Monthly Archives: July 2011

Ways that people ask for jobs

July 31, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Getting a Job | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Every day, people are asking me for jobs that I don’t have.  People respond to my blogs asking for jobs.  My blog is not a job market, it is rather a source of information and opinions about outsourcing.  The type of requests I get are also written in broken English.  Nobody will hire someone who writes text message English or broken English.  Below are some examples of job seekers and how they sometimes communicate.  You will quickly understand why these applicants don’t have jobs.
 
Example #1:
“Dear Sir, i want part time job pls give me full detail”
 
Commentary
1.  There is no text anywhere that suggested that we were offering a job
2.  “i” should be capitalized since it is a proper noun.
3.  i want part time job — there should be an “a” since you want “a part time job”. 
4.  “pls” is not English.   When you are texting someone, you might use abbreviations.  However, someone seriously looking for a job would write correct English and say, “Please”
5. This person is begging.  Someone serious about getting a job would introduce themselves, tell me the specifics of what type of job they wanted, and send a resume.  Someone saying, “Give me job” is a mere begger, and nobody wants to hire a begger.
6.  give me full detail — detail needs an “s” at the end since details are generally plural.  This person should start out by asking if we even have jobs, rather than asking what the details are.
7.  This job applicant is in Africa.  How can a company in America possibly hire an African resident to do anything.  The applicant is far away, there is no way to verify if they are actually doing the work, they have no reputation with us, and don’t work for a reputable company.  If I hired someone overseas, they would have a company with a long track record, so that I would be able to trust them.
 
Example #2
“good working and good typing skills”
 
Commentary
1.  There is no introduction here.  The person claims to have good working skills, but doesn’t say who they are. 
2.  This person should email the manager offering a job rather than responding to a blog. Blogs are not for advertising that you are looking for a job.
3.  This text is not  a real sentence.  Sentences begin with a word that starts with a capital letter, and would include a subject and verb.  There are no subjects or verbs in this sentence.
 
Suggestion
If this person were emailing someone for a job, I would recommend a quick email in this general format.
 
Dear Sam,
I have five years experience as a typist and data entry clerk.  Please let me know if your company has any vacancies that might be able to employ my skill sets. I am a very hard worker and am flexible about where I live and how many hours per week I work.   References are available upon request.  Please see my attached resume.
 
Respectfully,
Vijay Chaudhury
 
Example #3
I get many emails saying, “Dear sir”.
I don’t like to be contacted by people who don’t even take the trouble to know who I am.  I am just one of thousands of people the writer is contacting. I think it’s better to send focused emails only, not spam.  A focused email is targetting a specific company and contact person about a particular job that you are qualified for.  Contacting random companies and begging for work is sheer stupidity and  a waste of time too.

Tapping into the national consciousness of your clients

July 16, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Vaastu Feng Shui | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

We all hear spiritual gurus and their followers talk about consciousness and other mystical ideas. Many claims are made about many types of wishy-washy subjects, but how often do you ever get solid proof of anything?  I believe in mystical ideas too, but I want to understand the mechanics of how mystecism works, and sometimes there is information.
 

It’s the language!
It is a common believe that you should speak the language of the customer. If you want to get clients in Spain, you should speak Spanish, and if you want clients in the UK, you should speak English, preferably British English.  Clients will feel more comfortable with you if you know their language. If you wnat to attract clients from America, would you put someone in charge who knows nothing about America?  Would you have an American flown over to India to work at your company?  Would you hire an Indian who has spent a few years in America in charge?  In my point of view, the closer the individual is to the culture of the client, the better off you are.  Of course, the manager has to also understand the mechanics of the business you are in as well, otherwise his language skills are almost useless!
 
Consciousness
But, there is more that we can add to this theory:  consciousness.  I am learning new things about consciousness daily.  Being in tune with the national consciousness of the client(s) you are selling to really matters.  Lets say you are starting a new marketing campaign to attract clients from Kenya.  What I learned, is that by simply having dinner at a restaurant serving Kenyan food, or spending time in a place dominated by Kenyan nationals, you become more “in tune” with their national consciousness.  I also learned, that simply by sleeping in a place with a particular national consciousness, your consciousness becomes infused with that particular national consciousness.
 
Case study in Koreatown, Los Angeles
This is a particularly interesting case study.  If you follow my blog, you will know that I take Chinese Feng Shui as seriously and religiously.  I try to learn new things about Feng Shui as often as I can.  I knew from past experience, that spending a night in a hotel in Koreatown would boost my sales for one of my businesses.  However, on my stay in May, 2011, I learned some new things that surprized me.
 
In late May 2011, I spent a night in Koreatown in Los Angeles, CA.  I arrived late, and talked only to the clerk.  I checked in, went to my room, watched a bit of television, meditated, and went to sleep. I noticed that the vibration in Koreatown is not at all well suited for meditation. There is too much activity, and too much materialism too.  During my sleep, I dreamed about all types of Korean people that I didn’t know.  I don’t remember the specifics of the dream, and it didn’t seem to have any particular significance either – other than the fact that it was about Koreans.  I live in a 25% Korean neighborhood in Los Angeles, but never dream about Koreans in my home for some reason.  The next day, I had my coffee, and was off to a meeting with my programmers. A few weeks later, I checked my web stats, and it was amazing what I found.  
 
Clicks from Korea up 7x
I had not changed my advertising to attract clicks from Korea, but I was getting 7x the click volume for about 3.5 weeks from Korea.  The clicks eventually tapered out, and went back to normal.   By the way, companies in Korea are very fond of our page about Indian Software Companies.  They don’t seem to take interest in any of our other pages though.  Additionally, clicks from the Philippines were up too.  There are very few Filipinos in central Koreatown, so I couldn’t figure out why our Filipino clicks were up too. 
 
Conclusion
I can only guess where my readers are.  I’ll guess they are mostly Indian.  If you are in India and want to attract American clients, contacting American companies is obviously a good idea.  Having someone who is familiar with the American culture could call and email American companies who might be able to use your service.  But, there is more!  Tuning in to the American consciousness is a good idea…. but how?  I would recommend hanging out at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi, or wherever else you can find one.  The culture of the cafe is very American.  I’m not sure if the owners are American though.   You could also go to places where Americans hang out.  There are very few of these in India.  You could have a slow meal at a hotel where lots of Americans stay, or a hotel owned by an American chain.  Just keep notes…  See if your sales ratios go up during times when you frequent these places.  It’s easier to tap into national consciousness in America where we have the whole world living under our roof.  India has no official neighborhoods for certain nationalities which makes it harder to perform this type of experiment.  But, you can try to find places best suited to particular national consciousnesses, and let us know what happened!

Training for Outsourcing Jobs

July 12, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Getting a Job | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

We get many people applying for non-existant jobs at our company.  My company consists of myself and one other person. We do all the work. We have no other jobs, and don’t understand why someone is applying for a job, that we never claimed to have?  This clueless behavior is why many are out of work and can’t find any work. Nobody wants to hire someone who can’t think and who wastes others’ time.  Additionally, most of the job applicants can’t spell and are very sloppy in their communication skills. I would never hire anyone to even pour me a cup of coffee if they were sloppy.  So, what is the solution?  Training!
 
What do you need to know?
To work in outsourcing, there are various types of skills you need to know.  For call center work, you need to be able to speak clearly and listen well. For data entry work, you need to have good English skills and good formatting skills.  If you don’t know how words are spelled, you will not be able to correct other people’s errors when transcribing data.  In data entry, you might have a hand written document and type the information into a database.  You are expected to format addresses correctly and find errors in spelling. If you can’t spell yourself, how can you possibly find errors in other people’s spelling? 
 
Catching errors
You might need to notice inconsistancies in data too as a data entry clerk.  If you are looking at addresses and you realize that the zip code (PIN code) is from Delhi, yet the rest of the address seems to be in Cochi, Kerela, you just caught an error. A good data entry clerk is watchful and sharp and can catch mistakes with ease. Sometimes, the name of a neighborhood might erroneously be put in the city field.  In India, addresses often include names of areas like Jayanagar, or Shivaji-nagar.  If the database you are using has a separate field for city and street address, you need to make sure the right information is in the right place.  What if the name of the road is all mushed together?  Springhillroad for example. Do you know when the names should be separated and when they should be together?  Sometimes you need to google this information.  Should Shivaji-nagar have a hyphen, or be separate words? Maybe it should all be one long word.  As a data entry clerk you have to be sharply aware of these issues and have a way of solving them, otherwise you will be the most mediocre data entry keyer in the industry.
 
Schools
If you live in India, the king of the outsourcing industry, you will have no lack of schools for many different outsourcing professions.  Just look in the local classified section of your local newspaper and you will find dozens of schools that will teach you how to work at a call center, data entry company, or medical transcriptioning.  Rather than bothering hundreds of companies for a job when you are not qualified, you are advised to get highly trained so that you are an asset, and not a liability.  Companies in the West want to outsource to save money, but if there are multitudes of errors in the work produced, the errors will cost the companies more money than they are saving.  Many companies that outsourced to the Philippines, or India found that the error rate was sometimes so high, that they were willing to pay ten times as much to have companies in America do the work for them.  On the other hand, if you can provide faster and better service in India, than any American company can provide, you will make a handsome living in the long run.  In the long run quality of work, and good customer service will win you high paying work and steady work as well.

Looking for jobs in all the wrong places

July 3, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Getting a Job | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We get all types of feedback from people using our site, but the feedback involves them asking us for a job!  Additionally, people who click the “I’m going to use this company” button want the company to use them, so they are misusing this button. Responses to blogs are mostly from those seeking employment too.  We don’t offer jobs here, we are a DIRECTORY.  If you want a data entry job, go to a data entry company, NOT US!  We can’t help you.
 
What is a directory for?
In America, we have what is called the Yellow Pages.  This is a phone book that you use to look up phone numbers of businesses. If you want a data entry business, you look up under “D” to find companies in specialties beginning with “D”.  As technology evolved, America invented electricity, the telephone, computers, and the internet.  In ancient history it was the Chinese who invented more than anything else, but the 1900’s was the American century — at least for innovation.  Our business is a phone book or yellow pages for outsourcing companies. We DO NOT offer jobs!  We offer a way for companies and freelancers to list their service so the public can find them.  So, please don’t ask me for some processes for your company.  I don’t have that.  I can list your company on my directory and that is the beginning and end of it!
 
We don’t know where the work is!
People say to me, “So, I know you don’t offer jobs, but who does?”.  I can’t answer that question. The only way to get work is to ask specific companies who specialize in the type of work you are trying to do.  Ask them, not me please.  I understand directories, and where to get good sushi in Los Angeles only, that sums up my intelligence.
 
People will not hire you overseas
Most of the inquiries I get are from people who can not spell in English.  If you are in India and can not spell, NOBODY in America will hire you to do anything. The Indians who come to America are doctors and computer experts.  If you have trouble spelling, or trouble with punctuation, you need to perfect your language skills, otherwise nobody can use your service anywhere. 
 
Are you worthy of a job?
If you are not proficient at Data Entry, or Call Center work, and start bugging companies incessantly about a job, you are wasting their time and your own.  Go to school, and become good at something. Then, your job search at least has a chance of having some type of success.  If you don’t understand that proper nouns begin with a capital letter, and you don’t understand that the space goes AFTER the comma, and not before, you need to go back to school — and fast!  
 
What can we do for you?
Our site has a new page where you can list yourself as someone seeking a job.  I’m not sure how many companies visit that page, but at least you are giving yourself a chance.  Most of the entries there are butchered in my opinion.  Mispellings, and not particularly graceful or impressive accounts of previous employment are in abundance.  If you are going to advertise yourself, you should make yourself look impressive. Have someone proofread your work please!  Presentation is everything!  So please take a look at our job seekers page!