The Traditional Boring HR Interview Questions

Can someone tell me if you ever had any interesting, unexpected, and/or unpredictable questions at a job interview? Don’t you find this dumb that HR tends to ask all the same questions like “what are your qualities, weaknesses…why this job”? I mean, c’mon, people go to Interview workshops at their University to learn how to answer these questions and when they go to an interview, they just recite all their qualities they have learned by heart. When will be the day that HR interview questions will be unpredictible like “what’s your dream in life”, “What makes you get out of bed everyday”, “What are your true passions”… these questions are not hard to ask but it can catch the candidate out of sync and the highly creative and outside the box thinkers will love those questions. For HR, this is a great opportunity to find who are the truly motivated and open minded candidate because they will be able to see if they have fire in their eyes or not. HR shouldn’t expect that what makes the candidate go up in the morning is because they dream to have the open position but simply see if the candidate is just a natural motivated person in life.

Only then, should HR pursue with interview questions that are particular to the position (i.e. if they have the required skills set). If HR starts with these 3 questions at the start of the interview, they will see pretty fast if they can be considered real potential candidates for the job.

Would you have any good questions that you would suggest to a HR person?

side note: I believe that opened minded is one of the best quality of a human being.

Greece Financial crisis : In & Out

Since few days I was thinking on writing about Greece crisis in sample way because I don’t understand much complex financial words( Believe me, I am trying my best!!) . I will try to explain it in Layman’s language. If you have any question put as a comment, I will definitely try to elaborate topic for your understanding.

Behind the all financial crisis only one sin is there – “Expenditure is more than earnings”. The problem with our so called capitalist – Bankers, politicians and all big money makers is they forget history. In last 3 decades we have seen this is happening in 1980’s in South America, 1997 in South East Asia and now in Dubai, Greece and other Euro zone countries.

Government runs on same way as we. It may borrow loan in terms of bonds. It may collect earnings as form of tax and government body’s revenues. It may expend on infrastructure and projects which are growth engines for a country. Now problem comes when government cannot control on their expenses and their revenue is coming down. So Beta is gradually increases, in other terms fiscal deficit is increasing and Govt will continuously borrow more money.

Government borrows money in terms of bonds. Actually sovereign bonds were considered as a risk free investment for an individual and government is serving public by providing a risk free investment instrument. An amount of between 15% – 50% is usually fine, for most countries. This actually works well, because here the fiscal situation of the government is in good order. It means govt can repay interest on debt + continue their infrastructure and project for country’s growth with their normal earnings.

Now where Greece got failed??

Now Greece is not having only one of the above problems but in fact all which caused this crisis. If you see and compare Greece GDP numbers with Euro zone then you will not find any problem between 1996 to 2006. In fact they were showing their GDP is between 2.5% to 5 % which were pretty good. But real story came in 2007 recession time when newly elected president “Karolos Papoulias “ declared that previous administrations had cooked the book and they may need to revise GDP numbers. According to the CIA, Greece had estimated GDP growth rates in the latter years of 4% in 2007, 2% in 2008 and -2% in 2009

Eurozone, an EU agency, recently put out a report that paints a damning picture of the Greece fiscal situation.

Gov. Expenditures: Gov. Revenues:

2006 = 43.2% of GDP 2006 = 39.3% of GDP

2007 = 45% 2007 = 39.7%

2008 = 46.8% 2008 = 39.1%

2009 = 50.4% 2009 = 36.9%

We can see here expenditure is increasing to and fold but revenues are continuously decreasing. This might be because of powerful labour unions, world economy slow down and mainly Political leaders who are promising to people more than country can afford in this situations. A $147B bailout package was put together by IMF to bailout Greece seems to have soothed markets fears about Greece’s problems.

Here I would love to quote which caused this crisis apart from above numbers. First is very famous line – “Speculation is mother of all EVIL” and second thing is confidence. These both the things are tightly knotted with each other, whenever confidence disappear speculation market becomes hot.

The most important factor in financial markets is confidence. Confidence in everything. The New Greek Prime Minister shattered market and public confidence by saying that several revisions have to be made on their reported numbers (i.e. they have been lying) starting with the budget deficit being double previous estimates @ 12.5% of GDP. As a result of that announcement the credit ratings agencies S&P downgraded Greece’s debt. This trigger panic in world market and created another round of speculation which played a big role in further unfolding bitter truth about Greece economy rather than healing it. Sin is everywhere in financial market from giants like US to tiny like Greece and everyone is having loophole in system. We need to identify and cure it rather than speculating because in today’s world everyone is connected in financial market. Though India will have least effect in Greece’s crisis, we can see our market falling 3 % - 4 % along with world market.

PIIGS country – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, they are very much interconnected in terms of business, industries, banks borrowing. Example: Some of the Banks in Spain, running their business in Greece also. If Greece Govt. and public are not capable to return their borrowing then definitely that will affect on Spain money lenders (depositors). So when things were being contained in Greece, S&P downgraded Portugal & Spain’s debt also. This causes panic among investors as stock markets all over the world start to decline. Now the EU leaders, IMF and the US put together a $1 Trillion bailout package for all troubled Euro nations. So ultimately crisis started with small country that first ‘needed’ a $25B bailout, turn into a large $1T bailout for the entire EU.

But for the public of these countries, real problem comes now. IMF and US will put tight austerity measures on these countries. This will include wedge cuts up to 30 – 40 %, higher interest rate to cut higher spending, depreciation of the currency to improve export competitiveness and bring in money from overseas and severe budget cuts.In 1997 crisis Indonesian people had repay their loan as much as 30 % Interest rate and it ensured that other creditors - the large international banks were paid.

Lessons to be learned from Greece crisis:

1) In today’s world no financial instrument is risk free even sovereign bonds also.

2) Smaller countries should think twice before loading on foreign debt.

What I feel in whole this story is: If each time the IMF only punishing the borrower but not the reckless lenders, it just encourages the same to be done again, and again. We need to solve fundamental problem and keep austerity measures intake in every country. If we have 5 Rs. in pocket don’t try to spend single penny more then that.

CANSLIM Methodology

Last weekend I was reading a book on Technical Analysis by Steven B. Achelis. After reading 150 pages my mind was fully loaded with mathematical formulas and plenty of ratios. I doubt out of this 200 indicators how many are really helpful and how many our so called technical analysts’ using? It’s a first book in which my interest level was intake, my understanding was going well but though I was feeling bored and confused.... (weird no!!) .

But Thanks to William O’Neil for his CANSLIM method. I found that very interesting. It is different from other indicator as it is covering technical indicator and momentum indicator both. He has not used much ratios and maths but still I am sure he has done his work well by considering mixing momentum and technical Indicator in single method.

In CANSLIM, each character is representing acronym of seven required factors for your investments.

C = Current (quarterly) earnings growth:

This factor is linchpin of this method. Quarterly earnings (EPS) of the share (Y O Y) should have increased by at least 20 %( samples would be of last 3-4 year). If it has single year fall back and then come back with same potential then you can ignore it. If you have too many stocks falls under this window then you can lift your EPS target around 25 – 30 %.Here we are taking EPS as it is simple and best parameter to quantify company’s earnings growth.

Huge increase doesn’t mean much if you’re comparing EPS with a minuscule year-ago number. This strategy advises ignoring high growth figures if the year-ago earnings were exceptionally small. As it can be because of any property sale or change of business. So this method is suggesting setting upper limit of accepting EPS growth to around 500%. If any stock is having EPS growth more than 500% then just ignore them.

So ultimately 2 parameter,

EPS growth (YOY) >= 20% and <=500%

A = Annual earnings growth :

Only quarterly earnings are not enough, we should see YOY yearly earnings. By this we can rule out stocks with high recent earnings but losses or little or no earnings in previous years. Basically we want to see a consistent longer-term growth history. Basically we can avoid this kind of stocks which are having erratic earning history by these 3 parameters,

12-Month EPS: Cont. Ops. >= 35 Rs.
Latest Fiscal EPS >= 20 Rs.
Return On Equity 5-year average >= 5%

N = New highs :

It’s based on famous thought –“If you are doing same old things you will get same result, to lift up from you present you need to something different”. Same applies to company when any management change happen or any new marketing policy takes place or any new business model acquired. This is purely momentum indicator. This all action can change the present trend and new heights can be achieved.

But here is twist, you have heard many times that “buy at dips and sell at top”. But this strategy tell something different as – “Buy at High and sell at Higher”

So ultimately it tells to buy equity when they are making new heights. Market smells something positive with new management or new policy change. This can result into short covering by bears which in turns make equity with new height. If momentum continues then we can see fresh buying positions by bulls which will push price higher.

We can have below parameter for new high buying. We should buy stocks in between these two:

Last Price: 0.9 * 52 – week high price

Last Price: 0.8 * 5- year high price

S = Supply and demand :

At any present time equity price reflects supply – demand ratio for it. If demand exceeds then it will result in price moving up similarly supply exceeds then it will result in price moving down.

This strategy puts some rules to make your chance more for demand exceeding situation. It tells to buy equity which has not more than 25 million shares outstanding. You can say other way that whichever equity is having higher promoter stake or institutional buyer stake will have bright future.

This can break panic selling situations because supply would be limited or whenever good news hits, there won’t be enough shares available to satisfy buyer demand, thereby making equity price higher.

Parameter to follow:

Equity Outstanding <= twenty – five (25) million

L = Leader in industry :

This rule tells to choose Leaders in industry (in particular business segments).

Example, NIFTY Bankex index has rose 50 % in last 52- week and SBI rose by 40%, so SBI‘s relative strength is 80%.

This strategy advises us to take position in equities which have relative strength more than 80%.

Parameter to follow:

52 Week- Relative Strength >= 80

I = Institutional ownership :

Here institutions can be domestic or International. It can be LIC, mutual funds, pension funds etc. This strategy emphasizes on Institutional ownership as they are bulk dealers. If they are buying in equity then they must have seen something which retail investors haven’t. But their ownership should not cross some limits, as sometimes it results in stagnant behaviour in equity price.

Parameter to follow: Institutional ownership > = 5 %

Institutional ownership < = 35 %

M = Market direction:

This is the most important rule of CANSLIM strategy and thumb rule for Stock Market. “Never Trade against the Market”. Usually CANSLIM strategy won’t work out for short term say 1 – 5 week. Because for short term investment market direction always play Big role.

One more thing, if you apply all above rule then you notice that most stocks you are getting are fit under small – cap or mid-cap. These stocks are always heavily influenced by market trend. So, we need to see market trend first before all.

Happy Investing.....!!!

QR Code

QR Code:

Yesterday through one of my friend I come to know about this (QR- Quick Response code) new generation bar code like pattern or a new way of cheaper and guerrilla marketing or one more way to demolish print media.It has very good support from Google who is running campaign on this (It seems Google has decided to obsolete “print media” term). For reading this QR code all you need is mobile with camera + QR code scanner (freely available here for every phone).

The QR code can contain a web site address, your contact information, your mailing address, SMS Text, RSS feed link, social networking profile address. On detecting QR code your mobile can directly navigate you to URL of website or blog or social n/w profile. It can directly open Google MAP and show you the direction to mailing address. Isn’t this amazing?? However up to 3 kilobytes of information can be stored in a QR code which is about 3000 text characters.

Above picture shows the QR code for the address of this web blog.

QR codes are used on advertising and on product packaging so that people can quickly get more product information via their mobile phone.QR code was invented in Japan by a Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. They are becoming more common in Europe as well due to the growing use of mobile devices to access information on the web. The US has just recently started to catch on with companies in San Francisco pushing to have these in tourist locations, restaurants and shops for people to gain information on where they are.

On Google official blog I found a amazing way to explore and shop with Google and your mobile. It happens many times that you go to some new restaurants but you are skeptical about food, price or service. So, you try avoiding them. Now these restaurant owners have found a new way of marketing with Google. If their restaurant is one of the favorite locations on Google then Google will send them a window decal. This each decal is having unique QR code. By detecting them customer can get review about that restaurant, get instant discount coupon and all other needed information about that through Google.com and Google MAP.

Google has already sent window decals to over 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. that have been the most sought out and researched on Google.com and Google Maps. They calling these businesses the "Favorite Places on Google" and customer will now start to find them in over 9,000 towns and cities, in all 50 states. Customer can also explore a sample of the Favorite Places in 20 of the largest U.S. cities at google.com/favoriteplaces.

Here's a video that shows you how this all works:

Here are some wonderful Use of QR code(Don't Miss it !!!)...

Important Ratios For Stock Investments

Important 6 Ratios to be verified before buying any stocks:

1) Earnings per share (EPS):

The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share. Earnings per share serve as an indicator of a company's profitability.
Calculated as:

= (Net income – dividend on stocks) / Average outstanding Share

When calculating, it is more accurate to use a weighted average number of shares outstanding over the reporting term, because the number of shares outstanding can change over time. However, data sources sometimes simplify the calculation by using the number of shares outstanding at the end of the period.

Diluted EPS expands on basic EPS by including the shares of convertibles or warrants outstanding in the outstanding shares number.

2) Price Earnings Ratio ( P / E):

Price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio sometimes referred to as the multiple) is the current price per share divided by a year’s worth of earnings per share (EPS) for a particular stock. It is an important indicator of perceived value.

Calculated as:

=Price of The share / Earnings per share

The Price to Earnings ratio (P/E ratio) is a simple way of evaluating company stock prices and comparing them against other stocks in the same industry. The P/E ratio mathematically depicts the relationship between the stock prices

3) Reserves:

Company divides it net profit (after subtracting Tax) into two portions. i.e. Reserves and dividend.

Dividend generally handed over to share Holders while Reserves generally kept for company’s future expansion Plan. So one can buy stock with higher Reserves. Generally when Reserves go twice its Share Capital (Only Equity) then we can say company is candidate of giving bonus issue.

4) Book value per share:

It is equals to the value of a company Reserves divided by the number of shares outstanding.

Calculated as:

= Reserves (Leass liabilities0 / Total quantity of equity

Book value is a good way of judging if the stock market value is reasonable compared to company's true value. Market value is usually higher than the book value. A good indication of safer investment is if the stocks market capitalization is close to the book value.

Market value is what the investment community's expectations are and book value is based on costs and retained earnings.

For example, if the market value is more than twice of the book value, company might be overvalued. However, buying a stock based only on a book value is not recommended. As always, other things need to be considered, such as: earnings, economic conditions, etc.

A thing to remember is that during bull markets the stock price is more likely to trade much higher than book value, and in a bear market the two value's may be much closer.

5) Dividend:

Dividends are payments that corporations make to people owning their shares. It is undoubtedly one of the best reasons why people buy equity, and it’s the company’s best way to reward its shareholders. Many public companies that make money will retain portions of their earnings and pay the rest out as dividends to all shareholders.

As described above For “Reserves”, dividend is a part of share holder’s fund. Generally it’s a talk that the company which gives good dividend every year will not / do not perform well because they are spending more money in dividend which directly lesser their reserves for future expansion.

It is more advisable to invest for capital appreciation rather than Dividend. So We can use dividend Yields as an indicator instead of dividend itself.

Yields indicates return you earned by dividend for your investment at current market price.

Calculated as:

= Dividend per share / Current market price of stock

6) PEG ratio( price / earnings to growth):

The PEG ratio is a formula used to estimate a stock’s value using its P/E ratio and its future earnings growth. Unlike the P/E ratio, the PEG ratio considers a stock’s earnings growth potential.

To calculate a stock’s PEG ratio, its P/E ratio must be further divided by its projected earnings growth rate.

Calculated as:

= (P/E ) / Expected growth of company’s EPS

A stock with a PEG ratio less than 1 is considered undervalued (and generally a good buy); greater than 1, overvalued. Of course, a PEG ratio of 1 indicates a stock with a fair value. The PEG ratio is not a firm measurement but simply a guideline, and the PEG ratio should not be used as the sole indicator of a stock’s under- or overvaluation. In addition, a PEG ratio of a stock should only be compared with PEG ratios of stocks from companies in similar sectors. This will ensure consistency during analysis.

An conceptual overview of how GSLB works

How GSLB Works




GSLB directs DNS requests to the best-performing GSLB site in a distributed Internet environment. The Citrix NetScaler implementation of GSLB is DNS-based.
GSLB enables distribution of traffic across multiple sites, manages disaster recovery, and ensures that applications are consistently accessible.

When a client sends a DNS request, the system determines the best-performing site and returns its IP to the client. In the process of ascertaining the best- performing site, the system performs these intelligent decisions:

* Directs client requests to the geographically closest GSLB site (geographic and network proximity-based traffic redirection)
* Directs client requests to surviving data centers when an outage occurs
* Directs client requests to alternate data centers, when a pre-defined traffic load limit is reached
* Directs client requests to be distributed among multiple data centers (assigns each user to the GSLB site with lowest latency)

The system performs these intelligent decisions using the Metric Exchange Protocol (MEP), GSLB policies, and GSLB methods supported by the system.

GSLB methods are algorithms that control how the system load-balances client requests across distributed data centers. The system provides support for creating policies for distributing or redirecting client request. GSLB policies direct the traffic to a pre-defined target site.

Multiple sites exchange metrics with each other using the Metric Exchange Protocol (MEP). The system uses this protocol to exchange load, network, and persistence information between GSLB sites. The system also uses this information to perform load balancing between GSLB sites.

A typical GSLB deployment contains the entities described in the above figure.



GSLB Entity Model

To configure GSLB, you must configure a GSLB site. As shown in the figure, a GSLB site is the logical collection of GSLB vserver, GSLB service, LB vserver, service, domain, and ADNS service. It is the central entity in a GSLB deployment, and is represented by a name and an IP address.

To create a GSLB site, you must configure load balancing on the system. You must create GSLB vservers and GSLB services for each site. You must bind GSLB services to GSLB vservers. You must then create an ADNS service that provides the IP address of the best performing site to the client's request.

A GSLB vserver is an entity that performs load balancing for the domains bound to it by returning the IP address of the best GSLB service. A GSLB service is a representation of the load balancing/content switching vserver. An LB vserver load balances incoming traffic by identifying the best server, then directs traffic to the corresponding service. It can also load-balance external DNS name servers. Services are entities that represent the servers. The domain is the domain name for which the system is the authoritative DNS server. By creating an ADNS service, the system can be configured as an authoritative DNS server

Google observed (!!) Indexing Limits

Page File Size

No more than 150 kilobytes
Before Images, CSS and other Attachments
Links Per Page

No more than 100 unique links per page
Title Tag

No more than 70 characters
Meta Description

No more than 155 characters