Indian Recruiters (live in India)

Here is an interesting post from Fistful of Talent.  This article will shed even more insight into the world of Indian recruiters.  By the way, I emailed the sender of the email I got two days ago.  No response yet.

Fistful of Talent: All My Recruiters…. Live in India…..

So, here’s what I found out in the lunch with the recruiting firm in question, which I consider to be a pretty sharp bunch. They’ve long used outsourcing as a means to “source” candidates, but they’ve now moved to the next level. In addition to sourcing candidates using resources in India, they’ve also handed off the next level of activity to outsourced recruiters in India. That means outsourced recruiters who understand the technologies in play are making the initial calls to prospects, qualifying them, and locking them down for the next step, which might be a phone screen or in-person with the actual recruiting firm, or if the specs are nailed, a phone screen or in-person with the client company in question.

Here’s the kicker – low cost, robust technologies like Bullhorn, which allow recruiting shops to manage the lifecycle of the recruiting process for a single candidate from anywhere on the globe, have enabled the manager in question to outsource this function. All he needs is the right talent overseas, and he pays 20-30% of what he would pay a full life cycle recruiter located in Birmingham to do the same job.

Economic Burden of Diabetes Worsening

My oldest son is pre-Med.  I keep gently reminding him endocrinology is an exciting field.

Costs, Complexity of Treating Diabetes Increasing Steadily, Says Study — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians

A recent study from the CDC and NIH shows that nearly 13 percent of adults in the United States have diabetes, but 40 percent of those individuals haven’t been diagnosed yet.

Friends and Mortality

Well – What Are Friends For? A Longer Life – NYTimes.com

There was a time in my working career when I complained about the lack of a social life. Work, take care of family, work, repeat. Well, a couple of years ago I started reconnecting. My significant other was truly amazed. I was amazed.

Add this to your list of stuff underwriters don’t routinely ask about. A 22% reduction in risk is significant. Be sure to read the Australian study abstract. Then tell your boss you’re designing the first mortality risk friendship questionnaire.

Swine Flu A H1N1

Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Infection in Two Children — Southern California, March–April 2009

Overall mortality in reported H5N1 cases (Avian) is approximately 60% according to the CDC.  Now we have to worry about pigs too.

Addendum:

Due to the usual obnoxious level of media coverage, this particular post is getting visited often.  I want to clarify my meaning of the last sentence above.  This sentence  in the original post is a reference to a state of increased awareness and vigilance about the possibility of pandemic flu. You cannot get swine flu from pigs or from eating pig products.  In the future I will try to be more clear in my posts.


Occupational Risk – More on Journalists

Journalist Roxana Saberi will likely be spending the next 8 years in an Iranian prison.   How often we forget, or take for granted,  some of the amazing rights we have in the US.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
— The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

I have been sensitive to the plight of journalists worldwide working in hostile environments since my offshore insurance days.  If you want to learn more I’ve added a new link category titled Occupational Risk that includes a link to a website with 17 years worth of data on dead journalists.

We hard core underwriters love this kind of stuff.