You're only as good as Google says you are

You're only as good as Google says you are

Face it, you're going to get 'Googled'. Here's how to burnish your digital brand.

NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- Who's Scott Burkett? A small-time actor; a family lawyer; a techie at the University of North Carolina. But if you Google "Scott Burkett," eight of the top 10 results, and most of the next 20, point to the 38-year-old chief executive of PlayMotion, a small video-game company. That's no coincidence. Over the past decade, video-game Scott has carefully nurtured his digital dossier. Why bother? "Everyone is going to see this stuff," says Burkett. "It's not just customers and investors who look you up. It's everyone."Including the person who may find you your next job.

According to ExecuNet, a career-networking company for executives, more than 80% of recruiters use Google to uncover information on candidates. While you can't completely control what appears under your name on search engines, it's not that hard to burnish your digital brand.

Start a Weblog Blogging can quickly shoot your name from obscurity to the top of search indexes, says Robyn Greenspan, senior editor at ExecuNet. Try to update it at least three times a week and use keywords that you think searchers are likely to look for. An aeronautical engineer might naturally use words like "aviation" and "altitude" in his blog, for example. Blogger.com is a commonly used (and free) place to get started. The site will guide you every step of the way. You'll also want to set up a social-networking profile.

Buy your domain Purchase your first and last name as a Web address. Even if you don't plan to set up a Web site now, it's a good idea to park it - GoDaddy.com will let you reserve a dotcom name for $9.99 a year. Don't let someone beat you to it. Buying on the secondary market can be expensive. If your name is common, try variations like "Firstname-Lastname.com" or your name followed by your profession.

Bury the bad stuff. If you've got a reasonably high profile in a competitive field or if you've ever jilted an employee, uncomplimentary words about you may find their way onto an industry message board or blog. The poster will use a pseudonym - but he or she will make sure that the reader knows who you are. Sweeping dirt to the second or third page of a Google search by buying your domain and blogging is usually enough. But if the stuff is really toxic, you can try having it removed. If contact information for a Webmaster isn't readily apparent on the site where you're being maligned, go to CheckDomain.com and search for the domain name. The search will spit back the e-mail address of the site's owner and may reveal a phone number and mailing address. Ask nicely. The site can't really be forced to do anything without getting lawyers involved, a costly and often ineffective strategy.

(http://money.cnn.com/)

India's outsourcing industry takes toll on workforce

updated 4 hours, 49 minutes ago Story Highlights

Outsourced businesses employ more than 1.6 million Indians in their 20s and 30s
They typically make much more than their contemporaries They face sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, say experts Brewing crisis could undermine India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- The job came with a good salary, and good perks. Call center employees face sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to experts. But, 26-year-old Vaibhav Vats will tell you, it was doing him no good. His weight had grown to 265 pounds and he was missing out on social life as he worked long overnight hours at a call center. Eventually, he quit. "You are making nice money. But the tradeoff is also big," said Vats, who spent nearly two years at IBM Corp.'s call center arm in India, answering customer calls from the United States. Call centers and other outsourced businesses such as software writing, medical transcription and back-office work employ more than 1.6 million young men and women in India, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who make much more than their contemporaries in most other professions.

They are, however, facing sleep disorders, heart disease, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys. Experts warn the brewing crisis could undermine the success of India's hugely profitable outsourcing industry that earns billions in dollars annually and has shaped much of the country's transformation into an emerging economic power.

Heart disease, strokes and diabetes cost India an estimated $9 billion in lost productivity in 2005. But the losses could grow to a staggering $200 billion over the next 10 years if corrective action is not taken quickly, said a study by New Delhi-based Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

The outsourcing industry would be hardest hit, it warned. Reliable estimates on the number of people affected are hard to come by, but government officials and experts agree that it is a growing problem. Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss wants to enforce a special health policy for employees in the information technology industry. "After working, they party for the rest of the time ... (They) have bad diet, excessive smoking and drinking," he said at a public meeting last month. "We don't want these young people to burn out."

The minister's comments have since infuriated the technology sector, which says it has been unfairly singled out for problems that also exist in other professions. The outsourcing industry has come under fire because the sedentary lifestyle ofits employees combined with often stressful working conditions makes them more vulnerable to heart disease, digestive problems and weight gain than others. Some complain of psychological distress.

Most call center jobs involve responding to phone calls through the night from customers in the United States and Europe -- some of whom can be angry and rude. It is monotonous and there is little meaningful personal interaction among co-workers. That can also be true of other jobs such as software writing and back-office work. "There are times when the stress is so overwhelming that they fail to cope with it. Then they come to us," said Archana Bisht who set up a counseling company, 1to1help.net, in Bangalore six years ago.

Her clientele has since grown to 25 companies -- seven of them were added in the past two months -- including such names as Intel Corp., IBM Corp., Hewlett Packard Co. and Mindtree Consulting Ltd. Each day, about 60 to 70 employees at these companies seek counseling from 1to1help.net. The complaints are many, but marital incompatibility and relationship issues top the list, Bisht said, often because the long, odd working hours means couples don't have much time together.

More women than men ask for help, she said. The outsourcing boom has created new employment opportunities for Indian women, but there has been little change in social expectations. Adding workplace demands to responsibilities at home, which often includes taking care of in-laws, leaves women workers with multiple stresses, Bisht said. Loneliness can also take a toll. "There is no social life," said Vats, who worked at night and either slept or watched television during these problems. The National Association of Software Services Companies, the main trade body of the outsourcing industry, said many of its member firms are already providing facilities like advice on health, gyms and money for regular checkups.

Companies like Infosys Technologies Ltd. have set up 24-hour help lines for counseling by psychologists, while others have tied up with companies like 1to1help.net. Some like HCL Technologies Ltd. have built daycare centers for children and routinely sponsor group outings by their employees. But the industry insists it would do nothing to impose any lifestyle on its employees. "We do not think it is for companies or for the government to interfere in the personal life of adult Indians," NASSCOM said in a statement. Also, there is little it can do to change the nighttime work hours of many outsourcing jobs. "The odd hours can play havoc with your health," said Vats. "I never got good sleep because everyone was up and getting ready to go to work when I got home ... Your diet goes for a toss. You get acidity, develop gastric problems."

Vats' weight has dropped to 214 pounds since leaving IBM Daksh two years ago. He's still overweight for his 5 feet 9 inch frame, but is much happier now working with a law firm for a much lower salary.

A recent survey by Dataquest magazine and technology consulting company IDC showed sleep disorders topped health complaints among outsourcing industry workers. About 32 percent of respondents complained of sleep disorders; 25 percent had digestive troubles; and 20 percent reported eyesight problems, said the survey, which covered 1,749 employees at 19 outsourcing companies. Yet, they would not talk about it openly. Several call center employees contacted by the Associated Press admitted to having many of these ailments, but they refused to be named or identify their employer. Sleep and digestive disorders, doctors say, can grow into bigger problems: hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.

Doctors say the rise in these diseases, alongside growing urbanization and fast-paced economic growth, is not surprising. But India's case is alarming because of the sheer number of people affected and the factors that make them vulnerable to these diseases, said Ravi Kasliwal, a cardiologist at New Delhi's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. These include India's fat-rich diet, genetic factors make them highly vulnerable to diabetes, and abdominal obesity that gives rise to insulin resistance and heart disease.

"To top it all, there is lack of awareness," Kasliwal said. "One out of 10 persons aged 35 years or more in this country is prone to heart attack." Heart disease is projected to account for 35 percent of deaths among India's working age population between 2000 and 2030, Kasliwal said, citing a World Health Organization study. That number is about 12 percent for the United States, 22 percent for China and 25 percent for Russia.

"This is a very serious issue for this country," Kasliwal said. "But nobody wants to talk about.

(http://www.cnn.com/)

Foreign buyers snap up 2nd homes in US

By LESLIE WINES, AP Business WriterMon Dec 24, 1:10 PM ET

Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become a Manhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtown neighborhood of Battery Park City.

His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will allow him to spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with a brother and sister in New York. "I looked at many places and I decided that a Manhattan apartment will always hold its value," he said.

Rota is part of a growing wave of foreigners who buy second homes in the U.S. for work and play and as an investment.

Cosmopolitan cities like New York and Miami have long served as second homes for affluent and accomplished foreigners. But the trend is growing. One in five American realtors has sold a home to a foreign investor in the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The events of 2007 have made the U.S. much more affordable for international home buyers. Severe dollar declines against the euro and pound have made U.S. homes much cheaper for Europeans. But even foreign buyers without that sort of currency advantage are benefiting from sharp drops in housing prices at a time when problems in mortgage lending are keeping many Americans out of the market.

At the same time, many foreign real estate markets, especially in Europe, have experienced sharp increases in home prices.

"There are markets like Paris and London and the South of France where some home values have gone up 100 percent," said Christian Voelkers of the Hamburg realtor Engel & Volkers Group. "At the same time, U.S. prices have either stayed put or come down."

Volkers' firm is eager to take advantage of this opportunity. Engel & Volkers, which caters to wealthy clients, plans to open 300 residential sales offices across the U.S. in the next few years. So far, it has offices in Florida, Connecticut and two in New York. The company said it is on track to open 30 more locations on the East Coast by the end of 2008.

The currency advantage is greatest for British citizens, given that each pound is worth well over $2. By contrast, the euro currently is worth about $1.45 while the Canadian dollar in recent weeks is hovering near parity with its U.S. counterpart.

"At this point the English are more actively looking in Manhattan than American buyers," said Ivan Hakimian of New York's Itzhaki Properties.

Mia Wilkinson, a transplanted Englishwoman who works for Rubloff Residential Properties in Chicago, deals often with British and other foreign executives transferred to the U.S. for a few years. "Before, people would stay in corporate rentals," she said. "But now these same people are turning around and buying properties."

Wilkinson, who has been in the U.S. six years, has bought property in Chicago herself.

The expansion of foreign real estate investment in the U.S. also means that areas that once were not popular with international buyers are now receiving interest. Doug Aitkin, who works for North Carolina's World Trade Center, said the Research Triangle area — comprising the cities of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill — is now getting inquiries from French and Scandinavian home buyers, a new phenomenon.

Constantine Valhouli, a principal with Boston's Hammersmith Group, which advises real estate developers, said foreign home buying appears to have varied drivers in different cities. In Boston, property purchases by foreigners are strongly linked to the city's booming biotechnology and life sciences industries. In addition, Boston venture funds are drawing large numbers of German, Swiss and Irish workers, some of whom take advantage of favorable dollar rates against the euro to help buy some real estate.

Even some foreign students at Boston's large collection of colleges and universities are able to join the ranks of home buyers. "There are some Boston neighborhood where it makes sense for students to buy and some where it does not," Valhouli said. For instance, many one-bedroom apartments in attractive neighborhoods near the colleges rent for $1,300 to $1,800 a month, which equals the mortgage payment on a condo worth $200,000 to $300,000.

Similarly, Charlie Jefferson, a Philadelphia developer, was surprised when two units in a new development in the University City area, home to the University of Pennsylvania, were purchased by foreign students. "We had never seen that before," he said. "In the past we didn't see foreign students with that kind of money."

In Los Angeles, demand from wealthy South Koreans for attractive condo towers and mid-level rise buildings has helped revitalize the once forlorn downtown neighborhood, according to Johanna Gunther, a senior vice president with the Ryness Co. there. "Downtown has not been an attractive urban residential market until recently, but Korean demand has been a big factor in the change," she said. In recent years, the South Korean government has loosened restrictions on foreign exchange transactions, facilitating a large rise in Korean purchases of U.S. properties.

And Scottsdale's phlegmatic residential real estate market reportedly is getting a boost from Canadian buyers eager to enjoy Arizona's dry warm climate.

The National Association of Realtors found that 7.3 percent of the houses sold last year in Florida were sold to foreign buyers. Miami in particular is a magnet for buyers from throughout Latin America and Europe, helping to mitigate the fallout from the area's housing slump.

Despite the news waves of foreign buyers in many U.S. markets, few suggest international investors by themselves can entirely offset the nation's housing crisis, brought on by the failure of many subprime mortgage loans made to home buyers with weak credit histories. Hammersmith Group's Valhouli stressed that the fact that international investors are helping to prop up some troubled housing markets only emphasizes the level of stress in residential real estate.

"Relying on foreign real estate investors is fundamentally as risky as relying on subprime mortgages," he said, noting that both phenomena distort demand and can conceal the depths of the problem U.S. home buyers and sellers face. "Foreign buyers aren't going to save the U.S. housing market. They're just a temporary fix like a finger in the dike. Fundamentals matter."

(http://news.yahoo.com)

Vroom with a whew! Tatas set for motown debut

21 Dec 2007, 0052 hrs IST,TNN

WASHINGTON: When the patriarch Jamshedji Tata traveled to the United States in 1902, he visited many cities in the country’s rust belt, looking for technology for his proposed steel mill in India. But India's greatest business visionary searched for other opportunities too.

He went as far down as Georgia looking into the cotton industry, and in the north, he touched Michigan. There was only one reason he did not eye Motown and its most famous product. It wasn't even born. By the time the Ford T-model debuted in 1908, Tata had been dead four years.

Nearly a century later, Tata scions are poised to set right that historical missed opportunity by buying Ford's premier brand Jaguar and Land Rover, for an estimated $ 2 billion plus. The deal could be announced as early as Friday, various business media outlets are reporting, although Ford itself maintained a studied silence. But the natter in the auto industry is that the auto giant wants to get the deal out of the way before the Christmas holidays.

The world greatest automotive society is agog -- even horrified -- at the prospect of a Tata-owned Jaguar and Land Rover. Much of the debate has centered around Tata’s ability to handle luxury brands at a time there is great attention on its Rs 1 lakh car ($ 2500), whose January 10 debut is also the talk of the auto world.

How can Tatas own both the world's cheapest car and a luxury brand? For the record, Ford has announced that the latest model of the Jaguar 2009 XF sedan will go on sale March 1, 2008 at an MSRP of just under $50,000 with a standard V8 engine.

In contrast, Tata's $ 2500 scoop is less than the price of a Segway or some specialty bicycles sold in the US.

But if the Tata legacy is any indication, the US fears may be overstated. Tata's Indian Hotels run some of the world's finest luxury resorts.

During his 1902 visit to the US, the patriarch was so shocked by the condition in the American steel cities that he wrote to his son Dorab, who was handling the Jamshedpur project: "Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees....Be sure there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens ...Reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks. Earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques, and Christian churches."

Still, the image of India as a poor country incapable of making or marketing luxury brands persists -- perhaps for good reasons. One blogger wrote last week that "Instead of the Jaguar XK-R, we may soon see an XK-Vindaloo."

But early this week, as the inevitability of the Tata take over sunk in, another called the deal 'Gandhi's Revenge.'

"Family-run Tata certainly has the means, and the metal," Todd Lassa wrote on the Motor Trends website, referring to the Tata's acquisition of steel-maker Corus.

"For the Indians, owning these symbols of British civilisation is nothing less than poetic justice."

Ford has had a long and enduring relationship with India going back to pre-Independence days. Many Indian leaders of that era used Ford automobiles and there were Ford dealerships across India. The Ford patriarch, Henry Ford, exchanged correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi even though they were poles apart in their approach to life -- one a champion of the machine age and the other a fan of human labor.

Gandhi once sent Ford a "Charka" (a spinning wheel) as a gift. Little could Ford have foreseen that his scions would be turning over two luxury brands to an Indian company in return.

(http://timesofindia.com)

China blasts U.S. presidential hopeful for suggesting toy import ban

BEIJING, Dec. 20 KYODO

China on Thursday criticized U.S. presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama for suggesting he would ban Chinese toy imports if elected because of concerns over their safety.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the overwhelming majority of Chinese toys are safe and he indicated that any suggestion of an important ban is a complete overreaction.

(http://home.kyodo.co.jp)