How effective are the technical interviews?

Recruiters are desperately looking for options to overcome the stigma of hiring a productive developer as they are often wonderstruck seeing the performance of the new hires, who they thought are the best ones, lacking speed and are below average in competency.

The bureaucratic hierarchy of the HRDepartment screens the candidates over and over again to weed out the less skilled. However, often it all goes futile because of the wrong interview procedures. Many interviewers go the Google-Microsoft way with the so-called brain-teaser interview questions like - How many golf balls can fit in a school bus? So, in many cases, it seems that the skills required to pass industry-standard software interviews are not the skills required to be a good software developer.

An excellent coder can be 50 times more productive than an average one, but a bad one is sure to ultimately have negative productivity. Interviewer should be looking for people who are smart and who can get things done. Certificates and degrees should not define accomplishments; rather it should be measured in terms of real-world projects with real-world users. A competent software engineer should be able to showcase a site, service or app that he has done.

An interviewer can analyze the skills of a candidate by asking him to show his code, explain the design decisions and describe what he would do differently on it. By making him to implement a feature or two while you watch, you can easily understand how he works and how he implements his innovative thoughts while working. And this is the ultimate aim of a technical interview and not to measure the depth of subject knowledge.

Hiring the wrong developer will turn to be a terrible mistake for any organization and from a startup's point of view, it can be a disaster. The interviewers should focus on the task of weeding out people who doesn't interview well but would actually do a good job. The typical theory-heavy interviews don't always figure out the coding skills of the candidates neither their ability to work as a team.

Android phone can leak user's information

German researchers have reported that Android running on 2.3.3 or older versions are vulnerable to attacks that transfer data or allow the criminals to transmit information.

The study says that the Android devices are prone to data theft, especially of the username and passwords of Google services. It is found that the Android devices are not secure on open Wi-Fi networks. As the 2.3.3 version is present on most of the Android devices, it makes most of users' vulnerable to data theft.

Google apps are not the only entity that is facing the threat; other applications which do not use a ClientLogin protocol are also causing a worry for the users. The Google Calendar apps were prone to interception by unauthorized people who could easily impersonate others and misuse the data.

The Google service that asks for authentication token at the time of login is known as authToken. Many applications installed in Android phones ask for the authToken. And time of login, the authentication token remains valid for 15 days and can be used again on Google Calendar, which does not use https.

As Google takes 15 days times for the authentication, hackers get enough time to track the information of the users. So Google will improve its security by shortening the length of time authTokens are valid and rejecting ClientLogin requests from insecure http connections. If it can reduce the time of the authentication it can reduce the risk for the users.

The researchers said that they have fixed the problem in the 2.3.4 version of Android, but according to Google only 0.3 percent of Android phones are running this software. Google has advised their users to use the updated version to get rid of the vulnerability.

Five ways to improve employee satisfaction

Many employers often feel that they should master the art of happiness. Employee satisfaction is a key for business success as employees mirror the company to the world. The attitude of your employees tells the moral of your firm and only happy employees can reflect a good picture of your company to the public. Compensation plays a big role in job satisfaction; however, not everything depends on it. Certain small, inexpensive changes can bring in a long-term effect on the satisfaction levels of your employees. Hence it's highly important that employers work on areas to improve employee contentment and here are some tips you can apply.

1. Enforce Minimum Constraints on Your Employees

The more restrictions you put on the freedom of your employees, more the level of job satisfaction deteriorates. The sense of control over their daily activities will negatively affect the output. Employers can expect better performance when employees are given adequate freedom over their schedules and work habits. The modern corporate work scenario offers many flexible methods and employees should be given enough opportunities to experiment and figure out the best working method to follow. Creating a method where work-life balance is well managed will help to improve the satisfaction level.

2. Make Your Employees Feel Valued

You can expect loyalty from your employees when you make them feel valued in your organization. Earn their trust by keeping your promises. Treat them with respect and be ready to listen to them. The best part of job satisfaction comes when you recognize and reward their valuable services. A good relationship naturally develops when you appreciate their inputs in the decision-making process. Treat all your employees fairly and impartially so that everyone feels they are valued in the organization.

3. Encourage Social Connections

Happiness is a byproduct of adequate positive socialization. Employers should encourage improved interaction among the employees of the organization. Social relations should be promoted by providing an office environment that fosters communication. You should look at the different options such as arranging workstations or team outings to provide enough platforms for employees to interact and get to know each other. Out of office socialization also offers to be a great forum for interaction that encourages employees to develop relationships outside the office which promotes the company in a positive way.

4. Promote Career Development

Employees would enjoy working in an atmosphere that offers career growth. Jobs are not merely a source of income but rather a venue for learning and growth. Employers

should be open to spend on training and workshops for their employees. You can develop a sense of belonging in your employees when you provide them with adequate opportunities to expand their skills and responsibilities. Sans these steps, employees will get bored and lose their motivation.

5. Develop Effective Employee Benefit Strategies

The benefits of effective employee benefit strategies are enormous. It involves competitive compensation and favorable benefits. There should be

a proper evaluation policy to promote adequate appraisals. Employees are to be appreciated for their outstanding performances through adequate incentives or rewards. Further more, programs like promoting good health and reducing the commuting stress are really important. Poor health not only damages employees, but is detrimental to businesses as well. The severe stress from long and arduous travel makes employees feel frustrated and powerless. Adequate programs should be designed to address these problems.

Five ways to exit from an abusive employer

Do you feel that your employer deliberately abuses you at work? Are you one of the many who are highly dissatisfied with the arrogant attitude of your boss? Unhappiness at work has very severe economic as well as mental implications on the employees. In this post-recession phase where the job market is steadily improving, more and more jobs becoming available. So you make up your mind and consider the below alternatives to exit your job.
1. Assess Yourself

Take stock of your current situation, skills, immediate plans etc well before you take the final call. Forget how long you been with the organization, whether its 10 days or 10 years. First, you need to update your resume. Then sit back and take a close look at your skills, where will you begin the job search, what could you be hired immediately etc. You need to check and renew your contacts. Above all, its always better that you start with your family, let them know that you are planning a change. You got to be very clear on your abilities and disabilities, should be able to define yourself.

2. Be mindful of your finances

You need to have a check on your finances. What have you saved? If it's none, start now or if you're saving, save more. It's not about the amount you save, its all

about planning. Cut your expenses, have a backup plan for your future expenses. When you save more, you feel very confident about leaving the job and will be less worried that you'll be fired.

3. Expand Your Network

You need to reach out to your friends and family because they can be of great help for you to find a new job. You can pursue your close friends and near ones to look out for

a job that you would enjoy. The professional network also will come in your help to get you new contacts. The social networking sites and such other mediums should be well used to get in touch with your friends who can provide valuable references.

4. Set Your Goal

It's a crucial point where you have to set your goals and decide what you want to do. You have to image what a brighter future might look like in your desired field and this will ta

ke away much of the pain of a job you hate. This will further boost you and motivate you to search for your dream job. If you want to start a business, put together a plan that you can begin immediately. As you leave the job and search for a new one, focus on your career growth. It's always good to seek a job that might pay you less at the beginning but will offer greater job satisfaction in the long run.

5. Be Flexible

Flexibility is a very important character that you need to develop to grow in your career. Be ready to meet new people and be ready to accept a new work culture as you search a ne

w job. You might get into an employment environment that might not have occurred to you before. You have to unstuck yourself and open up to the new ways of working, make friends and widen your professional network. Tune your mind to adapt to new situations and adjust with new people. Flexibility will help you to grow fast.

Now, access Facebook on mobile without internet

Singapore-based software applications developer U2opia Mobile has developed a new application for mobile phones that will allow them to access b all kind of handsets without paying for a data connection.

"We are using USSD technology, which will enable users to access Facebook without having a GPRS connection on their phones," said Sumesh Menon, the co-founder and CEO of U2Opia Mobile.

Unstructured Supplementary Data (USSD) is the technology used by telecom players to send alerts to their users that inform them about their balance at the end of call or for sending miss call alerts.

Menon mentioned that though the technology will not provide access to graphics, it will help users send and view updates on their friends' Facebook walls.

"It is like sms and hence, the load on the network is negligible. We have built some commands through which a user can receive alerts on activity happening on his wall as well post an update," said Menon.

U2opia launched this application today with Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel.

While Airtel customers can update their Facebook status through this USSD service free of cost, Rs 1 per day will be applicable for accessing the full-feature application, which enables viewing news feeds, commenting on or liking news feed stories, posting on friends' walls, confirming friend requests, viewing notifications and finding as well as adding friends.

"In the Indian market scenario, where the penetration of smart phones is relatively low and the use of internet on mobiles is primarily limited to key cities, many users are excluded from accessing their Facebook accounts via mobile phones," said Shireesh Joshi, Bharti Airtel Director - Marketing, Mobile Services , in a statement.

Airtel users can dial *325# and *fbk# for non-qwerty mobile handsets to access Facebook without subscribing to data plans, the statement said.

"We look forward to bringing millions of Facebook users in India closer to their love for social networking by allowing them to access it anytime, anywhere on their Airtel-powered mobile phones.

Top six habits for career success

Can adopting the behaviors of the top performers help you to be successful in your career? Yes it can. Career success deeply depends on how well you can identify and adopt the best qualities of a professional personality. The authors of the book "Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success" believe it can and they have suggested 6 tips for career success.

1. Stay focused on your future

You got to break the professional barricades through visualizing your future. You need to visit your default future that you want to reach at. Envisioning your future will power you so that you can keep going up regardless of any setbacks in life. Think of the amount of money and the opportunities for promotion you most likely to lose if you don't stay focused.

2. Invest in professional development

You have to incorporate the professional skill necessary for advancement of your career. You need to figure out the skill in the top performers and acquire them yourself with adequate training, by reading books and by spending time on reading books.

3. Be a friend with the hard workers

Some people might enable the bad habits in you. A few others may tolerate them. The only way you got to know the best ones is to spend time with colleagues and friends who work hard. You have to identify people who share the similar career goals as yours and avoid the slackers around you.

4. Have a mentor

You will have to change many of your habits to aim for a successful career. Hence, you need help, you need to have a mentor who can encourage you to progress and navigate your career opportunities within the organization.

5. Put skin in the game

Reward yourself whenever you achieve your short-term goals. Moreover, the book says the threat of losing something - notably, money - can be a powerful inducement to stay on track. These small tricks will boost you up to reach your next step and will hugely help you to meet your career goals.

6. Create a comfortable workplace

The physical structure of your workplace matters a lot. A comfortable surrounding can help you to adopt new habits very fast. You have to get rid of the distractions around you in the office, anything that prevents you from being hundred percent productive.

World's first bendable PaperPhone

Bangalore: Have you ever come across a PaperPhone with features like that of a Smartphone?
A group of Researcher's at the Queen's university in Canada have come up with an unbelievable SmartPhone.

The device which is a PaperPhone has the ability to bend. It also acts as a Smartphone.
This PaperPhone will make its public debut on May 10, 2011 at the Computer Human Interaction conference in Vancouver.

If you are irritated with the bulge in your pocket when you keep your phone, you need not worry anymore. This PaperPhone can easily bend itself and give the same size like that of your pocket.
The display of the phone is based on E Ink technology which is the same in e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and others. The display through E Ink makes the device easily flexible.

To operate the device one has to just press their thumb slightly downward and the device senses it. And managing the screen is just like flipping through the pages of a book.
This PaperPhone can do almost everything a Smartphone does. Like storing eBooks, keeping a list of contacts, playing music, and making calls.

The creator Roel Vertegaal believes that the device would be of great use because of its flexible features. Vertegaal told, "There have been only three display revolutions.'The first was CRT, the second was LCD, and the third is flexible displays. When I first got wind of them, I realized they were going to change everything."

This device also has many advantages such as unbreakable, light weighted and easily hand held. This prototype alone costs $7,000-$10000 for production.

A keyboard that knows the next word you type

New technologies are making our life easy day by day, but had you ever thought that a keyboard can also make your typing easy? The Windows Phone 7 is coming up with new technology that reduces our time of typing the complete sentence or the words. Windows Phone 7 keyboards are programmed in such a way that it can guess the next word that what the user wants to type.

The keyboard is a combination of machine learning and mathematics, and mostly it predicts the accurate text.

Microsoft Research team and the Windows Phone 7 product group worked together to bring out the technology. One of the most interesting parts of the keyboard is the 'Next Likely Key', which is shown enlarged by the software so that the user can type words correctly.

Eric Badger, developer lead, Windows Phone 7 team, said "We wanted to have the best text-input solution in the world. When it comes to digital communication, the task of getting an idea from your head to the keyboard is really important."

However the software will not make any suggestion if the users don't want, like if there is an unfamiliar word then the software will not suggest any word or letter.