IT Career Mania

• What is load testing? - Load testing is to test that if the application works fine with the loads that result from large number of simultaneous users, transactions and to determine weather it can handle peak usage periods.

• What is Performance testing? - Timing for both read and update transactions should be gathered to determine whether system functions are being performed in an acceptable timeframe. This should be done standalone and then in a multi user environment to determine the effect of multiple transactions on the timing of a single transaction.

• Did u use LoadRunner? What version? - Yes. Version 7.2.

• Explain the Load testing process? -
  Step 1: Planning the test. Here, we develop a clearly defined test plan to ensure the test scenarios we develop will accomplish load-testing objectives. Step 2: Creating Vusers. Here, we create Vuser scripts that contain tasks performed by each Vuser, tasks performed by Vusers as a whole, and tasks measured as transactions. Step 3: Creating the scenario. A scenario describes the events that occur during a testing session. It includes a list of machines, scripts, and Vusers that run during the scenario. We create scenarios using LoadRunner Controller. We can create manual scenarios as well as goal-oriented scenarios. In manual scenarios, we define the number of Vusers, the load generator machines, and percentage of Vusers to be assigned to each script. For web tests, we may create a goal-oriented scenario where we define the goal that our test has to achieve. LoadRunner automatically builds a scenario for us. Step 4: Running the scenario.
  We emulate load on the server by instructing multiple Vusers to perform tasks simultaneously. Before the testing, we set the scenario configuration and scheduling. We can run the entire scenario, Vuser groups, or individual Vusers. Step 5: Monitoring the scenario.
  We monitor scenario execution using the LoadRunner online runtime, transaction, system resource, Web resource, Web server resource, Web application server resource, database server resource, network delay, streaming media resource, firewall server resource, ERP server resource, and Java performance monitors. Step 6: Analyzing test results. During scenario execution, LoadRunner records the performance of the application under different loads. We use LoadRunner’s graphs and reports to analyze the application’s performance.

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It may have started with IT and ITeS, but job insecurity is fast engulfing other sectors as well. With India Inc in the throes of inflationary pressures facing a global economic slowdown, the job market is getting tighter with each passing day.

As a result, more people are now chasing fewer jobs. “Companies are doing a reality check in terms of the effect of the credit crisis in the US on their businesses,” says Kelly Services country head Rajiv Mehrotra. “Though hiring for crucial roles will continue, but volume hiring to fuel growth plans is being relooked.”

The effect is quite evident, especially in the IT sector. While companies like HCL, Infosys and TCS had indicated that they had slowed hiring processes in the recent past; Patni Computers is the latest to show some 400-odd employees the door.

On cue, the banking and financial services sector, too, is facing a slowdown in terms of hiring. Indian banking major ICICI Bank has already laid off around 1,000 of its employees. Similarly, hiring in investment banking seems to have taken a nosedive as well. “Recruitment in I-banking has definitely flattened, but the same cannot be said about insurance, retail banking and financial services,” says Transearch International partner Atul Vohra.

A US firm was reported to have asked three senior officials to put in their papers while a few other firms have asked their junior staff to leave, he says.

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Lower attrition has come out as a silver lining for IT companies as they battle recessionary clouds in US markets and an uncertain business environment. Large companies may have been able to arrest attrition by 0.5 per cent to even per cent in some cases, in the first quarter in the backdrop of an overall depressed recruitment scenario.

Employees are getting fewer job calls from headhunters and increments are projected to be ebbing, resulting in lower bargaining power. Besides, companies are being extremely choosy in recruiting numbers in a view to lower operating costs and sport a slimmer bench.

Recruitment agencies say, just like water finds its level, perhaps expectations on salaries would be more realistic now besides discouraging the practice of job-hopping.

For most of the large IT services major like TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam attrition rates are hovering somewhere between 11-20 per cent. But anything beyond 25 per cent reveals a danger signal. According to Angel Broking IT analyst Harit Shah, “There has been a general declining trend in attrition for most large companies. Steps like clear career paths have proved to be attractive retention techniques.”

Large companies are also believed to be insisting on signing bonds and taking deposits from rookie engineers to ensure that their huge training spending does not come to naught because of attrition.

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Some of the results of poor recruitment decisions are listed below.

Poor Recruitment

• Unhappy and unproductive employees
• Wasted financial investment – of the recruitment process and any subsequent training, severance pay, revenue generation failure.
• Wasted time
• Ineffective teams
• Failure to achieve results/ targets
• Unhappy customers

Successful Recruitment

• Happy and productive employees.
• Employees that are engaged and make a valuable contribution to their organization
• Improved productivity
• Collaborative teams that optimise individual strengths
• Met and even exceeded results
• Increased customer satisfaction and market standing

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There are 4 stages to an effective recruitment process

Stage 1 - Analysis, Planning and Definition

Stage 2 - Attraction and Qualification

Stage 3 - Selection and Acquisition

Stage 4 - Agreement and Induction

The subject of the complete process of recruitment is vast and space is limited so in this guide we can only give you some key questions to consider at each of these stages.

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Tata Consultancy Services, TCS India’s largest software exporter, recently asked nearly 20 employees to leave the company’s Kolkata centre after the company realized that their resumes were manipulated.

In the past, India’s top notch companies belonging to high-growth sectors like the IT, ITeS, BPO, banking, financial services, and insurance began the practice of verifying employees’ background by hiring background verification companies like FirstAdvantage and Integrascreen.

· Other Get Ahead features

As per FirstAdvantage, out of two million resumes that they screened in 2006-07 for discrepancies, a whopping 30 per cent were fudged. In the same year Infosys too had asked 100 employees to leave because of fudged resumes.

Ashish Dehade, managing director (West Asia), First Advantage says, “The percentage has been increasing. In 2006 it was 16-17 per cent, for 2007 it was 30 per cent and while we are just six months into 2008 the percentage is around 30 per cent,” reports Business Standard.

Following the brouhaha raised over the issue rediff.com had carried an article on why you shouldn’t lie on your CV on November 6, 2007. We are producing the same below as the discussion over fake resumes once again hots up.

· Reasons for background checks

~ Security concerns: The above-mentioned situations are some of the more extreme instances that have made most organisations sit up and be more careful about the kind of people they hire. Security is a serious concern — be it about that of the employees or clients’ confidential data or that of the company itself. Increasingly, companies, particularly those in the IT sector are investing more in securing their intellectual property and confidential data that can influence their bottom line. Continue Reading →

You have just landed your first job. Feeling excited, apprehensive or both?

Shweta Beri, 29, a freelance public relations consultant, recalls her first day on the job with Enterprise PR, a division of Enterprise Nexus. She was introduced to her colleagues and made to feel comfortable by everyone. Soon, she picked up the firm’s style of functioning and protocol; today, she has fond memories of those early days.

Not everyone is so fortunate.

How do you prevent goof-ups from happening during your stint at your first job?

Here are a few must-knows before you set foot into the real world.

• How to be a star performer

~ You might feel some level of negativity emanating from some of your colleagues. This could happen for any reason. For example, you may have been brought in instead of them being promoted, or someone they know could have been rejected at the interview stage, or it could be some other reason.

Under these circumstances, you need to concentrate on doing your job well. Give them time to get to know you. Do not go on the offensive or become defensive; it will simply compound a difficult issue. Let time overcome this phase; after all, time heals all wounds.

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By now, most of us have heard a handful of horror stories about how a person’s online profile wrecked his or her job search or career. Yet, every day people swarm social networking Web sites making the exact same mistakes. Maintaining an “It-won’t-happen-to-me” attitude, many people have no idea that the derogatory statements they just posted or the lewd pictures of themselves online may cost them the job of their dreams.

Fortunately, some job seekers are wising up to how they present themselves in cyberspace. Rather than developing a profile that could quickly get them fired, savvy professionals are increasingly social networking Web sites to find jobs, develop key contacts and advance their careers.

“Having an online identity is becoming increasingly important as a way to establish your credibility and personal brand and to attract career or business opportunities,” say Ellen Sautter and Diane Crompton, co-authors of “Seven Days to Online Networking.” To ensure that people create a profile savvy enough to help them land a job, they offer the following tips.

How to get hired

Be consistent from site-to-site. Too often recruiters and hiring managers get mixed messages about job candidates based on their online profiles. For example, you might have a LinkedIn profile that portrays you as a driven go-getter with an excellent sales background, but your MySpace profile portrays you as someone who lives the life of an 80s rock star. Make sure that every profile you create portrays the same person — someone who’s respectable, professional and high achieving.

Master a brief sound bite. When looking at your profile, hiring managers and recruiters want to learn more about you. The “About You” section of your profile offers the perfect opportunity to briefly describe your work history, strengths and notable achievements. This paragraph should be similar to a thirty-second elevator speech you may have already prepared about yourself.

Develop a network. Some people prefer massive networks that consist of hundreds of strangers from around the globe. Others prefer a small network that includes only people they’ve befriended, are related to or have worked with. Crompton and Sautter suggest developing a network of between 50 to 150 contacts through each site.

Showcase your skills through links. You should include links to your blog, webfolio or Web site, if they are relevant to your career. If you don’t have any of these things, consider including links to any projects or work you might have been involved in that can be viewed online.

Strategically use keywords in the “Tags” section. Similar to using keywords in a résumé, this strategy allows you to list words that help other people in your network or search engines find you. These words can include your area of expertise, job titles, industries, hobbies and anything else that defines you as a professional.

Just as there are plenty of things a person can do with their profile to help them stand out in cyberspace, there are dozens of faux pas people commit all too often. The following five mistakes are some of the most common social networking missteps.

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A new year means new beginnings: new resolutions, ideas and friends; new habits, relationships and goals; new salaries, titles and responsibilities. And perhaps most importantly, new jobs. Lots of ‘em. And not just for 2008, either - until 2016.

Total employment is expected to increase by 15.6 million jobs during the 2006-16 decade, according to the most recent employment projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Almost all of this growth will occur in the service-providing sector, which will account for 75 percent of all jobs in 2016.

Professional and related professions and service occupations are projected to grow most quickly, accounting for more than six of 10 new jobs created throughout 2006-2016. Twenty-eight of the 30 fastest-growing jobs are in professional and related occupations and service positions.

Interested in getting in on the new job action this year? Here are the 30 fastest-growing growing occupations for 2006-2016, according to the BLS.

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First off, I can write my own resume, but it doesn’t look polished.
It’s more like a rough draft. So I asked my friend to give it a once over for me and see what he thought. Unknown to me, he modified it. Like instead of a customer service rep, he put insurance claims rep. I was told that I was customer service by the company I worked for. But the work I did was that of an insurance claims rep. I didn’t know that.

I went for an IT job at Apple, and fudged my interview.
I have IT skills and basic training, however, I don’t have any certificates to back me up. And it’s all in PC, not Mac. So while I was stressing on the IT Mac tests that I had to do while the interview process was going on. I’m a serious person,but I tend to say whats on my mind.(STUPID!!!) So when the interviewer asked me if I did insurance claims, I asked her what she was talking about. She said “Didn’t you write this resume?” I, stupidly said, that I didn’t. I told her someone helped me with it.
(Duhhh..)Well needless to say, the interview was over and I didn’t get the job. And I’m completely @#&% off at that agency.
They now assume that I’m just a dumb laborer.
Worst part is, I passed all the IT tests and scored higher than a
certified pro.

I was doing interviewing for a network engineering position for a government agency not long ago. One of the peeople we interviewed had brought along samples of his documentation work from a previous company. While this is not in and of itself horrid, as network documentation is a persnickety and detail-oriented business, the gotcha that had the interviewing team staring at each other in silent disbelief was that he had not removed any information at all from any of the documents.

In the IT world, IP addresses, interface information, and hostname information are very much proprietary and sensitive information that does not leave the company doors. They are shredded when obsolete and are kept on a need-to-know basis, because a hacker with a network map that includes IP’s can wreak merry havoc with your network. And this guy was blithely showing off another company’s unedited network maps without a care in the world!

Needless to say, he was not hired, and the head of the interview team had a few quiet words with his recruiter, I’m told.

I have been doing technical writing for over fifteen years now. Prior to this I was an assistant engineer in electronics. In 2000, I was losing my job because it was being moved to Canada, so I started looking for a new job.

I got an interview with a company in Somerset, NJ. The woman in charge of the Technical Writing Department held a BS degree in Communications and she was looking for a knowledgeable technical writer.

She started off asking me questions about my writing and ask to see a few samples, which I showed her. She looked at them for a short time and after a while became a little puzzled. She then questioned the accuracy of the content of my documents, which I defended. She then showed me what she wanted in a few samples of Data Sheets and a few Technical Procedures that she had produced for that company. As I looked through them, I realized that the woman did not know the basic differences between voltage, current, and resistance. Everything thing was either wrong, or stressing the wrong device characteristics. I then made the mistake of politely pointing this out and that it might cost them in sales if they weren’t cleaned up. I was then told that the interview was over and to leave. I did so.

Needless to say, I did not get the job. However six months later, I was working at a new place that I really enjoyed, when I then got a phone call from that very same company in Somerset, NJ. In a brief exchange with the HR person, I was told that the woman that I had took the interview with was no longer with the company. She then asked me if I would be interested in coming back for another interview. I smiled and said no.

With all the different questions being referenced, you may wonder what exactly the employer is looking for. And I will tell you. Following is the list of the top ten critical success factors that nearly every employer is seeking:

1. Positive attitude toward work
2. Proficiency in field of study
3. Communication skills (oral and written)
4. Interpersonal skills
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5. Confidence
6. Critical thinking and problem solving skills
7. Flexibility
8. Self-motivation
9. Leadership
10. Teamwork

Show your competence in as many of the above critical success factors as possible and you will rise above the competition.

It is important to prepare in advance for the interview question what are your strong points. If you’ve already listed your strengths when preparing your CV / resume, coming up with three answers shouldn’t be too difficult.

But be careful. The interviewer is asking you to sell yourself, but at the same time, they do not want to hear you being arrogant. And while they may want to know about your personality (if you are over confident they will certainly learn something about you), do remember that this is still an interview situation, so your answers must be relevant to the job in question. In other words, don’t get too personal.

So how do you go about answering the interview question what are your strong points? The general recommendation is to prepare at least three answers and to relate them to the organisation and the vacancy. This means you need to tailor your answers. Ensure there is truth in what you say, but do not be too honest, especially it makes you sound like a less than ideal candidate.

Here are some suggested responses and the reasons why they might work in interviews for certain kinds of jobs.

“I am confident and outgoing”

This is a response that says something about your personality, but if you are applying for a role where you need to relate to a lot of people - particularly the public - it will serve your purposes. However, if the vacancy involves consultation, it might be better to say “I have good interpersonal skills”, as this implies that you are able to listen to people as well.

“I enjoy a challenge”

Be careful with this. It is an excellent response if the vacancy requires problem solving, or servicing of some kind, working to tight deadlines or project completion. It will obviously not be helpful if the job is less dynamic and involves a larger amount of regular, less exciting duties - the employer might be concerned that you will become bored. You could always qualify it to offer a more balanced response: “I enjoy a challenge, but I’m also happy completing regular tasks.” Then it illustrates that you’re flexible and responsive to different work situations.

“I’m a strong team leader”

Clearly, this is appropriate if the job involves managing people. It’s a good idea to show that you know what leading a team involves (although this will no doubt come up in other questions too). So, “I’m a strong team leader with the ability to motivate others” and “I’m a strong team leader who leads by example” represent stronger answers. Draw on your own understanding of your management skills plus the job description to decide what you’ll say here.

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It is not enough to have solid answers only for the above questions. You need to be prepared for the full spectrum of questions that may be presented. For further practice, make sure you go through the required mock interview (see the “Competitive Interview Prep” Section) and for further review, look at some of the following questions:

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What do you want to do with your life?
3. Do you have any actual work experience?
4. How would you describe your ideal job?
5. Why did you choose this career?
6. When did you decide on this career?
7. What goals do you have in your career?
8. How do you plan to achieve these goals?
9. How do you evaluate success?
10. Describe a situation in which you were successful.
11. What do you think it takes to be successful in this career?
12. What accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction in your life?
13. If you had to live your life over again, what would you change?
14. Would your rather work with information or with people?
15. Are you a team player?
16. What motivates you?
17. Why should I hire you?
    
18. Are you a goal-oriented person?
19. Tell me about some of your recent goals and what you did to achieve them.
20. What are your short-term goals?
21. What is your long-range objective?
22. What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
23. Where do you want to be ten years from now?
24. Do you handle conflict well?
25. Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How did you resolve it?
26. What major problem have you had to deal with recently?
27. Do you handle pressure well?
28. What is your greatest strength?
29. What is your greatest weakness?
30. If I were to ask one of your professors to describe you, what would he or she say?
31. Why did you choose to attend your college?
32. What changes would you make at your college?
33. How has your education prepared you for your career?
34. What were your favorite classes? Why?
35. Do you enjoy doing independent research?
36. Who were your favorite professors? Why?
37. Why is your GPA not higher?
38. Do you have any plans for further education?
39. How much training do you think you’ll need to become a productive employee?
40. What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?
41. Why do you want to work in the _____ industry?
42. What do you know about our company?
43. Why are you interested in our company?
44. Do you have any location preferences?
45. How familiar are you with the community that we’re located in?
46. Will you relocate? In the future?
47. Are you willing to travel? How much?
48. Is money important to you?
49. How much money do you need to make to be happy?
50. What kind of salary are you looking for?

Don’t just read these questions–practice and rehearse the answers. Don’t let the company interview be the first time you have actually formulated an answer in spoken words. It is not enough to think about them in your head–practice! Sit down with a friend, a significant other, or your roommate (an especially effective critic, given the amount of preparation to date) and go through all of the questions. Make the most of every single interview opportunity by being fully prepared!