FUNCTION PROFILE GRAPHS

Kartavya

Function Profile Graphs

Today in ImageBuilder, we are plotting these → only for “Raw Score” along X axis, “No. of Candidates” in Y axis.

Again these are plotted as FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION GRAPHS.

But we should, at subscriber’s option (button click @ Rs. 10/- per click?), also offer a

CUMULATIVE NO. OF CANDIDATES vs RAW SCORE

graphs (one for each function), as shown in attached illustration.

Some statistically minded Recruitment Managers would be happy to this kind of graphical presentation.

It is perhaps also easier to grasp/interpret.

This feature would be especially very useful in QuickSearch.

As a Recruitment Manager, I may want to know,

• How many candidates would I be short-listing if I select Raw Scores between 25 & 30?

Ans: 200 Candidates

Now imagine, if the Graph displays this figure (of 200) as shown in enclosed illustration, when Recruitment Manager simply moves the “Pointer lines” horizontally to his desired values – clicking below “200 Candidates” produces the short-list!

WOW! This is like a videogame for adults!

One can have another set of 3 graphs (for 3 functions) where X axis denotes PERCENTILES instead of “Raw Scores.”

We must find as many ways of making money as we can by offering “Value Options.”

cc: Atthi / Vickey
cc: Inder / Pooja

QMS-QC-Q4

“Raw Score” point	No. of Resumes	Cumulative No. of Resumes (Below)
5	100	100
10	570	670
15	650	1320
20	530	1850
25	350	2200
30	200	2400
35	100	2500
40	60	2560
45	40	2600
50	32	2632

  

(30/03/03)

Kartavya

Keywords/Words

I have sent to Dr. D.J. Shah (Principal – Bhavan’s, Bangalore) a list of 300+ IT related keywords (given to me by Atthi). Against each of these, we want Bhavan’s faculty to write down/list up to 5 words which are related to the original keyword.

While we wait for the responses, I enclose some words, I picked up from EFG Crossword Puzzle #522 along with their meanings. Most of these are IT related words – some are quite easy but a few (marked V) could be used to build our DATABASE, which can be linked to our ResuMine Interviewer’s screen.

When a recruiter clicks on one of these words, the meaning will appear in a window.

Such a DATABASE can be easily compiled by cutting out each day’s puzzle (along with solution) & pasting on a “Knowledge” Panel – using SCANNER PEN! Very little effort needed.

Crossword Puzzle appears 5 times a week – each having about 20 words – i.e. about 100 words/week or 5000 words/year! Not bad. We need the EXPERT LEVEL!

Pl. consider this seriously. As far as possible, we should use “content created by others” rather than create ourselves.

Cc: Atthi

On second thought, I get a feeling that the words found in crossword puzzle are so very specific that we may not come across these in many resumes.

But it is still possible to compile such a database from crossword puzzles at negligible cost – and use it to create a KNOWLEDGE HORIZON TEST (KHT).

A recruiter can make use of this test by clicking on a button on the INTERVIEWER’S SCREEN of ResuMine, which would display following window:

---

KNOWLEDGE HORIZON TEST

A - B - C - D - E - … - Z

Word	Meaning	Candidate’s Answer
		Correct
Bison		(o)
Bobo		(o)
BPI		( )

---

Answers (as ticked by Interviewer) can be aggregated to meaningful words (within the concerned subject) in descending order of “usage” by recruiters.

We can also provide a facility wherein the recruiter can “add” words & meanings to the panel whenever he frames a question and may import a large participation & accumulation of database.

No.	Word	Clue/Meaning
ACROSS
5	Fini	Unix file search utility
8	Avatar	Virtual World incarnation
9	Globber	Enormously write into server memory
9	BPI	Measure for density of data storage on a recording medium
10	Kluge	Makeshift program
12	e-book	Handheld device for reading text
15	Fat	File system that keeps track of where data is stored on disks
	Jetsend	Technology from HP that provides direct communication between network devices
	Decode	Decipher
	Null	First character in ASCII Code

 

| DOWN | | |

| 1 | Dial | Initiate a phone-call |

| 2 | Warez | Slang for software, especially pirated/illegal |

| 3 | FAQ | Questions with answers on Net |

| 4 | Kaypro | Defunct US computer company, which used to manufacture ‘Luggables’ |

| 5 | Debug | Remove bugs from a problem |

| 6 | Unix | Break to test computer memory & load |

| 7 | Bison | Free software tool comparable to Yacc |

| 8 | Texel | Smallest addressable unit of texture map |

| 17 | Nile | A family of MIPS-R4400 based servers from Siemens Nixdorf |

| 18 | Bob | Alternate Windows interface from Microsoft which never caught on |

 ResuMine as an Interview-Aid

21-03-03

For converting ResuMine into an interview-aid, we have thought of adding following features:

• Comparing the “Functional Exposure Profile” (FQ Score) of a candidate with functional exposure profiles of:
• Total Population
• Peer Group (same age/edu/exp/designation, etc.)
• When you move mouse over any company name appearing in resume, a window will show:
• Products/services of that company
• Other companies making same products/services

This feature will help in testing the industry knowledge of a candidate.

(This feature can be quickly incorporated now that we have cracked DCA DB).

• Moving cursor on Function Exposure Row (of score map) will reveal a list of keywords which are relevant to that function.
• Clicking on any such keyword will open a window containing 5 pertinent questions which the interviewer can ask the candidate to test his Function-Exposure Depth (Deep / Adequate / Shallow ?).

 

You also suggested that against each such question, we place radio-buttons, as follows:

Keyword: Data Modelling

Question	Candidate’s answer was
	Completed / Just Following / Adequate / Wrong
Q1: What are the characteristics of an optimal data model? (Contribution)	○ ○ ○ ○
Q2: What is the difference between static & dynamic information? (Contribution 2)	○ ○ ○ ○

Clicking will record “Contributor Data.”

---

Notes:

(A) The clicks can be aggregated to decide the most popular (frequently asked) questions, which can then automatically re-emerge in descending order of popularity.

(B) The clicks can/must also be stored against relevant PEN along with:

• Name of Interviewer
• Position for which candidate being interviewed
• Date of interview

As far as (A) = Aggregation is concerned, it should be across all subscribers / all interviewers linked to that particular question only. Aggregation must not link with PEN in any way whatsoever.

As opposed to this B is a “private affair” between that candidate & that Interviewer (Corporate subscriber).

B results/findings must not/cannot be seen/viewed at any time by someone other than that Company/Interviewer. This is like a “Doctor/Patient relationship”!

We also talked about

• Facility for all subscriber/interviewers to add their own new questions to our question database
• Giving credit to such contributors through some sort of “public recognition” of their contribution

When an interviewer adds a new question, we should ask him to fill the following form:

---

Contributor Data (Auto-Date Stamping)

Question	Title Added	Relevant Keyword

Name of Contributor: Last ______ First ______

Designation?
Employer?
Organization?
Personal Email?

Such a feature will enable us to “capture” the knowledge of thousands of interviewers — a knowledge base that we can never hope to build up on our own.

And a “Public Recognition” item (Contributor hyperlink) is a powerful way to motivate experts to add questions.

We can even think of publishing on our homepage:

“Contributor of the Week”

Profile with a small photograph & a single-sentence of the Contributor. (All of which he can submit to us online.)

Having decided that we should initially focus on IT industry, we need to compile a list of:

• IT (Function) Keywords (which you have already done)
• Questions related to these IT keywords

You have listed 300 keywords. Suppose we pick 5 questions against each of these keywords, then we are talking of 1500 questions to be compiled.

Where can we get hold of these questions?

It would take many weeks for an expert...

…to write down 1500 questions — even if he happens to be a genuine expert on 300 subjects/topics!

I think it would be much simpler/easier to get hold of a few IT-related books (of the kind enclosed) — and look up the questions listed at the end of each chapter!

There are hundreds of IT-related books — several on each subject, such as:

• Operating Systems
• Databases
• Languages
• Network Protocols
• etc. etc.

Probably each such book costs around Rs. 400/500.

So, we are talking of an investment of not more than Rs. 10,000/- at most.

Other alternative is to subscribe to some online testing services, such as:

• Brainbench
• Oracle
• Microsoft
• Boston Computer Edu Institute website (of which we were a partner at one time)
• New Horizon (Hyderabad) (We could not agree on terms for partnering but they offer online tests to IAS Software Studies.)

Once we subscribe, I suppose, we can download these questions.

Apart from above-mentioned “sources” for questions, we may also explore the possibility of getting these from reputable computer training institutions (their “Test Papers”?) such as:

• Aptech
• NIIT
• SSI (which has taken over Aptech)
• NCST (Juhu)
• CSI (Computer Society of India)
• VJTI
• IIT (Powai) (Both offer B.E. Computers) & MEA courses

A retired “Computer Course” professor could be an ideal expert to compile such a database — since he would be used to setting exam papers! I will talk to 2/3 such institutes to find out whether we could get such a person for 2/3 weeks.

I spoke to Mr. Magapu (CEO-L&T Infotech) today re: our proposed demo. He said he will organize it after 2nd April since Mr. Devender Nath, who is in charge of HR, is on leave and since they are all very busy with Annual Budget exercise.

(signature)

Cc: Atthi

Cc: Inder/Anjaria

 28/02/03

Extending Resumine/Research

We must extend the capabilities of Resumine/Research by adding “features” which turn it into a powerful “Interview-Aid.” This could be done by online/offline capture of data, then use of enclosed exhibits:

Exhibit A → Interview Evaluation Sheet

Exhibit B → Compensation Format

Exhibit C → Organisation Chart

Exhibit D → Employment History

As far as Exhibits B/C/D are concerned, candidates can be asked to fill in these forms, as he is waiting for interview. Then these can be “scanned” & uploaded (as images) into Resumine. Recruiter can open/view these images by clicking on different buttons.

OR

Prior to interview, these forms are “emailed” to the candidate. He is asked to fill in & return by “snailmail.” When these data gets automatically uploaded in Resumine.

Recruiter (our webservice subscriber) can send these forms (as email) to only those candidates he plans to call for interview.

OR these forms can automatically get emailed to each & every candidate whose email resume gets processed by the Resumine (along with appropriate standard covering letter). The advantage here is that:

• No human intervention for sending/uploading
• Collection of vast database of millions of resumes, which will allow us to plot the 2 graphs enclosed with my note dt. 21.03.03. When millions of forms, these graphs will get auto-generated.

Candidate’s own graph could be “promised” to him, while sending out email forms, as a carrot for him to take the trouble of filling in these forms! Now, his own graphs could be plotted along with career-progression / salary-progression average/median (line for millions of similar professionals). He gets to know where exactly he stands in relation to co-professionals!

This (promise) would be a huge incentive/motivator for him to take the trouble. And once-a-year (or as often as he wishes), he can update Employment History sheet on his handheld, upload on our webserver & get revised latest plots!

 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