a Facebook/Twitter account to get the job done cost effectively. To the betterment of the market as a whole, making it is easier for organizations digitalised-behavioural-targeting has also been introduced in making focus groups online a success and cost-effective social media marketing plan.

One such successful and effective social media marketing campaign is Fastrack’s which has kept its character ‘Move On’ with their Facebook page going in the new-age marketing way-generating more discussions among its fans-publishing/updating the line of products every day triggering a virtual likeness towards the product.

Analytics Surfacing the Facts

I still wonder how one’s admiration towards a product could be quantitatively calculated without even, them, buying, or experiencing the product. With the old techniques like wait and watch till it breaks out and guess the go methods, the business would lag in time to build up competitor analyses and to come up with a combative business strategy.

With numerous fan page likes and shares clubbed with instant responses pouring in through list posts, social media has it all to assess the facts in real-time and gets the job done within no time  paving a way ahead to compete with rivals. Taking clue from that the social marketers bounce in no time to fine-tune the processes in case of backfires. It not only helps in safeguarding the goodwill of the organization but also cuts down the extra spend.

For better reach, extended brand/product discussions, and for real-time feedback within very less cost, social media marketing plan has many a successful campaigns since its inception. However, though SMM proven to be cost-effective, a traditional marketer–if at all he is properly been incentivised- would always be an asset to the company is what we strongly believe in. Our opinion on how cost effective is a social media marketing plan Vs direct marketing might differ with yours. If yes, kindly let us learn.