We Control the Horizontal

I’m advised that I’ll be doing my much delayed pilot proficiency check this week. That means that if I get the job I’ll have two career-critical flight tests right after one another. Lovely. This one can serve as the warm up.

Fortunately regulations require me to have training, not just go straight to a test, even though this is the airplane I normally fly. Well it isn’t exactly. I’ll be doing the test in an unfamiliar airplane, not even owned by my company, because the company

airplanes are busy working and company hasn’t been able to schedule them home in in a way that works out. This particular airplane is a different version of the airplane I normally fly for work. I’m not worried about that, because I’ve flown all the versions of this model and am familiar with the way they vary. I think the examiner will probably cut me some slack if I rattle off the numbers for the more familiar plane. The pilot who flies this airplane every day gives me a sheaf of paper to photocopy, not only the numbers for the airplane itself, but a bunch of helpful notes left over from his own training.

The test will include my ability to use the autopilot, yet this autopilot is not the same

as the one I use at work. There is no standard interface for autopilots, and the complement

of things they can do isn’t a given, either, so you really have to learn how to use one, not

just figure it out as you go along. Before the first day of my PPC training I took the

autopilot manual home with me, to get acquainted. Curiously, the autopilot has the same name

as the company I just interviewed with. I won’t try to interpret that as an omen; I’ll just

leave it as a hint for those in the know. I pretty much gave it away already anyway.

I started out trying to blog about the Bilby autopilot but I figured I’d better explain a

little about autopilots in general first, and well my explanations are a bit like my movie

synopses. So here’s the first part.

In order to tell an autopilot which direction to fly, you have a heading bug a

little pointer that sits on the rim of the heading indicator and which can be positioned,

with a knob or by keypad inputs. It shows the heading you are asking the airplane to fly.

Many non-autopilot-equipped airplanes have heading bugs too. They are useful to remind the

pilot where she is supposed to be going, or to help her crab to hold a radial in wind. This

autopilot has one, and it is controlled with a knob on the right side of the horizontal

situation indicator. There is another knob on the left side, the OBS, which is used to

select the radial of a VOR, or the localizer track to the runway. Airplanes are not

standardized on which is on the left and which on the right, so a pilot should look at the

symbols before twisting one of the knobs. The OBS has an arrow and the heading selector has

a pentagon, the same shape as the heading bug. The heading bug can be different colours,

too, and you might be surprised how distracting this can be. This one is orange, a pretty

standard colour, but I’ve had them yellow and green for sure, and possibly other colours

too.

If the autopilot is on, working, and the heading mode is engaged, and you turn the

heading bug to a heading more than a few degrees away from the current one, the airplane

will roll into a standard rate (3 degrees per second) turn. and roll out on the selected

heading. If you turn it to a heading very close to the current one, it will still roll, but

but at a shallower bank angle. You have to be careful if you want a turn of close to or more

than 180 degrees to move the heading bug part way and then wait until the airplane has

turned far enough that it won’t try to take a shortcut and turn in the opposite

direction.

I mentioned the heading mode. You put the autopilot in a particular mode or

combination of modes to tell it what you want it to be doing. For this particular autopilot

to engage heading mode from not having the autopilot active at all, I would push the command

wheel steering button (on the yoke) to reset the flight director, then press the HDG button,

then move another switch forward to engage the autopilot. The HDG light on the dashboard

panel should now be illuminated, and the airplane should continue to follow the heading bug

when I turn it.

It’s usually pretty good at that, holding the heading to within a few degrees and

correcting promptly when turbulence causes a deviation. In this particular aircraft the

alignment of the autopilot to the bug is a little bit off, so I have to align the left edge

of the bug, not the centre part, with the intended heading. I get used to that soon enough.

That alone is a pretty convenient feature. It allows a pilot to look up things in a manual,

read a chart, eat lunch, retrieve dropped items all with hands off the yoke. You still have

to keep a lookout, but it’s a big help. It’s also very useful at night or in IMC if you get

momentarily disoriented, you can have the airplane fly for a few minutes while you scan the

instruments and reassert in your brain which way is up.

Too old to drive on the road?

Deaths, injuries involving elderly drivers have tripled, but insurers don’t see them as unsafe.

More elderly drivers here and in other places such as Japan have been killed or injured on the roads in recent years. In Japan last month, the rising numbers led to the police urging such people – the so-called ‘grey drivers’ – to give up their licences.

But what makes for a safe driver depends on

Tips to boost your investment returns

The best place to put your hard-earned money is where it can make you some more money, the more the merrier. But with the plethora of financial investment vehicles that exist today, how do you pick and choose where to park your money? Is a higher return all that matters when you’re saving for your future? While a financial advisor would be the best person to help you with your investing needs, these tips provide an insight to a few time-tested strategies that work in the investment world:

* If you’re not experienced in dabbling in the stock market, put your money in mutual funds – the risks in one stock are balanced by the returns in another.
* For the stock market investor to make money, the knowledge of when to sell and when to buy is a must. Buying when prices are low and selling when they’re high is the most obvious strategy, but things do not always work like clockwork in a market where no one can achieve the perfect timing. The trick here is to adopt the dollar-cost-averaging method where you buy stock for a fixed amount of dollars on a regular basis, irrespective of the price of the stock. Accordingly, the lower the price of the share, the more shares you own, and vice versa. The reasoning behind this strategy is that you’re minimizing your risk because the average cost per share of the stock will become lower with time. Set a time frame that suits you, monthly or fortnightly, and work on this systematic investment.
* Avoid herd mentality by following the crowd and investing in a stock just because most people you know (or don’t know) are doing it. invest according your needs and capital.
* Take time to plan your portfolio – allocate your assets to various financial vehicles according to your needs. This is the fiscal equivalent of the good old adage “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. The reasoning behind this approach is the definition of the term “getting higher returns”. It’s not enough that you manage to beat the market when the going is good – what’s important is being able to protect your downside when the going tough and the markets are down.
* High interest rates are good but they’re not always the focus of an investment. Oftentimes an investment may be made in a low interest-yielding option because of other advantages like tax deductions.

Rarely Seen Napoleon Hill Video

Napoleon Hill,?author of Think and Grow Rich, shares his words of wisdom in this rare video footage. Have your pen and paper ready as he shares his life-changing wisdom.

Find more videos like this on Powerful Intentions: Law of Attraction Community

Time And Your Home Business

When you have a home business, your biggest issue is always going to be finding time for it. This is something that many people struggle with because they simply think that they will be at home and therefore they will be able to spend all of the time that they need on their business. However, there are things to do around the house, errands to run, and kids to pick up from school. People either end up spending much less time with their home based business than they need to or they spend much more than they should and neglect the rest of the things in their lives, simply because they can. It is important to find the right times for your business, but how do you do that?

The first thing that you can do when you are looking to find time for your home business is to take a moment and set some ground rules for your business. This should also include a work schedule. This does not have to be the typical 8 to 5 work schedule, because after all, you did sign on for a home based business, which means that you should be able to work the hours that you want.

However, you do have to set hours. You should take a look at what your home business is, and make sure that the hours that you set are going to work. For instance, if most of your orders come in during the morning, your business hours should be then. If they come in at night, have your hours then. No matter what you decide to set for your home business hours, you have to make sure that you set them, and then that you stick to them.

This does several things for you and for your business. First of all, it allows you to be able to spend the time that you need on family affairs. If you have children to take care of, simply work your business hours around that. If there are daily errands to run, give yourself the long lunch break that you need to do those in. But, no matter what, stick to your hours. This will give you the time that you want for your family and the rest of your life. However, it will also do something for your business.

Setting hours for your business is one of the ways that you can move your home business from a hobby to a real business. Many people do not understand home businesses, and they are often confused by what you spend so much time doing. If you set hours for your home business, and stick to tem, you can raise your home business in the eyes of the other people into something that is completely worth it and something that is real. Making your business real to others is a great way of boosting your own professionalism. Have set working hours, and stick to those hours. This will help you look good as well.

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Recently, they introduced a new ad format called PicText Ad. I have just employed this and excited to see the effect soon.

If you like to find out more about AdToll,

What To Wear At The Job Interview

The day has come… You have an job interview that is very important. You really want this job, but, in the last minute, you starting to think about what to wear… Panic, you don’t have any clue about what to were! Happily, the answerer is here. This article is meant to tell you what to were (man or women) and hopefully, you will find the best solution just for you.

To dress correctly is very important when going to an job interview. Chance are that the employer who is interviewing you, does not see the qualification you have, because of the outfit you are wearing. It can be everything as a bad bar of shoes or just cloth that is dirty. Generally speaking, please choose a simple but formal attire and make sure that the outfit you are wearing is clean and you shoes are polish.

A few words about Hygiene: To look clean and fresh is also very important! But don´t put on too much make-up or perfume before going to the interview. Use this kind of products lightly. It is mush safer that way, because if you have put on allot of perfume on yourself, and the interviewer has asthma or are allergic to perfume, you will have some serious trouble of getting the job. So, please avoid it. Another thing to consider is your hair. You should fix your hair so that you will look professional. For woman, it is best if the hair is properly combed

So what should you wear if you are a women? To be more specific, you should follow this advice:

1. Skirted suits. A two piece matched light colored suit is the safest choice for women 2. Limited jewellery such as one wedding ring 3. Briefcase 4. Ideal footwear to wear is the shoes 5. Conservative watch

Things you should not ware as a woman:

1. Gaudy jewelry 2. Tongue or nose jewelry 3. Pantsuits (considered to be unprofessional and outdated)

Now, let talk about what men should wear:

1. Decent suit 2. Tie and a long sleeve shirt 3. Dark shoes which you have polished 4. Matching socks.

Things you should avoid to wear as a man:

1. Bow ties 2. Earrings or tongue/nose jewelry.

Most of this thing is quite obviously for most of us and If you follow this advice, your chance of getting the job will increase. But, there are a couple of things that I have not mention yet. And that is that you should check the dress code of the company that you are going to have an interview with, before actually going to the interview. Let´s say your are having an interview. The job is about being a carpenter. Then, wearing a black Armani suit, want do you any favor. To avoid this kind of mistake, it is much easier to call the company and ask them about the dress code. Still, the hygiene is important, no matter what kind of job you are searching for.

If you want more information about how to prepare for a job interview, please visit my website. You will find the links at the resource box.

Take care Patrik Karlsson

For more information about how to prepare for a job interview, writing a thank you letter and much more, please visit http://Hotjoblive.com/jobinterview Thank you for your time! Patrik Karlsson http://Hotjoblive.com/jobinterview

Employee is just a legal term…

You know it’s the right thing to do. You’ve heard the statistics, read the white papers and even had the conversation. Heck, your company mission statement may even have the words in it… “Our employees come first” or “Our employees are our most important asset.”

But the real question is what are you really doing about it? As you’ve read on this blog over the past couple of years you know I believe that employees are one of the foundational elements of your business. And for service companies probably the foundational element. They are your brand. Whether you are product-driven or service-driven your employees create the value you deliver.

Who do you love…

And taking care of them is one of the smartest investments you can make. To help you find your way through all the information available and find an actionable plan that will help you I am participating in a “virtual” book tour. Bloggers around “interweb” are reviewing, commenting and providing input to promote and highlight the book, “Taking Care of the People who Matter Most – A guide to Employee-Customer Care.” by Sybil F. Stershic.

While not a huge book (less than 150 pages) it does pack a lot of information and guidance into those pages. While many books on employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation may find one theme and beat it to death until the book weighs a certain amount Ms. Stershic takes a different approach.

The book quickly makes its case for the value of employee engagement through a quick tour of the research and studies that show that employees
drive business success (see sidebar.) Once the groundwork is laid – the rest of the book focuses on the steps you need to take in order to implement a strategy that will connect and engage your employees. While not new to the business world, this book advocates that companies create an “internal marketing strategy” applying many of the same tactics most companies (including yours I’m sure) use to connect and engage with their consumers.

Each chapter ends with a quick exercise… which help you plan and manage your internal marketing strategy. You know that any theory is only as good as the implementation and this book goes the extra mile to provide the actionable steps needed to change your organization. The last 40 pages give you a nice check sheet to follow in order to ensure you’ve covered your bases.

A couple of the quotes from the book that resonated with me particularly (given the focus of this site)…

“Applying marketing internally allows an organization to focus on those representing its true competitive advantage. ….- competitors cannot duplicate the relationship an organization’s employees have with its customers.”

“… two separate but integrated components of internal marketing: attitude management and communications management. Attitude management involves motivating employees to buy into the organization’s customer-oriented values, while communications management involves providing and managing the information that employees need to perform effectively.”

I agree in principle with these quotes and would only offer that when a company truly believes in the mission and value of the organization you don’t need to get employees to “buy-in” as much as you need to continually communicate the value and position of the company. I cannot get someone to “buy-in” to something that doesn’t resonate personally with them. It’s a nit but I will pick it just the same because I think many companies try to use incentives and rewards in a duplicitous way when the company really doesn’t have a position or value system.

Selfishly, I liked the fact that Ms. Stershic often brings in rewards and recognition as a way to drive behavior – who could argue with that. I could point out that a few of the suggestions are the more “generic” types of programs you see everywhere, but then again – they are offered as a way to get your mind working not to provide a specific recommendation for your internal strategy. As with an external marketing strategy your actual tactical implementation plan is driven by your specific products, position and consumer. Same with your internal strategy.

“Taking Care of the People who Matter Most” doesn’t try to plow any new ground as much as provide a great summary of what is already there – and give you a way to put it to work. A difficult task but one done very well.

Think Personally not Legally

I would like to close this post with a quote in the book from Bob Wood at Wood Dining Services – a company highlighted in the book…

“To me an employee is a legal term; it’s not how we should look at our people. They have kids, they have ambitions, they have goals…we want this to be the best job they ever had. Plus we want them to advance and evolve to get better jobs over time… So to me, it always starts with our people.”

I never considered the fact that the one word we use to reference those we rely on for delivering the value of the organization are referred to in “legal” terminology. This is a blinding flash of the obvious. If we use legal terminology to refer to our value creators – does that impact the way in which we manage and engage with them? Just thinking out loud.

Virtual Tour Info

Don’t forget to check out the other comments/interviews/reviews… tomorrow is Phil Gerbyshak who will be posting an interview on the blog Slacker Manager.

Previous comments were:

• June 1st, Kevin Burns posted a review at Burns Blogs Attitude
• June 3rd, Lisa Rosendahl posted a review at HR Thoughts
• June 4th, Chris Bailey posted a review on his blog Bailey Work/Play: The Alchemy of Soulful Work
• June 5th, Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing posting an interview with Sybil
• June 6th, Becky Carroll at Customers Rock! posted a review and interview with Sybil

Other links to keep in mind:

• The publishers blog: WME Books
• The book page on the WME online store – Bonus!!! On the WME online store you can get a 20% discount by entering this code: 107VBT (FYI- the code only works on the WME site)
• Sybil’s blog: Quality Service Marketing

Mundra Port Allotment, Barak valley Listing tomorrow

Mundra Port IPO Allotment Status

Mundra Port IPO Allotment Status is out . You can check the allotment status from link below

Click here for Mundra Port IPO Allotment Status

The website of Intime Spectrum, the Registrar to the issue is currently not accesible due to heavy traffic of investors, so it is advisable to check status late in the night or you can call the intime spectrum office.

The stock was oversubscribed a whooping 116 times with Retail portion oversubscribed 16 times. An extremely strong listing is expected for the stock given the apetite for the IPO. The Grey market is putting a price tag of Rs. 900-1000 for the listing of Mundra Port.

Barak valley Cements listing tomorrow
Barak Valley Cement is listing on 23rd November,2007. The IPO was subscribed 27 times. Against the offer price of Rs. 42, the stock is commanding a premium of Rs. 28 in grey market which translates into a listing price of Rs. 80 Investors are advised to book profits on a price above Rs. 80

Rathi Bars to list tomorrow
Another Stock making a debut tomorrow, but a low profile one. This was a Fixed price IPO where the shares were offered at Rs. 35 The oversubscription numbers are not available. The Gery market is putting a modest premium of Rs. 3 on the offer price. However, given the current volatilty, the stock may spring some surprises on the listing date. Investors can consider profit booking at levels above Rs. 50.

The Incoming Analyst Conundrum: What To Do If You Get Transferred

“We’re told that Bearpont Morgan Chase is moving over a third (50/133) of its incoming IBD class over to the commercial bank. Apparently HR has been telling the demoted that their sentence will last one year, at which time they’ll (hopefully) be brought back over to IBD.”

-(Not Quite) Layoffs (But Considered By Some To Be Just As Bad If Not Worse) ‘08: JPMorgan CHASE, Dealbreaker

With news last week of JPMorgan transferring over a third of its incoming investment banking analyst class to the commercial banking side, there are some extremely panicked, recently graduated seniors running around.

If you have been affected, what do you do? What if you lost your summer internship or full-time job entirely?

Who’s Affected

Some have theorized that JPMorgan and other banks hand-picked people to be transferred based on work experience, GPA, university and other criteria.

I don’t buy into this for a second. Bankers are lazy when it comes to firing people; they like to make it quick and avoid dragging things out.

Reviewing an analyst class of close to 150 to try and match everyone up with the appropriate divisions would be a massive undertaking, and I just don’t think the bankers themselves or even HR (yes, they might occasionally do something) would take the time out to do this.

It’s more likely that the moves were indeed random and that the analysts were “picked out of a hat.” If you’re affected, you could not have done anything to prevent it.

What To Do

I’ve received email from summer interns and incoming analysts who are panicked about what to do. If you get transferred to private wealth management, should you drop out of finance altogether? Go to another bank?

No, you shouldn’t. Instead, be happy you still have a job. With the layoff count now at, oh, 65,000 or so on Wall Street, most people who have been “restructured” lately are now in job hunting mode.

Personally, I’ve seen many friends get laid off in recent months and not a single one of them has found another finance job yet. Some are (gasp) even moving to “industry.”

Instead of dwelling on how you were unfairly transferred, you should instead use the time to network, get to know people throughout the bank and position yourself so that you can move over when the opportunity arises.

Build It Before You Need It

Turnover in finance is higher than almost any other industry (except for maybe law), and you never know when someone’s going to leave unexpectedly.

Banks may not be doing much new hiring right now, but if people leave unexpectedly they will usually try to replace them – and if they can do it internally, all the better.

This is why it pays to stick around and network as much as possible – you never know when an opportunity to move over to investment banking will open up.

Quitting if you get transferred does not make any sense – it won’t be any easier to find something if you’re out of work entirely, and you should instead use the time to build your skills and resume.

If You Get Cut Entirely

If the worst happens and you get cut, either from your internship or full-time position, you’ll have to consider “strategic alternatives.” I would recommend against sitting around for the summer or doing a typical summer job such as retail or life guarding.

Try to find something relevant that hasn’t been affected quite as much by the downturn – although some poke fun at accounting, it’s a critical skill in banking and working at the Big 4 could actually be a decent experience down the road.

Consulting internships and anything else in finance (asset management, private wealth management, etc.) would be similarly useful, and even a sales or marketing job at a normal company could be spun positively on an investment banking resume.

These are more viable for full-timers who have had their offers rescinded; it would be near-impossible to find a summer internship at this late stage.

Rescinded Summer Offers

If you had a summer offer rescinded, there are still options even at this late stage. As I wrote above, do not sit around doing the “typical” jobs that college students do.

Other, better options: study abroad (great for resumes and investment banking interviews and yes, you might be able to apply, even now), volunteer work (either for a nonprofit or literally volunteering to work somewhere for free), or starting something on your own (doesn’t have to be a company, it could be a student group or organization or even a website).

None of these puts you in as good a position as an actual finance internship, but they’re all significantly better than doing the typical summer job.

The Dirty Secrets Of Investment Banking

Part of the reason I started this site was to give an honest view of what working in investment banking at the junior levels is like.

With all the market turmoil recently, there are 2 conclusions that come to mind that no one in HR or at those cheesy recruiting events will tell you:

1) The industry is cyclical.

When times are good, they’re really good. Bonuses reach record highs; banks are fighting each other to recruit people; and people hop from bank to bank seeking the best offer they can get.

There was a great article in Bloomberg awhile back on this very topic. To anyone outside the industry, the hiring practices in finance would seem absurd: hire an excess of people in boom times, pay them an obscene amount of money, and then fire them all when the market gets worse.

As the article suggests, a better solution would be to adjust hiring practices so that banks don’t hire excessively and then adjust salaries and bonuses – rather than headcount – when the market turns.

2) There are no guarantees.

This one is easy to lose sight of when you’re in school, because there is a fairly obvious correlation between effort and success: study and work hard, and you get good grades.

In the real world you may not get what you’re looking for all the time, no matter how hard you try. This is just one of those things you have to learn, and if you’ve been negatively affected by the downturn, you should be fortunate you’re learning this lesson early in life when misfortune is easier to fix.

I don’t want to end on a depressing note, so just keep in mind that the market will come back eventually. And hey, 2008 bonuses might not be that bad.…

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