Lock-down Learning : Be An Enhanced Version Of Yourself in 21 Days….

Social isolation impacts on everyone’s well being and mental health. A sudden lock down amid semester can be a difficult time; this is especially true for engineering students and young learners who were previously used to spending a substantial part of their day in colleges.

“When Life gives you Lemons,

Make Lemonade”.🍋 —->🍸

It is up to us how to use this time effectively. With this in mind, here are few guidelines that will help students tackle this lock down time positively for self growth and development.

1. Identify Your Strength & Weakness

We live in a competitive world, where it is very common to compare oneself with people around us. Every individual is unique and we all function differently based on our capabilities and personalities. It is important to know oneself and ones capacities in order to succeed in any arena of life. Knowing your strengths will keep you ahead in a lot of things. For instance, if you are good in math , you would be able to apply that in your aptitude problem solving. It also helps you to grow more. Knowing what you can excel at enables you to aim higher and achieve much more.

Knowing your weaknesses gives you a clearer understanding of things that may be holding you back, and you can then work around finding ways to not let your weaknesses pull you behind. Consider an example ….May be you find ‘ C Programming ' difficult initially and then later day by day you keep on neglecting it.Then comes a time when you start to hate or dislike it.Gradually it becomes a habit and finally your academic weakness. In order to leverage your strengths and improve on your weaknesses, you first need to know them. And the time to do it in now. Believe me you will never ever get a self time like this.

Here is a simple exercise you can try. Find an exclusive workplace where you can concentrate and feel comfortable.Sit and write down answers to these questions : Ask yourself what I am good at? What do I lack or feel nervous about? What pulls be me back? What pushes me ? What I enjoy doing ?What are core competencies ?

2. Develop Technical Skills🖥️

Engineering is a field where one’s learning and training never ceases to be, even after years of professional experience. It is a continuous learning process. Now is the time when you can revise, learn and unlearn the fundamental basics of programming(C, C++, Java, Python) that might be unclear or never completed (Optional 😂😆)from your part.Start practicing the basic programs from the point of Campus Placement perspective.Start practicing competitive programming on a daily basis (Hacker Earth ). Plan a schedule for the same day wise.

3. Enhance Soft Skills👩‍🎓

No matter how good you are in your technical and aptitude ….but what if you fail to present or communicate your abilities in front of the interview panel.You cannot groom overnight …..It takes time. Use this time to enhance your soft skills ….. like make it a practice to talk and improve your English by reading newspaper(E- newspaper), practice two minutes extempore daily , Do a debate with your siblings in English on the current issues happening around the globe. Read loudly a chapter or a story to enchace your voice modulation and intonation. Enhance english listening , speaking and writing skills daily for 21 days by spending an hour on it.

(PN : Watch Rajya Sabha Daily Debates )

4. Focus on Aptitude and Verbal Preparation 🎲📋🕐📅⌛⚖️

Today All major IT/non IT companies & government organizations conducts aptitude test for recruitment at it’s entry stage. Students who are in the second and third year always complain about lack of time for preparing aptitude owing to conceptual clarity and lack of practice. So now is the time, start your preparation for aptitude today onwards pick any of them either R.S.Agarwal or Arun Sharma. Atleast complete and master important topics like Average , Percentage,Ratio and Proposition, Time ,Distance, Speed and Mixtures. After learning the concepts try to solve 20 –25 unsolved problems daily. (PN : Before starting the next chapter make it a point to revise the chapter studied on the previous day).

5. Interview Preparation🧾

Campus placement includes Technical, Aptitude , Group Discussion(GD) and Personal Interview (PI) rounds . However Students prepare a lot for Technical and Aptitude throughout the year infact since third year……But hardly devote any time towards Interview preparation (GD and PI). But mostly it is observed that students qualifying Technical and Aptitude fail to crack GD round and thus PI. Also it is observed that students procrastinate to create their Resume, eventually leading to a substandard low resume document. Students shall start working on :

A. Resume Writing (This should have been the First thing to be done)📑

This is one thing that students never ever do it till the end. In the process of becoming an engineer we do so many things however we do not document them. An excellent resume has immense power to stand out among other applicants, therefore you need a resume that markets your strengths . A good resume: Grabs the attention of employers and recruiters. Sells your strongest skills and accomplishments. Thus dear students rewind your academic achievements ( Awards🥇🥈🥉 ,Recognitions🏆 , Workshops & Conferences Attended , Certifications completed , Coordinator ship , Position held 🎯) list and write them out in a word document category wise. Refer a standard resume (Do not copy paste from senior 🤔 ). Create your resume using the standard format in addition you can also use free resume templates from the internet. Also you can add the details of your projects, achievements on a free website that you can mention in the resume. So start recollecting your data.

B. Draft “ Tell me about your self ”📝

This is one of the most important question asked during the campus interview .

However most of us can’t tell about themselves for a minute or so. Sounds funny yet true 😄. The recruiters are not much interested in knowing about your family. What they want to know is what are you and what have you done so far in a short description highlighting major achievements. So the answer to this need to be drafted, recalled , practiced and described through an excellent voice over in front of the panel. So fold your sleeve’s and write chronologically about you schooling , achievements and your potential skills 👍.

8. Think of an alternate plan B :

GATE Preparation / Competitive Exam

Growth for India’s IT services sector is going to be a big challenge in the coming fiscal, is predicted by some IT veterans. There will be an impact on Indian Information Technology industry for multiple reasons. This is expected to affect the current placement offers and the campus recruitment process in colleges all over India. So by the time thing get sorted as a precautionary measure you have to an alternate career plan(If you are already placed or even if you are the pipeline ). Engineering students can either opt for GATE /UPSC / MPSC or Government PSU exams. Aptitude Syllabus is almost same for all. Also students studying third year currently can start GATE Preparation and continue persuing post graduation. As survey states 50 % of the IT employees seek post graduation after two -three years of experience. So now you can give a thought by the time things settle for better.

9. Read Few Good Books 📖 📚

In the Internet era gone are the days of reading books. But actually even today there are various reasons why reading is very important and beneficial. Reading books helps your brain to be more active and it gives your brain a different kind of work out than watching TV listening to the radio. Reading helps you to find out the new real you, gives you a different perspective of life. I would recommend that a list of must read books for personal growth and development.

https://dariusforoux.com/reading-list/

Ok that all dear learners ! 👆

On my closing note I would like to mention that out of the 9 things mentioned above you may not be able to make all of them…. Even if you can do 5/9 that’s fairly good enough. Identify those and immediately make a plan to execute. Because… “ A goal without a plan is just a wish 🤞” .

Kindly note that this crisis period may have made an impact on the overall economic activities. But it will soon be over with our grit and determination. Meanwhile, you should embrace this change for good and brace up for the future in the post corona period.

Till then Stay Home & Stay Healthy

🤗🤗 !!