Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow.

A family that travels together stays together.



We are traveling not to escape from our Life, but to ensure our life doesn’t

escape from us.

In corporate world, many of us go for Team Treat sessions, Outings, and

weekend Team Trips.

While explaining my experiences to my family members, my daughter

innocently asked below questions.

How you eat all the dishes at one time?

With whom you are going?

Why you didn’t take us?

When can I join you?

A thought came to my mind (with action) while I’m enjoying my life in the

corporate culture - but my family was left out - my parents, spouse, and kids!



I recollected all my memories.

With all my memories, I decided that my ideal travel companion is my family.



Since then, every year we go on planned family trips to different places

outside my home state Tamilnadu. For two years, I booked our trips through

Tours and Travels, I along with my family have been to Munnar, Alleppey,

Calicut, Wayanad and Coorg. The package takes care of Accommodation,

transport, and 3 times food. All worries are taken care of; I could concentrate only

on spending quality time with my family members.

But I realized, the travel packages were little costly, and they jam-packed

with too many places without spending enough time at any of the spots to

enjoy its flavor.

A quick comparison in Trivago showed the hotel charges were high.



The most important people in our life is our family.

The greatest legacy we can leave for our children is happy memories.

Our children are our precious treasures. Do you agree?


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Crawlathon

Opening

One Run Can Change Your
Day. Many Runs Can Change Your Life.

Running races are one of
the most interesting and grab majority attentions.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters, and Guests.

Body

Every human being's life starts with crawling.

My parents encouraged and celebrated it.

The child is enjoying without knowing the fact.
Why?

There are several types of running races in
modern-day athletics. I’m going to relate such races with stages in Human Life.

Sprints or Short Distance Races
(100/200/300/400m):

After crawling, I started
to stand by own, try to walk with the help of the wall and other's support.
Once I started to walk, I tried to run with naughty smiles on some mistakes.
Within realize what happens to me, my parents placed me on the short distance’s
races in Kinder Garden, Primary Educations. I enjoyed it a lot with my friends,
books, school buses. But slowly I dragged into various activities and started
to lose momentum. 

Middle Distance Races (800/1500m):

Time flew. Parents,
Society & School Administration considers me as a grown child and asks to
participate in board exams with multiple boosters. Till now, I don’t know why I’ve
to run? Because my friends are running.

No Purpose / AIM / Decision they can take. One twist is there.

My parents explained a
beautiful convincing message. This is your last run.

Hurdles and Relay Races:

Now I wa a teenage. I had
more energy but in a boundary. Now my duty to get a well-known Bachelor &
Master’s degree in a reputed college. Within 4 or 6 years, I was completely
changed and forgot all my learnings and enjoyments. I must score good marks, learn
new technologies and should be placed in a company with a good package.

WHY??????????

finally, Long Distance Races (3000/5000/10000m/26.219KM/42.195KM):

My parents again convinced me with life purpose as
good education, good job, good marriage, two kids, 2/3bhk home, 2 lands, good
education, again …

I realized Good is Average.

At what stage, I’m going to define my Life Purpose,
when I’m going to be better & best.

Before thinking about this, I got married and have
two kids. Then only I realized that I must run like my dad for the next 42+
years Life Marathon to lead a good / average LIFE.

I say No to live a life without a purpose.

My daughter asked me on several occasions, why
daddy, why daddy???

I realized it's not late to ask WHY WHY to me in my
life.

Yes. Of course, Life is a Marathon, not a Sprint. But
“Pace yourself accordingly”.

I wish to train myself & my kids for endurance
Not Speed.

Before three years, I tried to excel in Sprints,
Middle distance and hurdles races. Because I saw many people succeeded in
those.

But in the last three years, I realized my ground
is Relay races, to run with people as TEAM to win. i.e Leadership & Public
Speaking.

I wish to motivate others to achieve my Vision as a
Coach.

LEARN
<--> Believe <--> Perform

Conclusion:

Dear
Toastmasters, RUN your OWN RACE.

It
doesn’t matter how slowly you go. So long as you don’t stop.

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A Successful Mentor - L2P3 @Toastmasters International Club by Ganesh Raja

A Sculptor sees the hidden beauty inside a raw stone and using his hammer and chisel carves a beautiful statue out of it. Same way, a mentor is someone who sees the latent talent and ability within a mentee and helps it bloom.



A mentor with his experience and knowledgebase gains insight and wisdom. A mentor and the protégé develop a symbiotic commitment and a successful relationship towards achieving greater goals.



Sifu Dan Lok is a business magnate, an international bestselling author, and a global educator.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/336597



In the year 2018, the month of Dec, due to organizational changes, my manager shifted me to a new product to be handled from the beginning of 2019.



Something within me propelled me to accept the new Challenge.



Then, one of my friends Anki in the office told me,  "Ganesh, I believe in you. You’ll fit perfectly in the new team. Take it up.”



In the year 2019 February, I was promoted as the Lead Engineer.



My Friend patted my back and told me, ‘Now’s the right time to prove yourself on the new Role.’



At that moment, I hadn’t realized him as a Mentor. After some months, he became a Manager for our product and continued his mentoring.



He supports and urges me, to take personal responsibility for working towards the accomplishment of broader goals over a sustained period of time.



Every great achiever is inspired by a Great Mentor.



The world is expanding, expand your horizon, make use of social media like LinkedIn & YouTube and follow great leaders and great masters. They are Virtual mentors, who share their knowledge and experience via the internet.

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1. "Can you tell me something about your company?"

The employer is instantly put off! An aspiring candidate is supposed to visit the company website and understand its business model, products, services, history etc. Please read the section 'About Us' where companies provide their history, products, the geographies they serve etc. Also visit the 'Press' section of the company, where you have information about latest product releases, what customers say about their products and any awards they have won, recently.

2. "Will you do a reference check?"

Most companies use the services of a third party agency to conduct a 'reference check'. The moment you pop this question, a red flag is hoisted, as the interviewer may think you have something to hide.

3. What is your leave policy?

Don't ask this question. It looks like you like to relax. While most companies talk of work-life balance, few practice them.

4. Do you work on Saturdays?

Avoid this question, as the employer gets a suspicion about your intentions to work hard.

5. When will I get my next increment? 

This question makes you appear ‘greedy’. Avoid it at this stage of the interview process. The employer thinks that you are looking at money all the time and hence will change jobs if offered a marginally higher salary.

6. "Do you have any other jobs available in your company?"

You may be offered a job, which you think is below your aspirations. If you feel that the job is below your ability then say so directly at the interview.

You could say, "I did this job three years ago. Last two years I have been leading a team. May I know the career progression for this position?"

7. "How soon can I transfer to another role?"

You may have been offered a sales role and you may be interested in a marketing/brand management role. Asking this question has no meaning as you are literally saying to the employer "I don’t like this job". Remember, most employers will keep you for a reasonable time in the offered role and depending upon your performance transfer you to a different role.

8. "Can you tell me about the best way (bus or train) to reach the office from my residence?"

Don't ask this question! You can easily find out the answer talking to people in the neighborhood and at the bus or train station.

9. "Are there opportunities for promotion?"

Please don't raise this question during the interview. Once you join the company and prove yourself, then you can raise this issue with your boss. In today's job market, your priority should be to first get the job. It's better to look for promotion after that.

10. "When do I start?"

Since you are not sure that you have been offered, don’t ask this question. The employer gets the feeling that you are overconfident and brash, and may not suit them. A better way for job seekers to show their interest is to be direct. They should tell the interviewer they are very interested in being considered further for the position and offer to provide whatever additional information the company might need.

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Bangalore: Do you still believe in notion that you need huge money to start a new business? You will be surprised to know that there are several businesses that need very little or no money at all and still you can make it a profitable venture if managed properly. Today there are several dynamic individuals who aspire to start their own business but hold back thinking about money. No, none of the ideas mentioned below will make you rich shortly, but they can certainly help you to earn money without any investment or little investment. Below listed are few business ideas that can be started right now:

1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Consultancy

SEO (search engine optimization) consultancy is one business that is made for those people who are looking forward to be an Internet marketer. SEO consultants are called as the experts who keep internet marketing strategy at pace. Among other countries, India is considered as one of the countries that have the largest percentage of Internet users in the world. Everyday there are around thousands of websites and blogs that are created, though very few survived. And, the key reason that they don’t survive is the lack of knowledge about marketing the blogs and getting high ratings.

To start a SEO consultancy you don’t need much of investment and in addition to that it is very easy and quick set up. If you don’t know how an SEO consultant works then you can take training which will not last for more than 3 months.

2. Blogging

Blogging is one of the best and profitable businesses you can actually think of. Today you can own a blog without spending a single penny. To make enormous money in blogging will take some time as you need lot of commitment, hard work, patience, consistency and persistence. But you can always start off with blogging with a topic in which you are exceptionally good or it can be related to cooking, learning etc. It’s true that you will find n-number of bloggers but there is always a space left for the new ones. Few basic terms like CMS, Domain, SEO and many more you will learn while blogging itself.

3. eBay Trading

Have you heard of eBay? It is one of the popular trading sites that people widely use it to buy things online. You can start a business by selling your goods on internet. It is easy to be a trader on ebay as you need to bring some stuff on cheap rates and sell them after adding your profit and other charges. Here you can put your product on action and allow buyers to bid. Thus you will get the opportunity to get the best prices for your product. Not money but time is the biggest investment in this business hence you need to dedicate much of your time to be aware of the latest bid.

4. Jewelry Maker

Indians adore jewelry. If you are crazy about jewelry, you can actually turn your love into a profession. You can join some jewelry training classes and can start your own business by making jewelry and selling them.

You have many options in this business as you can either become a jewelry designer for artificial jewels or can become a designer for gold, diamond and platinum. You just need to make the designs that your dealer ask for as he will be the one who will provide you with the materials.

5. Wedding Planning

Wedding ceremonies are given much value in India, and Indians are very particular about their wedding as they always like to make that day memorable for lifetime. If you are creative by nature and have the capability of multi tasking then you are ready to start off with this business. All you need is to rent a place for your office and create network with clients. This business is one time investment if done in a proper way you can make money more than expected.

6. Food Restaurant Services

Do you subscribe the idea that starting a restaurant needs huge cash expense? It may be surprising but all you need is a small place where you can start your business in small scale. If you serve mouth watery delicious dishes, no matter what, you will never see your restaurant with empty tables and chairs. You have opportunities to flourish in this particular business if you manage it properly and smartly. Being creative and unique are the two specialties that one should have to establish this business.

7. Event Management Business

Event Management is one of the rapidly growing businesses in India. Every year you can see lot of events like corporate events, events for award ceremonies and parties are organized. Initially you might need some capital to start this business but the money earned is much more. In addition to that you should have the capability of building good business network and connections to run this business.

8. Recruitment Firm

Setting up a recruitment firm is one of the successful businesses; due to increasing rate of unemployment these firms are huge in demand. To start off with this business you don’t need huge investment, the only thing you would require is a small office space and contacts of few small and big companies. With rising economic crisis affecting most of the companies in India and across the globe, companies are not willing to employ many staff on a permanent basis instead they want contract staffs so as to cut cost. If you have recruitment firms you can go employ staffs for the companies and the companies will pay you certain amount as commission for a particular period of time. To succeed in this business you should know what a company wants.

9. Real estate consultant

As the demand for properties is growing rapidly day by day, you can start earning money as a real estate consultant. You get a good return on investment in the real estate business as it is one of the flourishing businesses in India. A very low investment is required to start this business. First thing you need to know is about your own locality you are staying in as a real estate consultant. For each and every deal you make, there are possibilities of getting 1 or 2 percent as a commission fee on top of your consultant charges.

10. Office material supplies

There are many materials that are required by the offices and schools all year round in India. A little start-up capital is required for this business. To start with this business and to run it successfully the first thing you should do is your business with government in order to have free access to offices without having any hindrance since you have your papers with you. You need to build network by visiting offices and inform them about the materials you supply for instance rug, paper, Biro etc at cheaper prices. You need to have strong convincing power to take this business forward.  

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When it comes to a business setting, you can think of “unproductive” in three different ways. First, an employee can be so outgoing and bubbly in the office that you actually miss the fact that he or she has never actually been productive. Second, you can see that an employee’s work is starting to decline and realize that the employee has become unproductive. Or lastly, an employee may just plain be unproductive and everyone knows it.

 

However, in all three situations, the characteristics are the same. How these employees got there, or why they’re there, might be a different story, but for employers, it all starts with being able to recognize some of these characteristics. If you can recognize that an employee is unproductive, that’s the first step in making changes.

Consider some of these traits and actions to look for below:

1. Complaining

It doesn’t matter why someone is complaining or whom he or she is complaining to (or about), complaints often show that someone is not willing to put in the work to make a change. It’s a time waster, and it’s almost always easier to complain than to be productive. As John Brandon mentioned in a past article, “The really productive people don’t dwell on the problem. They just do the work.”

2. Making Excuses

Similar to complaining, making excuses is not the way to be productive. It’s one thing if things don’t get done because other things take priority, but if something doesn’t get done because of an unfair excuse, then that’s a problem with the employee. Start paying attention and see if there seems to be an excuse for everything. One or two every once in a while is OK, but excuses can get out of hand quickly.

3. Putting Things Off

This characteristic can go right along with excuses. Most of the time, an employee will put something off because of an excuse, but sometimes you’ll notice that he or she will act like it can wait and brush a task off as “not a big deal.” Again, while this might be OK in small doses, if it becomes a habit you have a problem.

4. Running Everything by the Boss

This may happen for one of two reasons: Either the employee is hoping the boss will just do the work or delegate it to someone else (usually because of excuses the employee lays out), or the employee doesn’t feel like he or she can be independent and get things done. In either situation, an employee won’t be productive. Part of productivity is being able to take the problems at hand, get creative, and work hard to solve them, and part is actually wanting to solve them. Running to the boss doesn’t help anyone get to that point, and therefore hurts productivity.

5. Only Caring About Getting Credit

This is a classic sign of someone who does not really care about the job. Therefore, such employees only worry about being productive if it’s going to get them credit in the long run. In order to really be productive, you have to be creative and innovative in your role—simply doing what you’re told and then stopping your work isn’t always using your time efficiently. Even more than simply being unproductive, this is a characteristic that really shows an employee is not motivated, which brings us to our next point.

6. There Is No Motivation or Drive

You can usually tell if people don’t have motivation or drive if they’re doing all of the things mentioned above—making excuses, putting things off, complaining, and always bothering the boss. All of these feelings combined with a lethargic attitude contribute to not being productive. Why would an employee be productive if he or she doesn’t care about the company and what that productivity could produce? After all, being productive takes work.

In some cases, there is a lack of motivation and productivity simply because that employee was the wrong fit to begin with.

7. Personal Betterment and Brand Is Slipping

This is usually what happens when people get complacent at their jobs. Maybe they’re doing what they’re told and not making excuses or complaining, and maybe they even sometimes solve problems on their own and get things done, but if their personal brand and betterment is slipping, then the work becomes routine. Part of being productive is learning new skills and taking pride in an online brand (even if it’s just to help the company). This shows independence and it shows motivation. Without this, productivity lacks.

The Takeaway

As you can see, a lot of the characteristics mentioned above compliment one another and string together. It almost works like a domino effect, so you’ll likely see an unproductive employee exhibiting more than three or four of the characteristics on the list. The best thing you can do as an employer is to be able to look for and recognize these traits and then take steps to re-motivate the employee.

Learn more »

Job interviews aren’t only about impressing the interviewer; they’re about sparking a new relationship with your future employer.

The key to a successful interview is to keep the interviewer talking. Sure, while you want to share why you’re the best candidate for the position, you also don’t want to dominate the interview. On the other hand, if it seems like there’s a lull in the conversation, you also want to keep the conversation going.

Maintaining conversation during a job interview can be hard to do. Even if you write a list of five or 10 questions, the interviewer may not have much to say. As you prepare questions for the interviewer, make sure they’re relevant to the position. It’s also important to keep them interesting and open-ended. This will make it possible for the interviewer to talk more during the interviewer.

If you’re stumped on what questions you should ask, here are five questions that will keep your interview going:

1. What do you enjoy most about working here?

This is a great question to ask to learn more about the interviewer on a personal level. You’ll  pick up on the interviewer’s feelings toward the job and give them the opportunity to talk about themselves during the interview.

When asking this question, you’ll also determine whether this job is the right fit for you. If the interviewer is hesitant about answering, it might be a sign they don’t not enjoy their job.

2. Where do you hope the company will be in five years?

This is another question that has the potential to get the interviewer excited about their job. You’ll also learn about any upcoming changes the company might experience and the goals the interviewer has for their position within company. Learning this information will give you a better idea of how you’d fit as a potential employee.

3. Can you tell me about the team I’ll be working with?

Not only will this question show your confidence in landing the job during the interview, but also it will teach you about the type of people you’d work with at the company.

Learning about your future coworkers is a great way to learn more about the position. With this question, you can also find out about the types of project’s you’ll work on and what’s expected of you as an employee.

4. How would you describe the work environment here?

If you want to learn more about the company culture, this is an excellent question to ask. You’ll find out whether the culture is more collaborative or if employees are expected to work independently. This question will also help you determine whether you’d make a good fit for the position.

5. What’s the next step of this process?

This is a good question to ask as the interview begins wrapping up. If you feel like conversation has been dying down, this would be a great way to find out the rest of the information you need to for the interview process.

There are just a few of the questions you can ask to keep a job interview going. Remember, you want to ask positive and open-ended questions that will get the interviewer excited about the interview and position you as a likeable candidate. By following this advice, you’ll show the interviewer that you care about their answers and are genuinely interested in learning about the job.

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User Experience and Customer Experience what’s the Difference?

What is User Experience (UX)?

 
The user experience is product (or service) specific. It is the experience that a user (or customer) has when they interact with that product. We can measure the results of the user experience to some extent too. We can look at satisfaction reports, the level of customer care enquiries following an interaction, the time it takes to get something done with our product, etc.

What is Customer Experience (CX)?

Customer experience is a larger concept. It is the experience that a user (or customer) has whenever they interact with our company or brand. Again we can measure some of this in satisfaction reports, in recommendation rates (would you tell a friend about us?), etc.
In essence user experience is a subset of customer experience. If you added up the sum of all knowledge on each individual user experience with your products and services; you would (theoretically) be able to explain your customer experience. Sadly, that’s not quite how it works and it’s why we need to remain conscious of both when we design products and services.

Why Do We Need to Consider CX when We’re Working With UX?

Let’s say you are the UX designer on a major online retail store. Your job is to build a website which can be easily found on the internet, which customers enjoy spending time on and more importantly still – that they enjoy spending money with.
So far, so simple, right? You go out and do your user research. You use that to inform your design process and because your team are as least as brilliant as you are; they deliver exactly what you expect.
On the first day your website receives thousands of hits and every customer who lands on that site buys something! You are better than Amazon! Then three weeks later… your company goes out of business. But… the UX was perfect right?

It was but the CX sucked. You sold thousands of products on Day One but they neglected to mention that the warehouse wasn’t full of these products; initial expectations were to sell a little and scale up operations. This wouldn’t have been a total disaster but no-one trained the customer care agents to expect this – they’ve been receiving angry phone calls without end. So they all quit and went to work for somewhere less stressful. Your angry clients have all gone out and claimed refunds on their credit cards too…
User experience must always be seen in the bigger context of customer experience or it’s entirely possible that our work will be wasted even when that work is brilliant.

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If you are a software engineer actively involved in the performance testing segment of software product lifecycle, here is what you must avoid doing.
 
Mistake 1: Confusing bulk loading with performance testing
It has been observed that software engineers are often confused over performance testing and load testing. The fundamental approaches for both of them are different.
While load testing is bulk loading of the infrastructure to understand how much volume the system can process, performance testing is how fast the system is working while under heavy load.
For effective performance testing, the ideal route is to put the system through a series of simulated activities. Simulate various browsers, networks and user types, because systems are adept at quick response but not so good at level setting.
Mistake 2: Treating all users the same
Understand that different users place different types of load on the system since the expectation levels vary across different levels. For example, a patient user may give about five seconds to a website before it loads while an impatient user may not even give one second. So developers will have to understand that such user behaviour will need to be reflected in the difference in approaches in terms of the backend integration points for different users.
How to address this:

• Remember that key is prioritising performance based on user types and devices
• So first segment user types and then use this to prioritise services and isolate problems better

Mistake3: Not associating snapshots to releases
With increasingly complex web apps, even the slightest change in the app can impact the performance. For example, even the change in placement of the company logo on the webpage can possibly impact the performance of the website.
So, one needs to keep a close tab on even the slightest of changes to make it easier to roll back to root causes. This leaves room for improvement and writing efficient codes.
This can be addressed by adding performance testing to continuous integration processes show performance trends related to updates to the app. Feedback loop can isolate bad/slow code.

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We all look for a International Career, growth and learning opportunities. Working abroad offers a great platform to achieve all this. However, the approach required to search a job overseas requires a different strategy.
There are several things to watch out for when writing an international resume. Undoubtedly, it requires highlighting several things in detail, such as skills, language, traveling descriptions, etc. Here is what an international recruiter wants to see in your resume:
1. Career Objective
A career objective is a vital and most powerful option to convey the recruiter about your area of interest and about what you are looking for in a job. Rest everything mentioned in the resume should follow and define this career objective.
2. Education
Mentioning your qualification and education details helps a recruiter to gauge your knowledge in a particular field. However, in case of an international job, the hiring manager may not find a relevant link between the job vacancy and your education; hence, it is advisable to address your knowledge and skills with relevant examples such as projects, internship, study abroad (if any), and the knowledge of a foreign language.
3. Work Experience
Global employers emphasize on a candidate’s transferable skills and work experience. They seek for examples on how you can contribute to the growth of their organization. The best way to sell your skills is by stating some examples to demonstrate your achievements in a particular project, volunteering, or significant contribution in your previous role, for instance, “You crossed the sales figure by 640% of your annual target in your previous job”. In case of new graduates, recruiters prefer candidates with at least some work experience during college years. Hence, if you have anything to mention, even an entry-level, part-time job at a coffee house, this acts as brownie points for you. In short, employers look for people who are self-starters, independent and have managerial skills.
4. Professional and Personality Traits
Any international recruiter hiring you would anytime be more interested to know that how efficiently you can adjust to the cultural difference and new challenges. Here it is important to mention your awareness about the global affairs that support your professional traits, while list any volunteer experience to highlight your personality traits. This helps the hiring manager to understand how you can prove to be a potential employee for the company.
5. Resume Length
While the length of a resume mainly depends on factors such as number of years of work experience, level of job or number of employers, any resume must include only the relevant information. Usually, the length of a resume for a recent graduate remains one page, whereas, a candidate with several years of work experience, achievements and number of employers have more information to share, hence the ideal length becomes a two-page resume. In case of an international resume, the candidate requires to mention all the above points in detail. Hence, the length can go up to 3 or 4 pages. However, as said, the focus should always be on providing only the relevant information. Remember, every hiring manager has numerous resume waiting for his attention and he is not going to give it more than a few seconds!

For a professional and effective resume, it is vital to create it by keeping your target reader in mind, i.e., a global recruiter. When you search a job abroad, it becomes more challenging to pitch your skills to an employer on the other side of the world. Hence, the more clearly you understand the cultural, professional and social expectations of the employer, the higher are the chances of your selection.
So, all you need is the little “extra” work and time to prepare an international resume and stay ahead of the stiff competition in the global employment market.
Good luck!

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