Getting hired depends on what you wear...

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We may think of ourselves as a rather enlightended society, we may even have ticked the "diversity" box on our corporate and personal profiles. But we live in an "image conscious" society and it seems when it comes to hiring, this matters. The following research was conducted by the the recruitment firm, "The Ladders":

"You have relevant skills and experience, glowing references and a positive attitude, but I'm not going to hire you."

Many executive jobs candidates, while saying all the right things in their interview and presenting a perfect application, simply do not look the part when they walk into their potential employer's office.

A survey of 500 senior executives showed that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of bosses in Britain would decide against hiring a job candidate because of their clothing — and 37 per cent having done this recently.

The managing director of TheLadders.co.uk, responsible for hiring a team of management professionals, says "personal appearance is something that has certainly had an impact on my recruitment decisions".

The Ladders worked with celebrity stylist Gabrielle Teare, who has been featured in a range of publications, such as Marie Claire and Esquire, to analyse the results of our survey and offer some top tips on what to wear for an interview.

The results showed that, ideally, men should opt for a tailored single-breasted navy suit with a white or blue long-sleeved shirt, low-key tie and cufflinks, and black shoes and socks.

Meanwhile, female applicants will be in the best position to secure their next executive position while wearing a mid-length black skirt, long-sleeved collared shirt or blouse, tights, high heels and pearls.

Gabrielle said: "Aim to be well groomed, elegant and professional — you will have more confidence and this will come across to the interviewer."

Never compromise on your appearance as your appearance reflects on your attitude, abilities and competency.

Redbush Lovers: Red Espresso is now available in the UK

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Those of us that love Redbush Tea and all the health benefits it has over the myriad of caffeinated and tannin ated (is there such a word?) other hot beverages will be thrilled to learn that Red Espsresso has finally hit the UK shores and can be ordered online.

Red Espresso, despite the name, is not coffee. Rather it is redbush tea, ground and packaged for preparation in coffee/espresso machines. It thus allows Red Bush aficionados to also enjoy the  pleasure of the "coffee-making" process and the convenience of one system/machine for both drinks .

Now all I want is Nespresso to adopt it too....

You can order Red Espresso online at  www.thezululounge.com  

Wolfram Alpha: the new face of business analytics?

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I love Wolfram Alpha - not just for what it does now, but for what it promises.

Wolfram Alpha makes the web, or at least part of it, computable. I.e. unlike an ordinary search engine like Google - which does a good job of return data and results that are already published on the web - Wolfram Alpha actually ers *creates* new results from existing data. As well as performing computations, it can do things like compare data sets, show trends and interpret (some) natural language questions to give meaningful answers.

What I really hope is that Wolfram is going to take their technology (and any bits of string that might be holding it together just for the moment) and apply it to the business world.

For example, I work in the communications and contact centre industry. In a contact centre environment, the business (at different levels) needs to be able to answer a whole host of questions. Questions such as: who is my best agent? How many calls did I receive today compared to last week? What predicted staff level will I need on Wednesday next week based on my history of Wednesdays? How is customer satisfaction doing? How many calls are converting to sales, and where does this happen? If customers are defecting, do they mention to which competitors and why?

Now, as things stand all these questions *can* be answered, through a mixed bag of data capture and data analytics/mining solutions, including speech recognition systems. But to do this, someone has to integrate these solutions, open up their databases and write a ton of (often complex) reports. The average call centre supervisor may not have the skills to do this. And even if they do, they may not have the time. And what's more - if the question needs to changed, it will mean time spent writing new reports, assuming the data has been captured and available in the first place.

This is what I love about the promise of Wolfram Alpha. Assuming that all your IT systems are just publishing your data in a structured form where WA can collect it, then could WA just answer those straightforward questions - expressed in the way that call centre managers and business stakeholders and marketeers want to ask them - such as: how did my call volume this week compare to the same period last year? Which self-service menu items was most popular? Which customer calls the most?

No more report writing; no more figuring out complex database queries. The cost savings would be enormous...

A love hate relationship with my Samsung NC20 Netbook

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I love my Samsung NC20 Netbook - I love it for its great 12 inch screen and full size keyboard that allow me to type articles like this during tedious Travelodge stays with consummate ease.

However, in a way, I hate it for the same reasons - because although fairly lightweight, I adored the dinky size of my previous Advent 10 inch Netbook. I also find the following things frustrating:

a.. The screen seems washed out to me - the colours are not saturated enough at what I consider normal viewing angles. And it's too bright - or more correctly doesn't go dim enough for me when working in dark conditions (which would save battery power).
b.. The track-pad is very annoying - it regularly seems to switch to "scroll mode" with the lightest of touches, even when your finger is not on the "scroll region" on the right hand side.
c.. The speakers are woeful.
d.. I'm not convinced by the Via Nano processor. The machine regularly runs at 100%, thus gets hot and canes the battery life. And I've had trouble ever getting BBC iPlayer to run smoothly. It's just about bearable with the colour depth set to 16 bits and performance set to max. And again, this canes the battery life.
e.. Battery life: if you are doing very little you may squeeze the claimed 4 - 6 hours out of it - but anything multimedia and not a chance..
f.. The Samsung Recovery system - which claims a minimum 25Gb of your hard disk for what seems to me very little use. Backing up your machine to the same physical disk seems almost pointless. If the disk fails or the machine is stolen, then I'm likely to end up data-less regardless. It might possibly save you if some key disk sectors get corrupted, but that's about all.
g.. Pre-installed Macafee security. Sheesh, this thing just guzzles resources. Uninstall it as soon as you can, and use something free like Avast.
h.. There's no firewire port. So although in principle I could throw together a few MovieMaker movies when I have my camcorder along with me, I can't transfer the material.
i.. There are no office tools. Although basic, at least the Advent came with Microsoft Works.
j.. Even though i upgraded to 2Gb memory, it doesn't really seem to have made a significant difference.

On the plus side i like that you can extend the desktop onto an external monitor (i.e. basically see two displays).

So - I suppose it does what it says on the tin, but it doesn't make me grin.

Knowing Right from Wrong

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A few values that wouldn't go amiss down at the House of Commons - courtesy of my "code of conduct" training:

 

INTEGRITY: Integrity is at the heart of everything we do. We are honest, ethical and upfront because trust is at the foundation of our relationships with our customers, our communities, our stakeholders and each other.
RESPECT: We know it is critical that we respect everyone at every level of our business. We champion diversity, embrace individuality and listen carefully when others speak.
PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE: We hold ourselves to a very high standard of performance. We prize innovative ideas and the teamwork it takes to make them realities. We never stop asking ourselves how we can make the customer experience better, and every day, we find an answer.
ACCOUNTABILITY: We take responsibility for our actions as individuals, as team members, and as an organization. We work together, support one another and never let the customer — or our co-workers — down. 

 

What these are, are principles: tools to guide decision-making. Not "rules" - there are far too many real-world scenarios to possibly create rules for in black and white. Instead, with these principles, we use our skill, judgement and honesty to choose what is right and wrong. You can't claim "it was within the rules" if it breaks one of the principles.

Tough huh? Reality, actually, Mr. MP.

I do actually agree with Stephen Fry's blundered attempt (by his own admission) to highlight that there are more important matters of business at hand for politicians to be dealing with. But - and maybe I differ from Stephen here - it raises a significant issue for me: without an even basic level of integrity, do I trust those hands to deal with those bigger matters? I have a bitter taste in my mouth. Personally I have never cheated any expense system, no matter how strong the temptation; even though Stephen reckons most people would. Sad day.  

Here's a couple of scenarios that one can use these principles to judge:

I had some personal expenses on a business trip and didn’t have a personal credit card to pay them. Can I use my business card for personal expenses and reimburse the company later? 

(the answer is "no", of course)

An employee, who travels often and usually documents her expenses well, makes a business trip from Boston to Chicago. On her T&E reimbursement submission she lists a flight valued at 600 but does not have a receipt for the ticket. When questioned, she explained that she has a friend whose family lives in Chicago. “So instead of getting one plane ticket,” she says, “I got two first class train tickets and took my friend with me. It didn’t cost any more, so I figured that it was okay.”  Is this acceptable?

(the answer is also "no", of course)

The latter plays straight into the grey area that many MP's seem to habit - one's mind can only boggle at what actually went on before receipts had to be submitted for expenses claimed - a practice unthinkable in any modern corporation. 

Time to flush out the cistern?

 

I Save money when I shower with two natty watery gadgets

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If your shower runs at mains pressure or close to it, it's quite possible that you can reduce its pressure without detriment to its cleaning potential and how it feels. Indeed, if your shower is like mine, it might actually be painful to stand under at high pressure.  It seems that most modern houses comes with thermal store hot water systems which allow hot water to be delivered to the house at mains pressure, without little regard to what is actually comfortable or what is economic and eco-friendly.

Since I have the luxury of two showers I have installed two different devices, one in each as follows:

Eaga Shower Smart (get one free)

A small pressure-reducing insert that goes inline with the shower hose.

The Eaga shower smart prevents the unnecessary waste of water without loss of comfort. It creates a constant flow of 7.7 litres per minute, giving a full even jet with less fluctuation in water flow. Water temperature can be more constant - because sudden changes in pressure have a much smaller influence on the temperature. 

For a 2 person household, the Eaga ShowerSmart could save more than 12000 litres of water per year, as well as all the associated energy costs that go with heating it. 

At the time of writing Eaga are running a promotion for a free showersmart.

Oxygenics BodySpa shower head

If you want the dual benefits of economy AND a spa-like experience when you shower, then try the Oygenics BodySpa shower head. The entire oxygenics range not only reduces pressure and flow but at the same time sucks in oxygen and mixes is the with the water, giving an incredible refreshing shower sensation without any feeling of loss of pressure.

I have one fitted in my main shower and have tested that it does indeed reduce the flow (easily done by filling a bag with a line marked for 5 seconds or so) yet it feels wonderful to shower under. And it looks great too. The single orifice design of Oxygenics® showerheads coupled with internal components made of non-stick Delrin® are no match against common "shower cloggers." There isn't a calcium deposit or sediment that will stand in the way.

 

Oh no! They gave me a scrapberry!?

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A bunch of not-so-endearing nicknames I have for the hideous horrendous mobile computing device I have been given for work - otherwise known as a blackberry. I would never ever buy one of these terrible things.

They are very popular in business - and sadly that usually means the people who buy them are not the people who use them. Sadly this means that usability appears to have taken a back seat. Such simple errors of usability still about on these appalling devices. 

For example, there are two "convenience" keys on the side of the device. These are right where I have have to grip it when using it as a phone (for which, incidentally, it is a terrible form factor). So, inevitably these keys are always getting pressed when i try to hold it like a phone.

Whereas other manufacturers have learned to make the most of their keyboard real-estate with multi-function context keys (the ones that change function as you navigate through the menus - usually two just underneath the screen) - the blackberry designers felt it unecessary to provide such convenience to us business users. Instead practically every single function has to be accessed by first pressing a single menu button to pull up the list of functions and options - sometimes as much as 3 screens long! It's so tedious it's untrue.

And don't even mention all that wasted real estate on the main front screen....

so, some nicknames - feel free to suggest more:

  • scrapberry
  • crackberry (seems generally popular, though not sure why)
  • splatberry
  • whackberry
  • crapberry
  • quackberry
  • blockberry
  • bolokberry
  • shatberry
  • hackberry
  • slackberry
  • drawbackberry
  • lackberry
  • sackberry
  • setbackberry
  • smackberry
  • thwackberry
  • blankberry
  • blattberry

 

Working at Verizon - 1 week in...

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Things I like

  • It's a big company - you can do stuff small companies can't
  • The toilets smell nice (by which I mean the airfreshener has a particularly pleasing fragrance)
  • There is someone employed to come clean up the cups and glasses at the sink several times a day
  • Free tea, instant coffee and milk. Three outlets to buy freshly made filter coffee (and the prices are sensible)
  • All the IT and Facilities people I have met seem very friendly and welcoming
  • I'm in a great award-winning team of people that I already know
  • My team can really make a difference
  • The salad is awesome and excellent value
  • everything I learnt at BT Global Services is going to apply here

 

Thing I dislike 

  • It's a big company - getting things done can be a bit slow & frustrating
  • I've been issued with a blackberry / crackberry / crapberry / bolockberry - this has to be one of the most hideous devices invented. It is neither good as a phone nor good as a mobile computing device. It took me three days to work out how to make the font readable. Viewing a new text message takes 4 clicks as opposed to 1 on my Sony Ericsson mobile. (This could be a whole other blog).
  • It's 120 miles away from home
  • The canteen food is expensive (and I've already put on weight)
  • everything I learnt at BT Global Services is going to apply here