INTERVIEW AID

Kartavya

24/02/2003

RESUMINE V 2.0

Interactivity Features

▶ Name of Current Company (could be any Co. name)

When a person moves cursor over the name of current company, following should get displayed:

Resume Text       Current Company     Products/Services
--------------------------------------------------------
                  Voltas              Refrigerators / A/c. Eqpt.

Other Companies engaged in similar business:

• Godrej

• Kelvinator

• Daewoo

• Samsung

• Electrolux
  ...

Other Executives from same company in subscriber’s database:

• A.J. Mehta

• B.J.S. Patel

• T. Venkatachalam

• R. Khare

This (feature) is fairly straightforward. We should be able to pick up data from DCA CD of 5.8 lakh companies.

If there are, clicking would open resume of that executive.

▶ Date of Birth (DOB)

The following does sound like “trivia”, but it will relieve the tension in the interview room and inject some light-hearted banter!

Moving a cursor would display following box:

[DOB] →   Your Horoscope says:

We can tie up with Bejan Daruwala or,

Based on birthdate/birthsign, this para can be picked up from any standard (year-wise) Horoscope/Astrology books.

You share your birthdate with following famous personalities:

• Sachin Tendulkar

• Aishwarya Rai

• Albert Einstein

• J.R.D. Tata
  etc.

We need to compile this for 2000 famous people – may cover all 365 days of the year.

Actual Designation

Example: General Manager – Mktg

Moving the cursor on actual designation should open up following template of Org. Chart:

Name / Desig. (Your Boss)
         |
 Your Name / GM-Mktg / Yourself
         |
Peers            Subordinates
(Name/Desig)     (Name/Desig)
(Name/Desig)     (Name/Desig)
                 (Name/Desig)

Your name and designation can appear automatically from RESUMINE.

If interviewer has interest & patience, he could ask this question:

“Who reports to you? Who do you report to?”

and fill in the boxes while interviewing.

The chart, once constructed, becomes available to all subsequent interviewers.

Someday, based on the “actual designation” of the executive being interviewed, we may be able to open several “windows” which may display:

→ Organisation Chart (described earlier)

→ Responsibilities / Job Description

→ List of “Questions” that can be asked to this candidate (– from a databank to be created)

→ “Responsibilities/Job Descriptions” of other executives (in the subscriber company’s resume database) who carry identical actual designation.

This display would help the interviewer compare this fellow’s job description with those of other professionals at the same hierarchy level in other organisations.

It will help interviewer to discover any “gaps” in the responsibilities of this fellow & then sharply question him on these (apparent) gaps!

This (comparison) would be an extremely powerful aid/tool for the interviewer!

Product/Service Name

Example: Heat Exchangers

Companies mfg/selling this product:
- Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
- AVB Heavy Eng. Ltd.
- Mukand Engineering Ltd.
- BHPV
- TriCon Engineering Ltd.

Moving the cursor on a “Product Name/Service Name” appearing in the resume will open a window as shown.

Clicking on the name of any of these companies will reveal full details about that company.

This feature will allow the interviewer to question and find out whether the candidate is aware of all of his company’s competitors! If he is a smart candidate, then he should!

Languages Known

Let us say, in the resume, the candidate has mentioned:

Languages Known: English, German, French.

Now assume that the candidate is an Englishman (or an Indian), but being interviewed by a German national.

The interviewer will simply move the cursor on German and —

PRESTO!

The entire resume gets translated automatically into German language!

(We may need to take “license” for such readymade “translator softwares” & plug-ins.)

The interviewer will feel so “comfortable” — besides being “amazed.” He can now test the knowledge of the candidate re: German language!

If our “Global Recruiter” has to be truly “Global,” then we must add this feature as early as possible.

Function-Related Keywords

We have discussed this earlier and decided that, instead of simply integrating MS Thesaurus to display “synonyms,” when a cursor is moved on a keyword, what we should do is to create a database of Function-Related Keywords.

When any of these keywords is found in the resume and the cursor is moved across that keyword, a window should pop up, displaying “Related Keywords.”

Example:

Audit

• Audit Report

• Tax Audit Report

• Audit Committee

• Statutory Audit

• Management Audit

Tax

• Tax Rules

• Tax Planning

• I.T. Returns

• TDS Returns

• Annual Returns

Accounts

• Ledger / Voucher

• Account Heads

• Assets Register

• Trial Balance

• Budget / Variance

The central idea behind providing/displaying “Related Words” boxes is to enable interviewer to question the candidate on a wide variety of related “subjects/topics,” thereby gauging the width/span & depth of a candidate’s knowledge.

Boxed words prompt the interviewer to explore & size-up the candidate. This feature would be highly appreciated by interviewers who frequently run out of “subjects” on which to question a candidate! (I have seen this happen many times.)

This concept could be extended to cover keywords describing particular “skills” in case of software candidates. Example:

Visual Basic 6.0     →   Does He know?   →   MS SQL Server 7.0
--------------------------------------------------------------
Crystal Reports 8.5  →   [blank space]   →   ActiveX Controls

It is not difficult to find 10 words (technical) related to each software “skill.”

References

Many resumes contain names/contact info of one or more senior executives as “References.” In many cases nowadays, the contact info also includes that person’s email ID.

We should make it possible for the interviewer to send out an email to such a reference person.

When interviewer moves cursor on the email ID of the reference person, a window should open containing following “standard” message:

Mr. T.S. Damodaran

dams@3rdagenda.com

MS Outlook (example window):

email to: dams@3rdagenda.com  
email from: (Subscriber’s email ID)  
Subscriber Co. Name: Mhatre Pen Products Limited  
Dear Sir/Madam,  
Jayant Patel has given your name as a reference. We are interviewing this candidate for [position] and would highly appreciate receiving your valuable opinion re: his skills/knowledge & attitude for this position.  
Info provided by you will be treated in strict confidence.  
Inder Sethi – GM (HR)

Telephone Nos.
All over the world, big telephone companies are also becoming ISPs – so internet & voice/phone/text/image transmissions are getting tightly integrated.
Therefore, before long, we/our subscriber may be able to move the cursor or click on any telephone no. appearing in a resume & get connected to that person – of course, provided subscriber’s PC has sound card/headphones. So, this interactivity must be kept in mind.
▶ Candidate’s Name/Photo
For Placement Agency type of subscribers, some day we must offer interactivity whereby, when subscriber moves the cursor (or clicks on) a candidate’s name/photo in the resume, a “Candidate History” page will open. This will give all past interactions (by that agency) with that candidate.
Our imagination is the limit to interactivity. We have a long road to cover – and FAST. I repeat, no one has monopoly on ideas!!
(Signature)
25/02/2003