KACHARAGADLA

The Indian startup ecosystem is an exciting one, and I’ve learned a lot during my journey over the last few years as an angel investor. The space is evolving and so am I.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes , and hopefully am getting smarter year on year. What I try to do in some of my posts is share some of my learnings – what’s worked and what’s not; what the other players in the ecosystem are doing; what’s going well; and what could be improved. Part of the reason I do this is because I think if we learn to be open and transparent with each other, everyone in the ecosystem stands to benefit. My worry is that if we don’t do this, the misunderstanding between funders and  founders  will increase, and this creates a mess which harms everyone. We need to learn from each other and to trust each other, and that’s why it’s important to be frank and forthright, even if this means being politically incorrect sometimes. INDIA'S MOST INNOVATIVE & LARGEST PAPER BAG MANUFACTURER (wi

The saying goes, “Love, like wine, gets better with age,” but does the adage extend to job interviews too? For the answer, we turned to Glassdoor’s Chief Economist, Dr. Andrew Chamberlain. In a  new study  of a large sample of more than 250,000 interview reviews on Glassdoor, Dr. Chamberlain and his team looked at the factors that make job interviews difficult. In addition to multi-step evaluations making interviews harder for candidates, age is a reported factor that intensifies the interview process. “We found that older workers reported significantly more difficult job interviews than younger workers on Glassdoor, even after controlling for job title, education and industry,”  says  Dr. Chamberlain. “On average, moving up one age group — for example, moving from age 25-34 to 35-44 — is associated with approximately 1.3 percent more difficult job interviews, a small but significant increase.” But aren’t older worker’s more experienced? Doesn’t their industry insight give

“Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”   Obi-Wan Kenobi When it comes to working in Hong Kong, the employment market is our galaxy, and we, hopefully, are the stars within it. For the first time, we can start to  visualize  the Force that binds our companies together, that helps hold our relationships with colleagues, teams and departments. We can also begin to understand potential individual pathways for navigating companies, and which directions are possibly the most open and closed for us to take. The Force graph below represents the top career networks that exist between job functions in the  entire  Hong Kong Job Market. The size of the arrow illustrates the frequency of movements. Hong Kong Career Network Force Diagram (Source: Richard Hanson) There are a number of interesting observations to be made from studying this data; 1. M

You applied for the job. Then, a hiring manager contacts you for an interview – fantastic! After jumping for joy for a few moments, you quickly stop and think, “Wait a second… How do I  prepare   for the big interview and land the   job ?” Here are seven tips to prepare for any job interview from the career and workplace experts at Glassdoor, the leading social jobs and career community: 1. Research the Job First, read the job description and its requirements over and over. Then, when you think you know it inside and out, read it one more time. By truly understanding what a hiring manager is looking for, you can use the details provided in the job description to speak to your strengths and accomplishments that match these specific areas. For example, does the job description call out that the employer is looking for a person that is “Energetic, a self-starter and a resourceful problem solver”, if so, think through your recent experiences and identify a time when you demonstra

It is mid-October, and the fourth quarter of the year is flying by! If you don’t like your current job, right now is a fantastic time to start job-hunting. Here are five reasons why: The most common fiscal year-end is December 31. Companies large and small have allocated money to hiring new people, but if they don’t hire those people by the end of the year, the approved headcount may disappear. Hiring managers are under pressure to make new hires before the end-of-year holidays! If you wait to begin your job search until after the new year, you will delay  your exit from your current less-than-wonderful job situation by up to six months, compared to getting the job search underway now. If you start getting  Pain Letters  out to hiring managers quickly you could start your new job in December or January. Once the holiday frenzy sets in, hiring will become a much lower priority for everybody except the poor manager who is desperately trying to find someone like you. Managers wh

Many job seekers focus so hard on answering  interview questions  well that they forget something very important: You are there to  ask  questions, too. Asking the right questions at an interview is important for two reasons: First, when done correctly, the questions you ask confirm your qualifications as a candidate for the position. Second, you are interviewing the employer just as much as the employer is interviewing you. This is your opportunity to find out if this is an organization where you want to work. 3 Things You Want to Achieve When you ask the right questions, you want to achieve three things: Make sure the interviewer has no reservations about you. Demonstrate your interest in the employer. Find out if you feel the employer is the right fit for you. There are an infinite number of questions you could ask during a job interview, but if you stay focused on those three goals, the questions should come easy to you. I recommend preparing three to five