The new Tier Systems

Well, this week was one of the most confused and indecisive ones. SreeRaj is on a permanent job with an employer’s work permit for the skilled worker. And the leave to remain (called visa) expires on the 31st of December 2008. Our thoughts a couple of years back were to move from UK by the end of this year. But now, we have changed our minds and are likely to be here. So, another couple of year’s extension for this work permit can give us indefinite leave to remain in UK otherwise called Permanent residence (PR- which is different to citizenship). His employer is more than happy to give this extension. As this consultancy group shifted its main base from Netherlands to England, HR department experienced some problems with paper works and they couldn’t apply for the extension earlier (as always!!! I expected this as I had the first hand HR experience –and there is no point in winging or blaming anyone for HR specific paper works).

Meanwhile UK Border Agency has changed the Immigration system to Tier 1, 2, and 5. All the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) people should now be applying through the Tier 1 system whether it is a new application or an extension. A point based system with some bits of difference from the old rules. This one went active on June 2008. One of the striking points of this is on the maintenance funds- the candidate who is applying for Tier 1 should be having at least £800 in his/her bank account EVERYDAY(each single day) for the last 3 months from the time of application. This must have been an unexpected one for quite a few I suppose. And we heard a friend of ours got his application rejected because his account balance was less than £800 for one day in the last 3 months when he made the application; and had to leave UK. And if you have dependants with you, then you should have a maintenance fund of £533 for each dependant; again EVERYDAY for the last three months. Oops– A guy with a wife and 3 children (if above 18) should have £2932!!! Detailed and more information can be obtained from UK Border Agency website. I appreciate the UK Border Agency website as it gives clear cut information including the point’s calculator to check if you qualify for Tier 1 (former HSMP) even if you are from outside of UK.

However, our case falls under the Tier 2 system which is now a new piece of software where the employers can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) , a unique number to the skilled worker they wish to keep with them. For this the employer needs to obtain sponsorship license from the UK Border Agency. This makes it extremely difficult for new work permit applications; in fact the UK Border Agency says 200,000 fewer jobs in UK for overseas candidates, with a point’s calculator again. All this is clear and SreeRajs’ employer who has the sponsorship license is all set to go, and we would (hopefully) not have a problem as this is an extension for the existing work permit; also the points based system seems quite favourable for us. To make a new Tier 2 application the employer will have to prove (with solid evidence) to the UK Border Agency that despite numerous efforts to recruit a EU person to the same skilled job (mainly engineering jobs and certain specialist skills), they couldn’t get anyone. And that is the reason they are offering to a non-EU person and hence need a Tier 2 for him/her (no wonder 200,000 fewer jobs!). This online system was expected to go live months back, but unfortunately it didn’t! Now, this is expected to go-live on 27th November midnight. And by 28th November it is expected that SreeRaj will get the CoS, again it is a Friday and may not be very easy to catch hold of people. So, may be on Monday, 1st Dec 2008. But that leaves us only less than a month of leave to remain in UK to make the visa application.

This morning I rang up the UK Border Agency Work Permits Customer Contact Centre in Sheffield to check if this can be an issue; and they confirmed that as long as you have leave to remain in UK this shouldn’t be a problem. But being a sort of person who worries too much, I explained the whole situation to them including our indecisive situation. I was directed to the UK Immigration Services for further clarification which is a 087...number and I got through after half an hour of waiting time. Spoke to one of the Immigration Services Consultant who assured that as long as you have leave to remain in UK you can submit your application and it should be processed normally. And, confirmed that your application will not be rejected on the grounds that you have less than a month to remain in UK. So, that’s how things are at the moment.

However, need to check more on the Tier 1 system regarding the time frame you need to make the visa application. As both of us qualify for the Tier 1 application, in case if the Tier 2 doesn’t work (I am being on the extreme here I know) can go through the Tier 1 system. There had been a lot of thinking and discussions happening over this last week.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this blog are strictly personal opinions and is not a source of any legal information; so no one has the right to use this as any source of proof. Again, these are my personal opinions and hence no one can use this against me in a court of law or in any other way. Thanks.

Options and Priorities - can find a balance?

These days the normal reads everywhere are on global recession, credit crunch, market crisis and the likes. Any magazine will feature a couple of pages on money saving tips! It ranges from - book your holidays early, eat healthy from local markets, find budget restaurants, switch your energy supplier, hunt for offers and promotions - to the ‘Recession Wear’ in the French capital – new ways to cope by top brands like Louis Vuitton, Carlo Brendalli and many more.

While browsing through Shortlist just got to see a bit of news on Dubai, saying Dubai does culture by investing on an art museum. Good idea for impinging their ethnicity!
It is supposed to be one of the fastest growing cities and is predicted to overrun London by 2012 in business. Main business being tourism and real estate it seems! Oil reserves are not the main catch unlike fellow UAE cities. I guess it already swarmed over London in traffic and accommodation expenses. I have this friend in Dubai who says people who cannot afford homes in Dubai live in Sharjah and drive 3 hours up and down for work (6 hours in road on a good day…I shouldn’t mourn about mine then!). The point to be noted here is that the whole deal is for a 25 km drive. And to avoid the traffic they begin their day at 4 am in cars to their destination and sleep in car parks.

This friend who lives in Dubai on her recent visit, who we call an envoy of the place has tried to sway some of us to move to Dubai. The start was all on congenial aspects of Dubai – the HUGE take home u can dream of (no taxes!!!), any style of living options to choose from in Dubai – posh as well as reasonable (unlike London! She could very well relate it as she was a London resident a couple of years back), shopping options – local as well International, eat outs and nightclubs – from budget Malayali restaurants to Burj Ul Arab, local public schools to Cambridge School and American Univeristies, and on top of all it is only 4 hours away from home land.

As the conversation went on the other side of the coin was also divulged like the learning aspects. It was something personal to this person as she experienced a better learning curve and job satisfaction in UK. There may be difference of opinion on this with many Dubai resident professionals I suppose, not a categorical case here. Especially when Dubai is attracting or I would say buying in specialists and professionals for their Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Dubai Financial Market and the likes. Top IT giants and financial leaders have invested in heavily. Head hunters are on the run it seems even during this ‘recession’! On the investment side, this friend who tried to enter the property ladder was taken a step back when she heard the market price of a single bedroom apartment as 1.3 million. It is not one of the Palm Islands or The World bit by Nakheel! Another point was the expected one on the extreme heat and chilling cold and sudden change of weather conditions. How can you complain too much on weather especially when you are living in North England?

It is shame that we didn’t get to spend a couple more of days in Dubai when we stopped over early this year. All we could do was the Desert Safari and a night drive to the city and both were quite enjoyable. We did recognise the shopping options as we found Debenhams next door to Nalli Silks. What more can you expect in terms of options! And the new International terminal is referred to ‘feel of heaven’ (yet to see this as we found the old one terrible with more living and non-living things than its capacity!). The place and its prospects have the pros and cons like any other place and like what this friend says, it is all on priorities. If this is the time in life when you feel ‘make money’ and you have the right skills, give it a try – may be the best choice for you! This girl guaranteed SreeRaj with three times more take home income (excluding accommodation, medical insurance and yearly travel tickets to base land) for the specialist area of his work and experience. And Projects Management is definitely on demand, so it wouldn’t be hard for me to find a good bargain it seems. It is definitely good to know that you have options; and the stress is again on priorities.

Guy Fawkes this week!

Guy Fawkes and BonFire was new to me a couple of years back. SreeRaj had explained the Gun Powder Plot and Guy Fawkes story to me in 2006. But then in 2007 when BonFire time came again I asked ‘what is this for?’. Short time memory!!! But in 2008, I could relate some bits and pieces of it. Halloween was pretty quiet for us; you cannot expect much when you live in an apartment. It was last year when we had dozens of kids knocking at your door all dressed for Halloween.

Yesterday there were fireworks held near High Street by Northallerton Council. After a marathon to catch an earlier train to reach home on time to see the fireworks I was too tired to walk to the ground to see this, car parking would have been a nightmare if we opted that. But, I didn’t want to disappoint my better half as it was his birthday; and after all we said council is celebrating his Birthday. So, came home dumped all my stuff, didn’t even bother to change from office wear we did walk to the ground near High Street. It was only a ten minute walk though.

On fireworks, the ones I have come across are with the local festivals like Diwali, Onam etc in India. I was never a big fan of these. I like the light part of it, not the sound at all. But its less of an effect here I guess. Yesterday night was foggy with a little rain as well. I could not have enjoyed a bit of it if not for my jumper, huge winter coat, woollen socks, gloves, hat and boots. Felt a bit comfy!!! I am already into my typical winter style especially at nights if I am out. The sight of fireworks was good. They had half an hr of fireworks followed by the bonfire. There was Guy Fawkes positioned on top of the junk wood!!! The ground was horded with people, never knew there were that many people living in that posh little village. There were these kids with their fluorescent light sticks, all those junky funky star war stuff, balloons, the moon rider and the likes which kept them occupied. Not many little ones seemed to enjoy the fireworks. Some of the kids were bawling hard, ‘I don’t want to see this!!!’. We had plans to catch up some of our friends there, but it wouldn’t have been a facile task to locate anyone in the foggy, rainy night with a flock. So, we walked back home when Guy Fawkes was about to be burned.

Last year we had seen the fireworks held at Saltwell Park which was huge. The one this year was ok with relatively less innovative patterns. However when you have the bigger patterns getting showered on top of your head you tend to enjoy it; I got the feeling that I am getting blessed lots; crazy me! It was even colder that time I guess. But none of them can be compared to the Thrissur Pooram. I have seen it only in TV, but had seen the sample one held there a week before the original Pooram which was the biggest I have ever seen.

November - Melancholy Moods

Followed by the resume revamp there was an application which I had made on an open internal requirement within my present organisation. I was really interested in the role and this was exactly something to which I wanted to progress in my career. Well, I had invested quite a bit of my time and effort for the application and was very happy when I was successful at the application level. The internal application process is quite complex where you need to clearly describe your competence against the desirable and essential competencies with relevant evidence in the projects. This one had a list of 20+ on which I had spent considerable time on drafting my application. When I had passed the stage of application progress, I had a serious thought on this and did a quality preparation for the interview as I knew progressing from an analyst role to a manager role is not that easy within any organisation.

You expect certain type of ‘usual’ questions in any interviews. For example, ‘tell me about yourself; tell me about your present job’. But in this case the interview style was quite different on very high application level questions. The interview lasted for more than an hour and by the time I was out of the room, I realised I was sweating and drained out. Is that nerves??? May be…But then, I am sure I didn’t have a confidence problem. Also, I had done my home work for the preparation too. Each of the questions made me think and think, speak up and almost give alternate options for all answers. It was mentioned during the start that there are no right/wrong answers or tricky questions. It was just to know how you suit to the proper project management role. However, after the interview I was very happy that I got a chance to experience such a drilling down interview and expected a very good feedback even if I was rejected. But then, yesterday afternoon while I was on a middle of my ‘Presentation Skills’ training from Bray Leino I was offered this role…WOOHOO!!! Was excited …wanted to share the good news with SreeRaj; who was busy so left a voice mail. He was pleased and gave me a call back later. Then, spoke to Mums/Dads and was then settled for a bit. May be that I was so excited I couldn’t think straight during the training course. I had accepted the offer later on in the evening. Now, it’s left with my present and future line managers to negotiate start date, hand over contracts and the likes.

Talking about the course on Bray Leino Presentation Skills: There were times in my life when I used to run away from stages, presentations and talking in public. But then this has changed over the time. But then can’t really say that I have always delivered effective and impressive presentations. This may be due to a variety of reasons, say the strength of content, organisation and plan of presentation, style and of course knowledge of audience too. But then there were times when I was specifically recognised for my presentation skills during my previous jobs and MBA course.

The training with Bray Leino was more or less an eye opener. You have numerous things to improve on and it works on a CI theory – Continuous Improvement. It was more or less proved to you through your presentations. My presentation to the training group on the first day bagged me a good mix of positive and negative feedback. No, you should say ‘can improve on’ rather than negative. The feedback touched out on all aspects ranging from the theme of your presentation to the timbre of your voice. You analyse yourself after the presentation and you realise from the group feedback that you weren’t that awful as you thought. The basic principle is the horizontal plan and then PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I think the same logic applies to report writing as well.

One of the interesting sessions was on the tapping therapy, emotional freedom techniques and much more. I am not entirely sure on the extent to which you can rely on them, but then may be it works as its all about nerves and your brain. The emphasis all the way was on confidence. I have realised how my confidence levels have gone high over the years. I can handle people and even crowds, talk talk and talk. But then there is always this element of confidence which I seem to be missing occasionally – especially when you think, ‘Oh, I am going to look stupid!, What would they think of me?’ ‘Am I saying the right thing?’…But then, no one expects you to be perfect. As long as I am not in a debate I have taught myself to handle these situations – whether it is work related or not. In a debate, I often feel it is always the ego in you make you work which is sometimes good.

I am vaulting from topics after topics for no reason. May be that’s the Friday effect. The weekend is not planned at all. Halloween night today, and this is not making a big difference with us. I completely forgot about Halloween and realised it when I got a free crème egg along with Yorkshire metro today morning. It is too cold to go out and do something actually; the weekend doesn’t seem to be any better too. But I am expecting some kids from the neighbourhood for chocolates. And the cooking bit tonight as SreeRaj is back home after 3 days in Birmingham and is complaining on the food he had to have for the past 2-3 days. So, that’s it for the week. Had an eventful week! - Interview, Good news on a friend who is blessed with a baby, a bit of sad news on a friend who is returning to India finishing contract in UK, Interview Results and so much more I am pleased that I found out the result of the interview otherwise I would have at least thought about it during the weekend. It’s start now- November, it is said that melancholy moods are associated with this month. Quite suits for this winter (supposedly autumn)!

The Driving Force

Existence of God is a widely discussed topic. I am not in an attempt to question it as I believe it does and personally speaking it is something beyond belief. The association with God and religion is something different; or rather the associates make it increasingly confusing.

Having been brought up in a traditional Hindu family in India, I worship Hindu Gods and came across more on Hinduism. In most cases you tend to follow what you are exposed to and inherit your family traits more. I am not for or against idol worship too, after all effigies are one of the best ways of representation. I personally feel religion, God and ways of worship are all means to engage you to some driving force. I am sure the ultimate aim of this was always to make good human beings; if not ideal (not anything less!). Civilised and Humane! However, the disputes on religion have been frolic always. I don’t see any religion inferior; my understanding is that all of them preach the same. I have done my 10 years of schooling with a Christian Missionary; this didn’t make me look upon my religion as inferior or superior. I believe in Lord Shiva, Krishna in the same way as Christ and Allah. But, the way you do things would be in the way you are used to. When I am in panic, I would obviously say, “ende Krishna”…However, when I was in school there was this influence from friends which made me use ‘karthave’ to a good extent; that’s influence. I believe there is a God, the driving force which is ascribed to ‘Energy’ by analysts in relation to this. Energy involved in the process of prayers has been proved in many places, not the magic of God or religion.

Having been interacting with a wide range of people, I have felt differences with the way people from different religions act and think. But, it is certainly not to do with their religion, it attributes to their environments. If you are taught to see a religion as a nemesis and if you have not got enough exposure to experience the world, you may do that. That is not anyone’s fault, it is just circumstances and the perseverance continues to a point where it is no longer appropriate.

Having said all this what I realise is there is not a single day in my life I have been disconnected from the driving force. I have my little Krishna locket in my chain which I am hesitant to remove no matter what like my thali (mangalsutra – tie of togetherness). The little Krishna is there with me in my chain for ages, I don’t remember when I started having it with me. It has seen all the places I have seen in my life. I am sure that it is a superstition, but it is for my comfort and confidence. Why do I still say ‘touchwood’ and do touch even now? And, on thali it is not a mandatory thing to wear these days, at least not many does. Same with the wedding ring too. And my husband is not emphatic on these; but then, I haven’t removed them since my marriage. Sometimes I can sense the odd look or out of place state of them with my dress and costumes. But then, I guess I got so used to them. However, on the sindoor (the red mark you hold on your forehead) I am not a prompt person as I forget it when I get dressed. And never got this ‘must-do’ feels for that.

You change according to the circumstances in life, may be not with your belief but with how you go by it. When, I was in India my day was not complete without a visit to the temple nearby my house. I managed to get it done at least in the morning or in the evening for the prayers. And, if I felt lazy for and didn’t do it for a day, I used to feel a sense of fear or rather lack of confidence. Even then I knew they were all superstitions. But somehow was so used to the system. On leaving the city to Bangalore initially, I missed my routine but had no option to do the same. There were temples around, but then hardly got chance to visit them expect on occasions like birthdays and the likes. On leaving the country, I have not had a chance to experience a temple I was used to (except the Balaji temple in Birmingham). Here, the concept of temple is different, it is rather a place to get together; more like cultural centres. But they maintain idols, do the prayers, celebrate festivals and much more. I do appreciate the attempt, but my concept is different. I know I should not complain much as you can’t expect your style everywhere.

But, at home I do have my little idols and a smaller version of Pooja room where I do the same which I am used to for ages. I try my best to light the viliakku (a traditional lamp, which signifies prosperity) and do my regular prayers if I am IN station. The time for regular prayers has decreased from 30 minutes (years back) to less than 5 minutes these days. And, I do push SreeRaj also if he is around (which works sometimes!). I haven’t been doing this for the past one week the reason being we were out of station on the weekend; and yesterday I realised there are no more matches in the matchbox. Being non-smokers should not be a reason for not having a cigarette lighter at home, but I realised we don’t have one. The same situation has happened in our previous homes; but I had the option to light a candle from my gas stove for a solution. The new home has this electric hob which doesn’t allow me to do that. Another wild solution is to light a paper from the electric hob which takes ages and then to transfer it to a candle. This is too much of a process and risk involved is on the high side, also for the fire alarm which is waiting for a loud outburst. In short, have to get the matches shortly!!!

A positive note on the weekend

More than a half of October is gone by this weekend. This week was well occupied in office as well as at home, not very much snowed under though. I prefer it to be busy at office. Sometimes I feel I work better under pressure. Anyhow, it is not the same at home. The to-do list for both of us is getting bigger and bigger which ranges from the weekly grocery shopping to some major paper works we need to get moving. I can’t figure out if this is because we are busy or lazy. May be just not both. Last night I switched my laptop on to get some ‘urgent’ work done when SreeRaj wanted me to get the ball rolling on the to-do list. But, later half an hour he found me discussing on a lasagne recipe with a friend online. So, I think I am not busy…lazy neither!!! But I saw some tick marks in the list today morning which means we managed to set the ball in motion yesterday night. Or may be I dreamt…or just my positive semi-conscious mind visualised some tick marks when I switched on the kettle for morning tea. Kettle did the job well, but the milk was OFF...what a Friday!

This weekend is something we were looking forward to since a friend of us organised a get together at their place in York. There would hardly be anyone who would not enjoy this friend’s culinary skills. York is one of the top tourist attractions in the country, but if you get to know this friend of ours you would have no doubt in ranking them and their culinary skills as the top attraction of the place. Get togethers are always fun with loads of food, board games, outdoor games (!!!), gossips, sleepless nights and much more. But this time the gang (not all) have decided to pick up funny snapshots of the gang and do a collective fun with that. Well, they cannot be referred to as funny; embarrassing would be a better term of use. I was supposed to be doing that but have not yet started. Tonight!!! The interesting part of this is I bag the highest number of embarrassing pictures and I realise that if I do a quality work on this, it is going to bite me back. But never mind this time! And, there are some pretty ‘decent’ ones in the gang who doesn’t have funny pictures at all…How boring people!!! And this week the girls in the gang did make an effort to dig out some and came up with acceptable ones. There are these girls who have supplied funny pictures of their guys which will be a shock to them. Hope not to see many attractions of domestic fights tomorrow!

Resume Revamp!

I am on a resume revamp this week.

The first time I put down something together for a resume was during the final year of my Engineering while registering for Shreds! The concept of CV was sort of new then; to confess the one made was more or less similar to a senior student’s CV I referred to. That time CV focused on semester marks, mini projects and major projects, learnt (!) programming languages and so on.

However, this was more than enough for campus recruitments for IT companies then since they look at your academics percentage scores, technical interview, language test, group discussions etc. Happily contented after the first job CV was never touched until I started making applications to Universities in UK for my MBA. It was not just a CV act, instead statement of purpose, applications, interviews and so on which made sense on what is getting done. But here things are different; you have a clear idea on what you want to pursue, which aspect of management you would want to take further and see what the University offers. And clearly indicate how well you are suited on taking such a course. If everything ties in together only you need to invest your time on an application. Personally I don’t feel one does need to make millions of applications for a foreign MBA and wait for something to click. By the time you are into the MBA hunt, you would have an idea on what is where and if that’s for you. Having the limitation of location to North East England I didn’t have to worry much on my ‘choice’ problem here. However, I was put down by one of the Universities indicating my lack of full-time experience required for the MBA they offered. But, never mind I was offered a more ‘convenient’ one and I realised that was exactly what I wanted.

Then started the days of job hunt and working on resume. Resume is something which you can keep on working with. There are some areas of resume which you don’t change much like your education, personal details, membership of professional bodies etc. But if you are applying for a specific job you need to put in quite a considerable amount of work on the supporting information sometimes referred to as additional information. How you are suited for the job, what are the skills you can demonstrate for the role, how much experience you have in that, what are your areas of expertise and how well that fits in for the job role; even though they don’t align directly with the essential and desirable competencies of the role. Explain how you can make a difference or add value to the employer. Then if the competencies are well stated and if you know you don’t meet more than a third of them then effective utilisation of time, resources and reputation will be not to make an application for that. Though you are sure that you meet all the essential and desirable competencies for a role most of the cases you would not get an interview call unless you make a strong application, a strong kick off.

It has been a long since I revamped my resume. It is not very old though as it has been only 7 months I am in my new role. But there are provocations to revamp my resume now, overhaul time… on the lighter side!!! Three years of full-time employment experience; I consider the year of MBA education as experience and I can very well demonstrate that. And how can you be expected to retreat your three years in no more than three pages???