As One Door Closes, Another Window Opens

Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

This might sound ironic but when I read in the white paper, Talent Management in a Down Economy from Taleo about job creation during a recession,  it actually made sense. According to the article, it is a misconception that hiring stops during a recession. In fact, hiring continues and job opportunities are still available!

As a point in case, data derived from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that in the 2nd quarter of 2001 when the the dot com bubble burst, 1.2 million jobs were lost. On the other hand, in the same period, 7.6 million jobs were created.

History is repeating itself again and the same case will be applied to the current global recession. Old jobs will be lost but, new ones will be created. These jobs are the by-products of new opportunities as businesses look for new markets to grow into, new products to develop and new services to offer. Likewise, new jobs will also be created when businesses go back to their roots and focus on core products and services. Recessions always provide that impetus for businesses to improve the overall strength of its current workforce by making it lean and efficient and at the same time infuse it with new, skilled talent.

I saw this trend starting here in the Philippines albeit the massive layoffs happening in several companies. As an example, one multinational company which shed numerous jobs in its financial department is currently expanding its support operations.

What is the lesson learned here then? Do not stagnate in your current job! Always look for learning opportunities in potential growth areas. This will give you the leverage to capitalize and grab potential job opportunities most especially during recessions. This will also help conquer that fear of being fired.

From my standpoint, the opportunities right now are in service management, business intelligence and process improvement frameworks (ISO, CMMI, Six Sigma). These 3 focus on the identification and implementation of opportunities in reducing costs without sacrificing quality while increasing productivity, 3 critical factors needed right now in this challenged business climate.

Firing a Bad Hire

I found this great article in TechRepublic's Blog regarding a first hand account from Benny Sisko on how he fired a bad hire. He listed 6 lessons learned on how to avoid having a bad hire and I interjected my ideas in some of the lessons.

1. Perform a two-part interview.
Interviews are best done more than once with two or more pairs of eyes and ears in each sessions. Each interviewer is coming to the session with his/her own biases and expectations and this ensures that all questions are covered with the applicant. If not all, at least the most critical ones. Some may consider this as a waste of time but compare it with the lost time in productivity and morale impact later on due to a bad hire, the extra time and effort is well worth it.

2. Test the candidate.
Match the technical tests as close as possible to your technical requirements. If the position requires web development using HTML, JavaScript and CSS, give the applicant a test on how to develop a sample website using these 3 technologies. This will give you a pretty good idea on the skill level of the applicant without asking too many questions. In fact you can even go deeper afterward and conduct a code analysis to further probe on the logic and rationale behind his coding practices and framework.

3. Get more references and then get more references.

4. If he does slip by, coach, coach, coach.
Actually, even if the new hire is not slipping, it is worth it to have monthly or even bimonthly sessions to be more proactive if he/she is already encountering difficulties or only seeing potential problems in the horizon. These sessions will also serve as excellent feedback mechanism to level any expectations or misconceptions regarding assigned responsibilities.

5. Listen to the team.

6. Take the probationary period seriously and make it known that I intend to do so.

Firing: The Bad and The Ugly

Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

Firing is one of the sordid tasks that all managers must face and handle sooner or later. I had my own share in the past and these all evoked unpleasant memories. However which way you sugarcoat a termination, it would always be received negatively albeit temporarily. Unfortunately this will become more of the norm within this year rather than an exception because of the global financial crunch. Not a day goes by that I see news about a company reducing 10% of its workforce here or a company laying off off 3,000 employees there.

The Philippines is not spared even with the expanding offshoring / outsourcing opportunities coming in. I read in the news about Accenture Philippines which laid off 500 employees as part of a redundancy program. There was also the news about the "total shutdown" of Intel Philippines' operation affecting almost 2,000 employees.

In this regard, if you are faced with this dire situation, this might help you ease the tension and stress. I found this great post from Slacker Manager about a US News blog article that Alison Green wrote on how to fire someone. I very much agree with point #6 (Know you’re going to be emotionally drained afterwards) and what Slacker Manager added as point #7 (Don’t take it personally).

Firing always makes me "psychologically" sick. This is the reason why I always schedule this kind of meeting on a Friday so I have a chance to "recuperate" over the weekend. Likewise, whatever is said during the meeting, don't take it personally. Be like a Teflon-coated pan to ensure that nothing sticks to you since all the negative words that will be hurled at you are just the consequence of the outburst of emotions.

Hiring: Interview Questions

Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

The hiring process is littered with "dead bodies." I considered myself having a high "batting average" in getting great hires but unfortunately I also have my own share of wrong decisions.

From my perspective, hiring is a probabilities game. In order to increase the probability of getting great hires, I need to expand and refine the various tools and techniques I am using in the hiring process. The first one I would like to share here are the questions I use during the interview process.

Interview applicants are always showing their best feet forward during the interview process. As a result, it is my responsibility to ask the right questions in order to peel through these layers and probe deeper to reveal their true personalities and tendencies. I know volumes of books have already been written regarding this topic so I will not be focusing on them anymore.

My focus will be on the list of questions that I amassed through the years. I got these questions from a speed-dating website. It will come as a surprise to some but for me it made a whole lot of sense. In speed dating, a couple is only given 5 minutes to ask questions and assess if there is a fit or "click" between the two of them. As a result, these questions are quite pointed and the answers provided to them can serve as a foundation to deeper, probing questions.

Listed below is a sample of these questions and a small description about their rationale in a job interview situation.

Pursuit for Skills and Knowledge
I would like to know if the applicant is motivated in expanding his skills and knowledge outside that of the domain knowledge he is getting from work. This is usually reflected on the activities he is doing during his sparetime and the kind of books he is reading.

• When you have spare time, what do you do for fun?
• What do you do during weekends?
• What's the latest book you have read?
• What's the latest technical book you have read?

Attitudes and Values
I would like to know the priorities in life of the applicant, what drives or motivates him to work, who drives and motivates him, who influenced him to be him now.

• What do you cherish the most in life?
  
• What person has most influenced you in your life and why?
  
• What attitude do you have right now you want to change?
  
• How do you think you are viewed by others?

Education
I usually hire fresh graduates. As a result, I would like to know how did they perform in college since this could be a reflection on what would be their performance at work.

• Why did you decide to take up {course}?
• Tell us a little about how well you did in school.
  
• Tell us a little about your extracurricular activities.
  
• What were your best and worst subjects (favorite and least favorite)?
• Did you have a job while in college? If yes, can you describe the job and your responsibilities.
  

Loco Roco 2: Berries Location in Tropuca and Chapo-Wahr Stages

In the first Loco Roco, collecting all 20 berries was, from my standpoint, just bragging rights to friends. This is drastically changed in Loco Roco 2 where getting all the berries in one stage means unlocking a short movie about a character in the Loco Roco world. A great reinforcement indeed!

Unfortunately, knowing the location of the berries is the easy part. Actually, for 1,000 pickories, a Mui Mui will help you find 1 berry. The problem though is getting all 20 berries has proven to be quite a challenging endeavor most especially in the 2nd and 3rd stages.

What I'll do here is to help you out on the easy part. I'll post the location of all berries in the various stages. Getting all 20 will be up to you.

TROPUCA STAGES



Tropuca Stage 1


Click image to enlarge

Tropuca Stage 2


Click image to enlarge

CHAPO-WAHR STAGES



Chapo-Wahr Stage 1


Click image to enlarge

Chapo-Wahr Stage 2


Click image to enlarge

Loco Roco 2: Throne of Mui Mui King

This is the location in the Mui Mui House where you will unlock the Throne of the Mui Mui King. It is located on the topmost portion of the house. In order to build it, you need the following parts:

1 Gorjan Stone
4 Great Horn
2 Pupi Weed
1000 Pickories

You can get the Gorjan Stone either from the Loco Race mini-game after playing it for about 20 times and winning 1st place or from the underground digger that appears when you quit or load a stage (the mine should be yellow / gold in color). You can get the Great Horn from the Mui Mui Crane mini-game. As for the Pupi Weed, unfortunately I could not recall where I got it and searching Google was not helpful. I will update this post once I get more information.

Once you built the Throne, the Mui Mui King would immediately appear sitting on it. All the while I thought something would happen, a new stage or mini-game would be unlocked or a new part in the Mui Mui House would appear. Guess what? Nothing! He is the King and nothing happened?!

Likewise, you may be wondering is he doing something special in the Mui Mui house? From what I am seeing, none! He just sits on the throne waving at the other Mui Muis. I think that is the reason why he is a bit soggy in the mid-section.

Loco Roco 2: Special Story Movie

You would be able to unlock this movie once you built the Special Projector in the Mui Mui House.



To do so, you need the following parts:

2 Shapola Stone
1 See-through Stone
3 Meteorite Fragment
1000 Pickories

You can get the Shapola Stone from the Chapo-Wahr stages, the See-through Stone from the Shamplin 2 stage, and the Meteorite Fragment from the Mui Mui Crane (assuming you have already unlocked it) but it is quite a common item that you can easily find in various stages.

Enjoy the movie.