יום שלישי, ינואר 19, 2010

Intel interview questions and how to smile

Today I learnt two lessons. The first was in an Intel interview. Sometimes you do what you what you were asked to do and no more. I was asked during the interview how I would respond if I was part of a project and part of the project was undefined and wasn't getting done. Would I step up and do it? Now the challenge is in the fact that while stepping up and doing something without being asked is a wonderful thing - it shows initiative. On the other hand, in most cases, when you take on the job you were not asked to do, the job you were asked to do often suffers. I answered that I tended to take initiative and pick up the slack on a project when I saw that something wasn't getting done. They wanted to hear that I would focus first and foremost on the job I was assigned and then, once all of my work was done, to look around and lend a hand with other aspects of the project.

The second lesson I had today was to smile. I met with a fellow who is a sales and organizational development guru. He told me that from my body language when I walked in to our meeting he could tell that I was depressed about my job hunt. He said that I should practice smiling more and that I need to take more initiative and chances. Walk into the bank and talk to the branch manager. Call up friends and ask them if I could do free work for them in exchange for a recommendation. Contact and cold call folks. And view every meeting, interview & sales pitch as a learning experience.

One day, two lessons. Not bad.

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יום שני, מאי 19, 2008

Financial stuffity stuff



The question of how to deal with money is not an easy one. My current question is as follows. Please read and feel free to offer advice.
I have a chunk of $$ in the US. I need it here in the Holy land over the next 6 months and will have to return it, in $$, in 6 months.

Option #1: Move it in chunks exchanging it at the going rate as I need it. The $ to NIS rate is quite low. If it goes up I will get more NIS for my chunk of money. If it falls I get less.
Option #2: Move it all at once. If the $ falls further I'm safe but if it rises I will have a harder time paying back the $$'s in 6 months from now. As a safeguard I can buy an option of currency at the current rate for about 1000 nis. If the rate falls I'm safe and have an easier time returning the $$ but I lose my 1000 nis. If the rate rises, I can still buy $$ at todays rate.

The question is, will the rate rise? And am I missing something with my analysis?

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