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Why My Company Serves Free Breakfast to All Employees

Each morning from 8:30 to 9:05 AM at our company’s headquarters, in San Francisco, we serve free breakfast to every employee. And I’m not talking about stale muffins and dry bagels. Today I ate a sloppy joe, cheesy scrambled eggs, home fries, crispy bacon, and sausage links. Healthy, I know. Tomorrow, I’m definitely going to grab a yogurt and some fruit. And don’t forget all the vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. After all, this is California. I know what you’re thinking. Free food is the cost of admission to the Silicon Valley tech scene. Our startup, Pivotal, calls the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood home, alongside companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, Adobe, Slack, Salesforce, and Uber. So, of course, Pivotal serves free, catered meals. It’s just expected. While that’s true, even if no other startup around us served free, catered meals, we still would. To explain why, I first need to explain how Pivotal works. Our approach is rooted in extreme programming and  agile

Ten Books To Get You Through The College Admission Cycle

Amazon lists 6,533 results for "college admission books." That includes test guides, college guides, "Teen & Young Adult SAT Study Aids," how to write the college application essay, education workbooks, higher & continuing education and more. So there's plenty to choose from when starting the college process. I keep my own list of books that I've found interesting and useful when thinking, writing and counseling about college admission. They provide context, historical perspective and sometimes just a good surprise. I've listed some volumes here that offer those qualities even if you don't write about college admission for a living. They're not "how to get in books;" instead, they  provide some perspective on the whole enterprise, offering a way to come up for air when you're feeling totally consumed by the craziness.  It's an idiosyncratic list, I admit, but you may find nuggets of wisdom in any one of them.

OPPO launches Selfie Expert F3 for mid-range market, strengthening its lead on the group selfie trend

The camera phone brand OPPO, strengthened the ‘Group Selfie’ trend by launching another   Selfie Expert F3 , priced at   Rs 19,990  for the mid-range market.The F3 is the second in line dual front camera Selfie Expert targeted towards the Group Selfie generation after the recently launched F3 Plus.   The F3 features a dual front camera - a 16-megapixel Selfie camera for individual selfies and a wide-angle lens for group selfie. The F3 First Sale begins from  May 13 th   in 25 cities  across India. The pre-order started from   May 4th   till  May12th   2017. It will be available online on Flipkart exclusively. Consumers can also pre-order offline through OPPO stores. On this occasion, OPPO also revealed the Team India jersey in the presence of OPPO India President and BCCI CEO.The brand has always focused on cricket as a platform in its endeavor to connect with the consumers especially the youth. While it is the official partner of ICC starting 2016, it has strengthened th

Millennials, Get Off Your Assets To Take Charge Of Your Financial Future

I’m not just picking on Millennials. Well, maybe I am.  We have all read about the financial plight of Millennials, who are not only drowning in student loan debt, but other loans and expenses as well. These loans and expenses include car payments, rents or mortgages, and credit card bills. As a Baby Boomer, who has “been there, done that,” I feel your pain; however, it is time for Millennials to focus on the road ahead and find ways to secure their financial futures. Undoubtedly, the ability of Millennials to save and invest will be met by challenges.  According to a study by the  National Endowment for Financial Education , “Two-thirds of Millennials have at least one long-term debt (student loan, home mortgage, car loan) …” Even more shocking, the study found that “Nearly 30% of those [Millennials] with checking accounts had overdrawn their account in the prior 12 months… [and]… nearly 20 percent of those with a self-directed retirement account either took a loan or made a har

OPPO launches the new bold variant of F3 Plus – Black Edition

OPPO , an ever-evolving global Smartphone brand,   has officially begun the sale of the F3 Plus black edition on April 15. This black-hued variant of the flagship F3 Plus features OPPO’s unique dual selfie camera: a 16MP front-facing selfie camera and a first-of-its-kind   wide-angle   group selfie camera , Priced at  Rs 30,990,  the F3 Plus black edition is an alternate color option along with the previously announced gold edition ,   and will be available in India. “The black color offers a sleek and contemporary style that has been popular with smartphone users around the world. Most importantly, we want to give our customers the ability to personalize their F3 Plus by offering a variety of color options,” said Sky Li, OPPO Vice President and Managing Director of International Mobile Business. In addition to the dual selfie camera, the F3 Plus also contains a powerful 16-megapixel rear-facing camera. It utilizes a customized IMX398 sensor, OPPO’s pioneering dual PDAF