Changing World of Technology : Be Future Ready.

The world of technology is changing Are you ready for it?

Technology is alive in new settings. It’s transforming. Evolving and taking on new shapes. Businesses and people are now growing hand in hand with technology.

Future-ready technology professionals are the need of the hour, and few organizations have the environment to nurture such talent.

Read on to know where you fit into this new world of technology.

The Digital Business Era : Stretch Your Boundaries

Today’s pioneering enterprises are doing more than just talking a good digital game. They are fundamentally changing the way they look at themselves and quickly mastering the shift from “me” to “we.”

Proactive corporate leaders see their businesses, employees and customers as a living, breathing digital fabric offering unprecedented opportunity to establish beachheads in new markets, drive profit and change life for the better.

Through the transformational power of this network, we’re witnessing the birth of a new era of “digital ecosystems.”

Digital Era can be mapped to five key trends: The Internet of Me, Outcome Economy, Platform (R)evolution, Intelligent Enterprise and Workforce Reimagined.

1. Internet of ME

As everyday objects and experiences become digitized, new frontiers of individualization are created.

Much of the Internet’s appeal lies in the personal power it bestows: “My” news feed, “My” playlist, “My” book recommendations, and so on. But as the saying goes, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.” Even more authentic and meaningful individual experiences await.

Look all around: booking tickets are going digital, the refrigerators and other comforts of home are getting brainier, and the next time you take yourself out to the ballgame, you may just receive a smartphone alert on which concession stand has the shortest line for hot dogs and beer.

Everyday gadgets and machines are increasingly interconnected and consumers are demanding more “smart” tech.

Those who embrace the Internet of Me will sustain higher customer engagement and, in turn, open up new avenues of growth.

2. Outcome Economy

The true digital disrupters know that getting ahead is no longer just about selling things. It’s about delivering results.

New intelligence, in hardware and a lot of other things, is bridging the last mile between the digital enterprise and the physical world.

Early adopters, coming face-to-face with the Internet of Things, are uncovering opportunities to embed hardware and sensors in their digital toolboxes. They’re reaping bottom-line benefits and making life better for employees and customers.

Hardware — yes, hardware — is playing a leading role. Today, hardware is flexing its muscles, demonstrating rapid advancements that carry echoes of the software revolution more than a decade ago.

3. Platform (R)evolution

Enterprises are carving out new playing fields thanks to rapid advances in cloud and mobility technology. Platform-based ecosystems are the new plane of competition.

What’s old is new again.

Over two centuries ago, the bricks-and-mortar factory was the primary platform that launched the Industrial Revolution. So it is with digital technology, which promises as much, if not more, disruption.

Today’s new and evolving platforms are essentially comprised of well-defined architecture, governance and services and underpinned by the latest digital “tools” – social, mobile, cloud, Internet of Things and others. The platforms serve as a pool of reusable capabilities to achieve better business outcomes.

4. Intelligent Enterprise

Software that learns and adapts is no longer a one-off project. It must be an all-encompassing effort that propels discovery and innovation throughout the enterprise.

For years, software’s expanding capabilities were geared primarily toward helping employees make better and faster decisions.

Amid the influx of data—along with advances in processing power, analytics and cognitive technology—software intelligence is helping automobiles, thermostats and other everyday things recognize, “think” and respond accordingly.

Greater operational excellence awaits those who grasp the upside potential. Indeed, three out of five global businesses believe big data will boost their decision-making and competitiveness, according to our research.

This evolution is taking shape at workplaces – where virtual “agents” help call centers run more efficiently – and at home – where Netflix algorithms plumb viewers’ past choices for suggestions on what they might enjoy watching.

5. Workforce Reimagined

As the digital revolution gains momentum, humans and machines must do more together. Successful businesses will embrace both as critical team members.

Ready for a self-improvement exercise?

As digital and physical worlds increasingly cross-pollinate, people are being transformed into “better versions” of themselves, at work and everywhere else.

How? For starters, we’re using machines to take on more challenging physical tasks and perform more efficiently.

Advances in robotics enable machines to not only communicate with humans, but also work side-by-side with them. It’s a division of labor that plays to strengths of both.

Smart devices and wearable technology can gather information on a person’s surroundings, supplement physical tasks and detect hazardous situations— potentially– saving lives.

This reimagined workforce poses tricky questions. The biggest may revolve around recognition and response as the entire operational chain shifts to a digitally-driven model.

Innovation and Transformation

Business and technology move at a high speed and companies and people need to reinvent themselves constantly. Innovation is the answer and one needs to proactively bring bold, new ideas to clients and to organizations.

Software is now a key driver of differentiation and innovation. It’s a gateway to new services and new revenue streams, seamless customer experiences and expansion into new markets. To succeed amidst disruption, companies must respond by changing the way they design, build and use software.

Be Future Ready

Some companies really know technology. They live it every day and know more than others. When businesses want to transform and become high performers, they take the help of such companies.

What makes such companies stand out?

- They have vision – they know what’s next, what to make of it, and how it’s going to impact businesses.
- They have the differentiated capabilities. They adopt, adapt, update and build the right tools.
- They have the right environment for innovation. it’s in their DNA. They nurture ideas, because that’s where the future lies.
- Most importantly, their people are future-ready. Everyone stays abreast of what’s new, getting trained and building their skills. Without people who stay at the forefront of technological innovations, transformation is not possible.

What can you do to become future ready?

– Align your technology skills with industries.

– Understand clients : this skill will set the stage for a successful career.

– Understand the business you’re in and then up-skill yourself regularly to stay relevant.

– Recognize new roles that are available and how they map back to the technology skills that you have and can learn.

9 Reasons Why Your CV is Not Impressing Recruiters!

1. Recruiters receive too many CV’s all the time

If you’re looking for a great job or any job that pays really well, you’re probably applying to opportunities that quite a lot of people are competing for. This means that the potential employer is getting a very large number of applications. While it may initially look exciting to the recruiter to have received such a large number of applications, it eventually gets difficult and very boring to go through all those applications.

Most candidates will also claim to be the best talent out there. So imagine what would happen if the recruiter started believing every word that is written in all those CV’s. There is no way to shortlist.

2. Most CV’s look very similar

I’ve been in a position several times where I’m looking at 2 candidate applications and thinking if both of them got the same person to write their CV’s. Identical stuff! I almost always expect it and that is the saddest part.

Starting with a useless objective statement, then mentioning their academic credentials followed by a boring-to-death description of their project (not mentioning their accomplishments though) and finally ending the CV with their hobbies which talks about things like “reading books”, “listening to music” and “watching TV”. This is how most CV’s are these days.

So when most CV’s look alike, the recruiter eventually stops believing most of the stuff that’s written there.

3. Tall claims on Behavioral Traits

When you claim in your CV that you have exceptional leadership, team, motivational or creativity skills, there must be some evidence, in the CV itself, to support that claim. While we all want to come across as pleasing and impressive personalities, sometimes it’s just overdone in the CV.

It’s mildly shocking for a recruiter to find such behavioral traits written in a fresher’s CV. Most of these traits maybe contextual, meaning that leadership and team skills may depend on the kind of work environment and people you’ve worked with.

If you’ve only worked on standard 6-week internship projects, that too alone and yet you claim to have top motivational skills then it’s not too convincing, is it? All such claims on behavioral traits make the CV look quite superficial and unbelievable at times.

4. Recruitment processes are Long and Tedious

A typical recruitment activity starts from deciding a Job Description and relevant Skills. That is followed by a long and tedious process of sourcing CV’s, shortlisting, evaluating, interviewing, internal discussions and reviews, job offers, salary negotiations and finally culminating with the suitable candidate actually joining the company. This may take up to a few months.

The CV is thus only 1 part of the entire flow, even though it may be the 1st window to your profile. Hence, it is hardly a surprise if a recruiter believes only so much in your CV. Even if a candidate is shortlisted, there may still be a thorough evaluation process waiting to happen.

5. Recruiters want to see beyond your CV writing Skills

Believe it or not, there are a large number of professional services out there ready to take your money and to jazz up your profile by writing a flashing CV for you. Almost like a makeover. If you’re profile is actually interesting but you don’t know how to communicate it well on paper, then some of these services might actually do you good.

However, if statistics are anything to go by, then it’s quite probable that the CV makes the candidate out to be a bigger hero than he/she may actually be. A recruiter typically finds this out the hard way, when an evaluation happens.

6. Not enough evidence of Functional Skills

Usually most CV’s have a section on Skills, but unfortunately a large number of candidates don’t use that section well. An employer wants to know what you can do, what kind of results you can deliver and how you’re going to be able to do that. All of this information starts with knowing the candidate’s skills.

Functional skills are your domain specific skills that you actually use in your work. They could be in Marketing, Finance, Sales, Operations or just about any other area of work. If you don’t know about your own functional skills, your strengths and weaknesses, then you don’t know your own capabilities and that leaves you at a disadvantage. Putting them in your CV comes next. If your CV does not have that information, then it’s clearly not telling the right things about you as a professional.

7. Most CV’s lack useful information

Candidates write about the projects that they’ve been a part of, but often they miss out on mentioning their own accomplishments. It’s one thing to say – “Worked on a market research project for ABC Corporation” and quite another to say something like “I Successfully conducted a 4 weeks quantitative market research activity, as part of a 3 member team, for a yet-to-launch mobile phone for the mass market in India.”

If a CV does not have this kind of information then most likely it’s not going to get you anywhere.

8. CV’s make the Recruiter do a lot of hard work

The first time a recruiter looks at your CV, he/she may typically spend between 10 to 20 seconds to form the first impression. After that the details are really looked into. If you’re making the recruiter hunt for information then you’re making his/her life more difficult that it already is. The relevant information should be obvious and easy to find. Isn’t that the whole purpose of the CV, to give away the right information and to easily make you look good?

In case you’re not doing that, then your CV is clearly not doing what it’s meant to.

9. There is no standardized way to evaluate and benchmark a CV

Finally, there is no standard way to evaluate and benchmark candidate profiles only on the basis of a CV. Each employer has his/her own checklist.

There are quite a few automated resume’ parsing solutions out there that scan your CV for key words, patterns and specific clues and shortlist based on those criteria. Now, CV’s can be made to work around such automated solutions, but you cannot fool your way through to a great career. If you temporarily beat a software tool, then you have the actual interviewer to impress which may not have a standard workaround.

These are 9 ways in which your CV may be failing you.

How Electricity turns into Binary Signals!

Matter is composed of atoms. Atoms have electrons and flow of these electrons is defined as electricity.

Now, to make use of these electrons, we create transistors which can store/free electricity as needed. They are stored in units of 1 (5 Volts) and 0 (0 Volts). An 8-bit number is then represented with 8 transistors. So 8-bit representation of the number 3 will be : 0000 0011. How is that achieved in hardware? Keep 8 transistors side-by-side (called registers and memory units). Make the first 6 transistors hold 0V and the next 2 transistors hold 5V. Now, an organization of such registers and memory makes a cpu+ram. To make it easy to compute using the CPU, we developed machine code. This language is what essentially runs on the CPU. What do I mean by "run"? It means, keep flipping bits. If I want to perform 2+3, in machine, I would store 2 in one register (register explained above) and 3 in another register. Then I would take these values to an Adder unit which would do a mathematical add (not the same as voltage addition) and give me the reply in another register. This is what a sample machine code would look like:

80 02 F3         

80 03 F4         

88 F3 F4 F5

Obviously, no one understood anything with this. So we came up with an ingenuous system to make it human readable. This is called assembly language. The following piece of code represents the above mentioned numbers:

MOVI 2, REG A 

MOVI 3, REG B

ADD REG A, REG B, REG C (add A and B and store in C)

where MOVI = 80

          REG A = F3

          REG B = F4

          REG C = F5

          ADD = 88

Now, assembly is too hard for humans to remember and code properly in. So they developed compilers that would convert a high level language like C to assembly language (remember, this assembly language does the actual flipping of bits)

So, a C representation of the above mentioned assembly would be:

{

    int a = 2; b = 3; 

    c = a+b;

}

Just like people could write poems with English and not with hand signs, we realized that with an expressive language, people could write some better programs. Then compile it to assembly. Then that would flip bits in registers. Which in turn would affect transistors, which affect flow of electrons. With the above found expressiveness, we wrote operating systems to maximize hardware usage, since it was seen that the CPU remained idle while we fetched data from disk. Everything from your keyboard input to mouse to desktop to windows to sound is a program written in such expressive languages, running on top of the OS. On the OS, we developed a network stack called TCP/IP. This stack provided a standardized methodology for computers to communicate with each other. Once that was working and we managed to hook computers to each other using cables, we went on to create WWW and http. This allowed people from different networks to communicate with each other. Note that http is a protocol. Servers and Clients are programs that follow (at least) http in addition to internal protocols.

When you type Google in the browser and hit Enter key, an http request is sent from your browser (the client) to Google (server). In your own computer, the browser is a program written in C/C++. This gets compiled to assembly (actually browser is already compiled, you're just giving input numbers to the compiled browser). The operating system (windows/linux etc) and device drivers are all already compiled to assembly and are running on your machine. When the browser assembly gets it's turn to run on the CPU, it runs the assembly. This assembly code does flipping of bits in registers and memory. The registers and memory are composed of transistors. Transistors control the flow of electrons and hence electricity.