“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
-Benjamin Franklin”
The world is moving in faster pace, to survive in the changing atmosphere we should prepare ourselves in accordance with the tune of time. In this article, we will discuss about the preparation to be taken by a college student before joining to any profession. We all join college with a dream, a dream for good career, a dream for a strong foundation for life. Exceptions are always there, but in most cases the preparation for translating dream into reality is not taking place in our colleges and therefore the students feel lost after completion of their graduation/post-graduation. The term our college refers to the colleges in Assam and North East. This is the age of competition and to compete with rest of the world we have to remain fit from all aspects and a preparation for exit should be well planned. A proper exit from the college will make the life easy for the student to enter into the world of Career or Job.
Realization: If we go anywhere in Assam and North East and randomly pick 10 students and asked them about their aim in life or goal of life, 9 out of 10 students will give a blank response. The first and most important point is that we should know why we are doing study or what the purposes of our study are. We should feel proud for what we are studying, all course have own significance, demand and opportunity. We should realize that whatever we have studied or studying is not the cup of tea for all, only few are lucky to enroll in the courses we are pursuing, this will give a positive feel and strength. Better late than never, if preparation for exit has not yet started, let’s start it today.
Mental Preparation: When we are a student, we dream big and dream for a good job or earn high. Dreaming big is not a crime but reality is different. We may not get the dream job at the very first go, we may not get the proper work profile we are looking for but need to join some other, we may get rejected several times but this happens in everyone’s life so we should get ready for it. Rejection does not mean the end of journey but it means the beginning of another journey with more experiences. There is no shortest of job but for fresher, beginning of a job may not be so soft, therefore we should be mentally strong and ready for it. No job is small job or no work profile is insignificant, therefore we should learn to adjust our sails with the winds. We should not only focus on the traditional jobs or limit ourselves by thinking that we need a Govt. Job- that too in home town. If we open your boundaries, the world will accommodate us suitably.
Information Gathering: This age is the age of information, though the competition is high, the availability of information through digital medium brining the world at our doorstep. We can search for information like different types of career and job opportunities, path for different higher studies or professional courses, internship, scholarship, fellowship etc and list them. There are several job related and Career related websites available for up to date information, similarly for scholarship and fellowship for higher studies. If we lose any opportunity due to lack of information, this will be shameful for us. Apart from web information, there are many recruiting agencies especially for the overseas job,
Good reputation from the College: To make a proper exit from the college or the university our objective should be- to score good in the exam, carry a good reputation from the teaching as well as non-teaching community and good bonding from the classmates and others. Applying in any job or for higher study require References or reference letter where our teacher play a bigger role there, similarly relationship building with the alumni and classmate helps us connecting different employers.
Soft Skill: Soft Skills play an important role in transition phase; an employer checks the soft skills like Communication Skills, Leadership Skills, Writing Skills, Creativity, Problem Solving Skills, Public Speaking, Attitude Management, Presentation Skill, Time Management, Inter Personal Communication (IPC), Body Language etc during recruitment process and also after joining the job. We need to develop these skills during our college days. We may not find these in book or syllabus but we have to learn it through different ways like watching videos, attending short training or following some ideal personality etc.
IT Skills: These days all organizations, whether it be Govt., Private or Public are driven by Information Technology (IT). Therefore we should be handy in all kind of latest IT applications. IT Skills like MS Office, Internet, Social Networking, documenting, typing both English and local language etc. need to be strengthen. If we can gather some practical working experience (may be on volunteer basis or internship) during the college period using IT tools, it will be very helpful and give confidence to us. We all should have a valid e-mail ID and may have a LinkedIn profile.
Curriculum Vitae (CV): A strong Curriculum Vitae (CV) is important for the graduating student. Our CV should reflect our academic record, project experience, our strength, reference, key skills etc. The CV may slightly vary based on the need of the employer. Transition from College to Career or more precisely from student life to Job life is not just promoting from one class to another. One of my boss in former organization always used to say- ‘In College, you have learnt to walk in the footpath but now in job you need to walk in the street’, what have been learnt in college is required to polish and fit our learning into the profession. In College we have teachers and in Job we have Boss and 100% accuracy is expected in professional life. It does not matter how much we have scored so far or how regular we were in the classroom, what matters most to enter into the professional world is how we present ourselves with our academic achievements.