Archive for the 'Learning & Development' Category

Follow your dreams! Get, Set, Go…

Hey! How are you folks doing? Campus Season is just around the corner, am sure all those eligible are burning their mid night oil, to woo those interviewers and bag the best job.  

It’s gonna be HOT! Environment is hot with global warming and so is job market, Companies flocking institutions to be the first to hire crème-le-crème. But for those who are prepared, it is going to be a cake walk. Am sure, fore-warned, is fore-armed. By now, all students know the pattern of selection of organizations and expectations of organizations from fresh talent. It is not going to be tough to sail thru’ selection process, that is easiest of the chain. As I always say, keep your antenna up in the air, you will come out with flying colors.  

It’s all about preparation. Hone your skills, analytical & verbal. Go thru’ those batteries and let tricks of trade be in your finger tips. Brush up your subjects, for all you know, you may not refer those text books down the road, so it’s ok to spend some extra time. Focus on fundamentals, as I wrote in one of my earlier blog, ask Why? Why? Why? Search for those answers….Last but not the least, if choice of your destiny is Software, get your hands dirty with programming languages, syntax, logic… What’s hot and what’s latest in technology, do browse, search, go that Xtra mile, results will surely be worth a celebration…. 

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Animals Talk?

Hi there, good to share another thread of thoughts on our learning journey. Was scratching my head for a good time, on a title to write… many ideas passed by, but thought that I will deliver something concrete this time… on a topic, which is need of the hour, most important at this juncture, when your learning is at its high, a topic which the entire education system is grappling with… hmmm, that’s good enough to set the stage, am referring to title “Communication”. 

I will present this article as a series of sub-titles. A little theory, to start, kindle some fundamental questions, relate theoretical guidance to real life situations and last but not the least, advises… on how to hone our communication skill. Well, that defines a little framework  

K, let’s jump. Now, what’s communication? Yeah, it’s a big topic. Theoretically it involves transmission of, say a message from sender to recipient. Well, the challenge of communication, rather effective communication is almost at every stage of this transmission, challenges could be with sender, it could be with the way message is encoded, it could be the choice & quality of medium, understanding of decoding nuances, challenges could be with recipient or the message itself.  

Was that a little dry! let me relate. Did you ever wonder, how animals communicate with each other. Think about it, be it wild animals, or the pets at home, they do communicate amongst each other in the absence of a language or probably thru’ their native language. Did you watch the way humans communicate with animals and vice versa. Point is, communication is more than just the language. That would be the first distinction that you need to realize. 

So, communication is not necessarily about building English speaking skills. It is about how effective you are in articulating your views and ensuring that the recipient receives in the same form and feel, as you intended.  

To relate to theory, articulation is encoding. It is the way you gather your raw data, process them as information & present. Key pointers would be to be a knowledgeable person (meant well read), who has access to relevant data, who knows the art of processing data as information, skill of conceptualizing ideas as frameworks to present, identify or differentiate between information which would make sense to intended recipient verses junk, no value add – those are aspects of sender & encoding. 

Next step is transmission, choice of media. Again skill is about knowing the right media to choose, should I just pick up the phone, talk & explain or should I send an email, choosing the right media and obviously to understand the distortions of varied media and its impact on message.  

It is also key to know, how recipient would decode, what you communicated. May be to kind of understand, if possible, recipients bias, may be cultural aspects of recipient and so on….point I am trying to drive is to understand that effective communication involves understanding entire chain.  

You know what, let me stop here. You would hear from me, in my next article on….Hey, Watch this space for more details.  

Happy blogging.

Antenna Up in the Air!

Hey There! Thanks for your encouraging comments for my first blog, gives me more zest to key down my thoughts, on learning journey.   

Btw, folks we just announced our quarterly results, hope you had a chance to read details of our company performance. Please do, if you haven’t done it till now. We are rocking at Wipro; we have published very positive quarterly results, reaffirming our culture of success. We are so proud to be a Wiproite and to be part of a happening organization. We are proud to be part of this era, economy is booming, times are at its best, we should be so happy to be part of this generation.  

Yeah, all is well in the environment around us, but are “you” ready to rock n’ roll. Are you equipping yourself to thrive in this hot environment, are you learning every day, every second?  

The point I am trying to drive, is to ask you… are you learning… are you learning about the organization that you are going to be part of, are you learning about the generation that we are in, are you learning about technology… are you asking questions, - “Why” is a very important word, which will drive the way you think. Fine, let me give you folks some homework…  

Now, go get answers (come on, don’t ask me how relevant these questions are, it doesn’t matter, knowledge will never go waste)… & now, the questions… “Do you know GDP of India, do you know US Dollar rate, do you know amount of FDI inflow, Do you know the top 3 challenges of the country, Do you know the top 3 challenges of IT organizations in today’s scenario, Do you know about SEZ, Do you know the technologies that drive business, Do you know Why Java or Why .Net, Do you know the implication of waterfall model or spiral model, do you know what customer wants, Do you know how you can add value to customer, do you know what is customer centricity, do you know how innovative solutions help build business relationship, Do you know?” 

If you re-look at the flow of question, I did try to start with macro queries and drove down to those which are relevant for you, as an IT professional. Equip yourselves. It’s a competitive world out there and there is absolutely no time, tomorrow never comes. Do it today & NOW.   

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Learning & Development: Understanding L&D

Hmmm… What is Learning & Development? Did some scratching & searching, landed on a definition of learning as “acquisition and development of memories and behaviors. It is the goal of education and product of experience and heard that it is seen only in large vertebratesL”. Definition of Development as “interventions and activities that are intended to improve the knowledge and skills”. This blog being dedicated to student community, this topic seems more relevant to feature on our campus arena.  

Well, that is good enough to understand, what is L&D.  

Now, Why Learn? Why Develop? Humans (large vertebrates!) are born curious and we grew asking “Tell me Why?”, since birth. So let me share some thoughts on Why aspect of L&D in my first Blog. As we go along, let us handle What to Learn, Where to Learn, When to Learn & How to Learn aspects.  

Alright, that defines the scope & frames thought for this content. Let’s get on to Why? 

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