Category Archives: MyOrbit Blogs

How to Search For Jobs and Prepare for Job Interviews

While the global economy might have technically come out / avoided a recession, America and Europe are still facing high levels of unemployment. The situation is better in Asia due to economic growth, where jobs are available but the competition for the good jobs is intense. This article is aimed to help anyone involved in a job search.

Before looking for your dream job, learn how to market your skills, experience, and talent. This will help you assess the possibility of landing your dream job. First, skills and interests should be evaluated personally. Write a list of your capabilities; then list your limitations or skills not available at present. Jobs that are too demanding, like night shifts, might not work, or jobs that you may be overly qualified for (it happens); and third, planning the time as soon as there is an inner instinct that tells you that you are ready and qualified. Once this has been done, go to companies and prospective employers early in the morning for this will give them a good impression and for the applicant, a time to complete the process the application if lucky. Remember, the early bird catches the worm. Continue reading

2011 New Year Wishes for You

Dear Friends,

2011 is here and we have a whole new year to spend! A year is a lot of time and a lot can be achieved if you have a plan. There’s a saying: Failing to plan is like planning to fail. I wish you have a great plan for 2011, if not, now is a great time to do it.

One thing I have learned over time, and it gets reinforced every new year, is that action is more important than plan. I know this because I myself have not executed some of my plans, and the lack of full-throttle action on some plans is my own shortcoming that I want to overcome this year. Action is really important because every plan that goes into action brings back results or learning for future. For example, I advised 3 companies in 2010 on how to increase their sales, but only one company actually executed the plan and that company saw 50% increase in sales. My advise for their plan was less important than their action to execute the plan.

Another example, over the last couple of years, many investors took my inputs on what to invest, what price to buy etc, but very few actually took the action for whatever reasons. And we all know the global stock markets have recovered very well in the last two years. Those who took action have profited, and I know many investors who took the inputs but are still waiting; when stock prices fall 20%, they want to wait for 30-40% fall, and if that also happened, they want to wait a bit more to see, and if stock prices start rising after a fall, they don’t want to buy at higher prices than the recent low prices. This may sound extreme but its very common. Courage is the most scarce commodity among us humans. When we have more of this one attribute, it can put a lot of things in place.

I wish you a happy new year. May you achieve great success in your plans.

cheers,
Shankar

Notes for Commercial Real Estate Investments

Commercial real estate is defined as property that is used for the purpose of commerce. For example, an office building, a warehouse, retail store, shopping center or an apartment building with five or more units.

Today in 2010, due to the global recession since 2008, there is a much higher supply of commercial real estate than its demand, and hence the prices are attractive and can be negotiated hard by interested buyers.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0529_commercialrealestate/image/4_gherkinbuilding.jpg

We expect that commercial real estate prices may correct by 10-20% in 2011 depending on the country and city. In general one can’t go wrong with buying commercial real estate (office space, rather than shopping malls) in big cities if the time frame is 5-10 years.

The risk-reward is more in commercial property than in residential property. Commercial real estate returns can give attractive over 5-10 year period; much better than you would get from residential real estate of the same proportion.

Location is very important in commercial real estate. Our experience has been that “it is better in general” to have a small space at a busy city-center/downtown place, than to a big space at a suburb.

London and New York are two cities that will deliver good returns despite recession if you can invest for 5-10 years. Irrespective of where you are in the world, see if you can invest in commercial property in high growth cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc. These cities can deliver 5x returns in 10 years. Continue reading

Miracle 2010: All 33 Miners Rescued Safely from San Jose Mine in Chile

All 33 Miners Rescued Safely from San Jose Mine in Chile, and it is an amazing feat.  This is a miracle. We are very happy to see all miners come back alive and safely. 33 out of 33 in such a difficult mining accident will make it a milestone in mining history, or any engineering accident for that matter.

And it has been made possible by (1) sheer determination of the trapped miners to survive and (2) absolute top class engineering and mining effort by the rescue teams. We hear the total team was made of experts from USA, Germany, and many other countries. NASA also helped with special high calorie liquid food and psychological coaching to the trapped miners to survive the long isolation. This is a world class example for Project Management.

Congratulations to all people involved in this extremely well executed project.

estamos muy contentos de los mineros! le deseamos una larga vida!

Juan Carlos Aguilar

Fenix was the capsule designed to rescue one miner at a time.

Miner Jose Ojeda arrives as the seventh miner ...
Residents rally in support of the miners trapped ...
Following were photos taken from inside the mine on 27 August 2010, and we were praying for the safety of the miners, and today we are very happy after their successful rescue mission.

http://l1.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2010/08/27/082710minervid2.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20100827/capt.df5fb5040dea4d1aa7dfbf3601ba93e3-df5fb5040dea4d1aa7dfbf3601ba93e3-0.jpg?x=213&y=163&xc=1&yc=1&wc=409&hc=313&q=85&sig=HcuDaYZ_FDsuIeKPWm7RUA--