A recession time interview !

Interesting.....Don't miss last two Questions... Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years). My friend, the ‘job hopper’ (referred here as Mr. JH), does not mind it…. well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the ‘company loyal’ employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys – the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?

A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?

A: Well I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown. I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up; so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?

A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?

A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ‘employer loyalty’. But I was an idiot..

Q: Why do you say so?

A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ‘permanent’ job, so I need not worry about ‘what will I do if I lose my job’. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance. That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.

A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ‘company loyal’ and not ‘money earning and saving loyal’. But then you can save enough only when you earn enough. So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving – I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?

A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring. You tell me – can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No. So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?

A: That's the question I was waiting for. In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a. In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable). I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?

A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ‘debt-free’ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?

A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq.. feet) plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs. I am laid off too but I do not complain at all. If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?

A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining. They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty. Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me – why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?

A: Like Narayana Murthy had said – love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you. In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company's needs. Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same. Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?

A: When a company does well, its CEO etc. will address the entire company saying, ‘well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you.” But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO Etc will say, “It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go.” So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

Why you SHOULD NOT get Drunk?

Micheal Jackson- Gone too soon !!!

I have had my share of Micheal jackson jokes here and every where I write and speak... But when he is gone, when one looks back , when one sit and see the outpour that the KING OF POP is getting from all the corners of the world I can only but bow my head in reverence. It is not a simple task to be what Micheal Jackson was. No one could ever be him, when he was alive and no one can ever be like him even after he is gone. MJ and the innovations in music that he bought with him will remain...

What a life man ..!!!

And what a farewell !!!

MJ was .....

Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like The Loss Of Sunlight
On A Cloudy Afternoon
Gone Too Soon

Like A Castle
Built Upon A Sandy Beach
Gone Too Soon

Like A Perfect Flower
That Is Just Beyond Your Reach
Gone Too Soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Gone Too Soon.... !

Mayawati - the icon...

Mayawati is an ICON , at least that is what she seems to be told and beleives...
How will one other wise ,dare to indulge in a self importance parade of sorts where she spend a whopping 1000 crore in a damn disregard to even basic rules of public behavior, installing and unveilling a host of parks( where the rows of Elephants-her parties election symbol and her statues are the key features) ostensibly for Kanshiram who founded her party and the Great Dr Ambedkar ,on whose shoulders all this jokers still piggy ride ....

Mayawati is a symbol ......and for UP (which sure is in shock for having elected her) and India at large have got this realisation that for us the need of the hour is statues... more and more of them... Manmohan, Sonia, Advani all of them should make their own statues and unveil it shamelessly and declare that ICONS should be said that they are icons when they are alive... No matter how many people still go to bed- hungry and crying , no matter the diseases, the unemployement, no matter the basic things like roads, water and right to education...
















Mayawati is a synonym .....for the rotten politician that India seems to be bearing in its weak shoulders for decades now... and how we still arent tired of this creeps and the filth and smell that they emit... It is a disgrace that the world is discussing an elected leader of an Indian state and her statue fetish and other self obsessed traits of megalomania...

Mayawati is a gesture ....for us to act...... the people of India to throw the baggage and burden of caste and creed which for the political class (Class ? EH>>>> ) has been all along a tool for exploitation...

Has the life of the Dalits (bahujan as her party calls them ) improved in her rule?

Will they all get glory by this statue spree?

Will they get ecstasy when they stand half clad and half fed , seeing one of those statues, hoping to vote for Behenji again?

Will they get heaven if such bigots get to power again to build more statues and parks, have more birthday bashes and collect gifts, adore themselves in diamond ornaments and pretend like mideaval kings and queens...?

Mayawati is a Shame, an absolute one for the lack of even traits of humility that makes a leader, Lack of simple behaviour like the one Manmohan singh carries, Lack of mass appeal like LK Advani or for that matter the understanding of the issues of the common man that she represents...

The great Dr Ambedkar is made to stand next to her... Will some courts order at least the removal of them?

Paradox !!!

Let us keep praying, still....