In the June09 issue of Harvard Business Review, Mr Robert I. Sutton writes about How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy. His remedies for the Boss were predictability, understanding, control and compassion. He gives examples to further his argument about his remedies. While his explanation followed his remedy – it was predictable – his example on compassion had me bristled.

First, a little digression on compassion. These days we are bandying around compassion as a skill. As if it were something that one learns at the blacksmith’s or at the carpenter’s. It is our very innate nature, for God’s sake. It has nothing to do with managers or employees or with royalty; it is mine because of being a human being. It is our seventh sense. Don’t ever call it a soft skill. Compassion is not a good thing to have. It is the right thing to have.

Now, for that example on compassion. Let me quote Mr Sutton:

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Jerald Greenberg, a management professor at The Ohio State University, provides compelling evidence that compassion affects the bottom line in tough times. Greenberg studied three nearly identical manufacturing plants in the Midwest that were all part of the same company; two of them (which management chose at random) instituted a temporary 10-week pay cut of 15% after the firm had lost a major contract. At one of the two, the executive who conveyed the news did so curtly, announcing, “I’ll answer one or two questions, but then I have to catch a plane for another meeting.” At the other one, the executive who broke the news gave a detailed and compassionate explanation, along with apologies and multiple expressions of remorse. He also spent a full hour answering questions about why the cost cutting was necessary, who would be affected, and what steps workers could take to help themselves and the plant. Greenberg found fascinating effects on employee theft rates. At the plant where the curt explanation was given, the rate rose to more than 9%. But at the plant where management’s explanation was detailed and compassionate, it rose only to 6%. (At the third plant, where no pay cuts were made, the rate held steady at about 4% during the 10-week period.)

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It is unfortunate that he gives thieving of employees as an example to buttress his idea about compassion for employees. It would appear that researchers such as Mr Greenberg – as quoted by Mr Sutton - think that employees by nature are prone to thieving. Why else would one do such a gratuitous research?
I would imagine that Mr Greenberg’s research hypothesis read:
This research establishes a correlation between increase of theft by employees and the abruptness of language used by CEOs conveying salary reduction news.
And from this research Mr Sutton got compelling evidence that compassion begets less thieving!
I think this is absolutely unfair to employees.

Just out of college or packing your baggage to get out soon. We talked to various freshers and digged out some very common myths or misconception they have regarding IT job interview process. Though there are millions (okay…thousands..or even hundreds..no less) of them we are only putting the most common ones here. This might be difficult for for a 10+ yrs experience professional to digest, but this how freshers (or most of them) think. Can we help their thinking…yes..may be.

Myth #10: Lowering Your Salary Demands Will Increase your chances of selection.

When you are struggling for a job, sometimes you may be tempted to lower your demand and grab the offer letter immediately. Unfortunately or fortunately an IT company does not think in the same way. It is more interested in getting value from you (I mean your work..) rather than saving money on your salary. While asking for a much higher salary may show you a greedy, lowering expectation may lower the value perception. If you know what the company offers for a similar skillset and experience, try to be in +/- 20% range.

Myth #9: A tie is a must for an entry level job interview.

While it is important to be neatly dressed in formals, wearing a tie will not add any point to your score.Only if you feel comfortable with a tie, wear it.

Myth #8: Entry level salaries are fixed and cannot be negotiated.

While most of the big companies advertise their entry level salaries, it does vary based on your college, past experience, marks and your performance in the interview process. If you are being asked your salary expectation you may have some room to negotiate.

Myth #7: Only the best person gets hired.

Hiring a large number of freshers (from an even larger number of freshers) is so strenuous that most people resort to selection by elimination. It may be on the basis of your marks, degree, FCFS (first come first serve) or anything. Do you really think that getting a 69% guy is in any way inferior to a 71% guy. As long as you have done full preparation you should not get unnecessary complexes. If you have not done any preparation for job then any person getting selected is better (in fact much better) than you.

Myth #6: If I write many projects in CV it will catch their attention.

No, It will get you more trouble than you can handle. Highlight only bigger projects (rather than every term papers you would have done in every alternate course). And, be fully prepared to answer every question about these projects.

Myth #5: Writing both C#.NET and Java/J2EE will boost my chances of CV getting selected.

Half of the world is .NET and the other half is Java. If I write both skills in my CV I have the full universe (superset) with me. It is going to exactly double my chances of selection…Wrong. It would reduce your probability to exactly half if not less. The only conclusion a sane (read experience IT professional) person would draw is that you do not know any of these. Write (and also prepare) only one of them. Which one ? I will answer in a future post. So keep coming to my blog.

Myth #4: A flashy resume is more likely to get attention than a simpler one.

Unfortunately the flash in only limited to pan. A person who is filtering has played it enough.Keep it simple and do not promise that you are going to change the face of the company. More tips on Resume Writing later.

Myth #3: If a company is not currently hiring I do not stand a chance.

Though it may look very contradictory, but only 20-25% of overall IT jobs are publicized in advertisement or otherwise. Rest all is filled through references, unsolicited CVs and job portals. Now you know what to do.

Myth #2: If I have potential, it will get recognized in interview.

If you do NOT have potential, it will definitely get recognized in interview but if you have potential there is no guarantee of recognition. Confusing..okay let me put it very simply. What if you have very good technical knowledge and you also have good (interesting) hobbies and your extra curricular record is shining. There is a definite chance of discussion leading to some other path and you not being able to tell the interviewer that you have it (what it takes to make a good software engineer). If needed interrupt him and try to take the discussion to your strong areas. In the worst case simply ask for it by specifically telling him your strengths.

Myth #1: IT companies are more inclined towards students who have advance knowledge of C#.NET or Java/J2EE

This one is the most common (and the bad one too). Kindly undertsand that technologies will change completely at least 4-5 times in your software career. What is important for you is in-depth understanding of programming fundamentals and analytical skills. IT companies realize that once your fundamentals are at right place you can quickly learn new emerging technologies and be productive very fast. Take my word, you are definitely not going to end you career with any of these two. It is important for you to spend sufficient time on your analytical skills and programming fundamentals which will serve as a base for your entire career.