INNOVATIVE WORKSHOP FOR CAREER PLANNING

Objective: How to be prepared for the Chosen Career 1) IMPORTANCE OF SOFT SKILLS: What are the Soft Skills? Soft Skills are the set of intra-personal and inter personal skills that one should have, to be well accepted, appreciated and encouraged in any sphere or / and circumstances of life. a) WHY DO WE NEED SOFT SKILLS? As Mr.Roosevelt, the steel emperor of 18th century, rightly remarked, The road to success begins and ends with people. We need people, irrespective of where, why and what we do. Soft skills help us to be better accepted in whatever we do and wherever we do them. Soft skills are the set of skills that are people driven, people oriented and people friendly. b) IMPORTANCE OF SOFT SKILLS IN CAREER. Irrespective of the industry we choose as our career, somewhere down the line or up the ladder, we have to deal with people. Every human being is a mixture of feelings and values, desires and goals, ethics and attitudes, likes and dislikes and our success depends upon how we can cope up and gel with different people in trying circumstances. Soft skills give us the necessary knowledge. Experience and exposure to treat people the way they want to be treated at a given point of time. c) IMPORTANT SOFT SKILLS: a) Positive attitude b) Reading, presentation and communication skill (voice modulation) c) Body language and importance of smile. d) Importance of I, we and being the team player. e) Inter personal behavioral patterns. f) Importance of giving and negotiation skill. g) Importance of asking and suggesting then ordering.

2) SWOT ANALYSIS 1) STRENGTH: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STRENGTH; Internal strength is what we possess within us or what we are made of. This consists of our education, intelligence, knowledge, will power etc. External strength is what we possess outside in the physical world. This consists of our body language, the good will and the various influences we have, the soft skills we have acquired etc. 2) HOW TO DEVELOP OUR STRENGTHS? As each individual possesses different internal and external strengths. It is very hard to generalize how to develop various strengths. But, we can discuss some easily recognizable strengths. a) Body language: Though we are born with a particular physique and it is tough to change that, we can always change the way we sit and stand, the way we walk and talk. By quantitative, qualitative and conscious effort these things and this helps in building our personality. b) Communication: There was a 13-yr. Old boy, who could not open his mouth infront of his own schoolmates because of fear. But with lot of determination, hard and smart work, he became a world famous trainer in public speaking. His name is Dale Carnegie. 3) HOW TO USE OUR VARIOUS STRENGTHS? Each of us are blessed and born with different strengths and the most important thing is to find where our strengths lie. Once we find out our strength, we should go on developing the strength and make best use of it. Sachin found his strength in cricket at the age of 11 and he had not done anything other than playing cricket. Bill Gates found out his business acumen at 12 when he rented his basketball to his sister at 25 pence a day. Today he is more famous for his strategies rather than software development. 2) WEAKNESS a) Types of weakness: Natural weakness: Some of us are born with natural weakness. E.g.: Short height, dumb & deaf, blindness etc.

Acquired weakness: We acquire some weaknesses over a period of time. E.g.: 1) Children are not scared to speak infront of anybody, but start getting stage fear as they start growing up. 2) Children learn faster and better because of their enthusiasm to learn. But over a period of time, they start developing prejudice over some subjects, and before they realize, they start scoring poorly in those subjects. b) HOW TO GET RID OF VARIOUS WEAKNESS. Natural weaknesses are very hard or nearly impossible to overcome. But we can get rid of the acquired weaknesses with quantitative and qualitative effort over a period of time. E.g.: Communication: Many of us have acquired stage fear. By practicing, one can get rid of stage fear and can be an excellent speaker. Memory: We can improve our memory by following memory development techniques. c) HOW TO USE NATURAL WEAKNESS INTO OUR ADVANTAGE. Many a times, we can use our natural weakness into our advantage. E.g.: a) Short batsman in cricket. b) The way Silvester Stalloine used his twisted mouth into his advantage. C) Charlie Chaplin. 3) OPPORTUNITIES. a) Internal and external Opportunities. Internal and external opportunities keep varying from time to time, place to place and person to person. E.g.: Being a student, the internal opportunities are the knowledge, we can gain in our college, whereas external opportunities are gaining knowledge through inter collegiate competitions, guest lecturing etc. Being in a family, internal opportunity is what we learn within our family, whereas external opportunity is what we learn by attending a wedding, community meeting etc.

In a company, internal opportunity might give us a chance for promotion, whereas external opportunity might offer a better job in an another company. b) Some types of Career Opportunities. a) Geographical. b) Timebound. c) Industrywise. C) How to use opportunities into our advantage. 1) Call centers 2) Microsofts marketing strategy for developing strategies. d) How to create opportunities. 1) Creating new products like selling coconut water in containers. 2) Creating new markets: F.m.c.g. companies releasing their products in sachets to cater low level income people. 3) Taking initiatives and creating favorable atmosphere for promotion in our company. 4) THREATS. a) Internal and external threats. Internal threats, more often than not, are psychological and imaginative. They arise because of our own fears, doubts and weaknesses like can I do it, can I speak infront of large audience, can I reach the target etc. Because internal threats are psychological, they can be negotiated and negated. External threats arise outside our control and therefore tough to handle and cooperate. For e.g., at the time of promotion our superior might prefer a relative to us, our company might loose some major clients and company might lay off some people. b) Corporate threats. Even though, there are different threats like natural, social, governmental threats, because we are concentrating on career, we will discuss corporate threats. 1) The company, one is working, might be facing either internal or external threats. If union strikes, financial crisis etc form the internal threats, loosing clients, tough competition, govt.s new policies form the external threats.

2) We might be facing our own threats within the company. If the personal problems affecting our work, not discharging our duties form the internal threats, competition from colleagues, personal preferences of our superior form external threats. c) HOW TO PREDICT THE FUTURE THREATS. Even though, all the threats can not be foreseen and guarded, some threats can be predicted and preventive measures can be taken. 1) If the real estate industry is going down, we can be sure that the prices of products like cement, paint, hardware etc start falling. 2) If the company is on a computerization spree, we can be sure that the computer illiterate employees will have a tough time keeping their place in the company. d) HOW TO NEGOTIATE AND NEGATE THREATS. As we discussed earlier, most of the internal threats are psychological and therefore, by consulting counselors or psychiatrists we can come out of internal threats. 1) If one is in cement industry and facing problems because of slowdown in real estate, the solution is to search for the markets, where the real estate is booming or atleast stabilized. 2) If the company is getting computerized, the solution is to get the necessary computer knowledge. e) HOW TO USE FORESEEN THREATS INTO ADVANTAGE. 1) Tendulkars now famous outside the leg stick guard against Shane Warne. 2) Microsofts marketing strategy against Linux. 3) Pepsis famous nothing official about it campaign. 4) Many big playing stock market bulls sold their portfolios sensing that the Vajapeyee govt. will fall in 1999.

3) GOAL SETTING. A) WHAT IS A GOAL? Goal is a point or a place or a destination, we want to be at a given point of time. 1) Goal should be specific- no doubts. 2) Goal should be realistic- it should be practical. 3) Goal should be reachable- it should be within a particular reach 4) Goal should be measurable- quantitatively or qualitatively. 5) Goal should be time bound- goal is when rather than how long. WHY DO WE NEED A GOAL Even for a small outing like going to a movie or a weekend picnic, we always plan- which movie to go or which picnic places to be visited. Only after we finalize this, we start thinking about other factors like the mode of transport, the route, the cost etc. In the same way, in the journey of our career, we should always have a goal or different set of goals, we want to achieve at a given point of time. As we do not sit in a bus without deciding where to go, we should not start our career without deciding what and when to achieve.

4) CAREER PLANING
1.Difference between job and career Job is more a temporary assignment and a stepping stone where as career is the path through which we start realizing and reaching our respective goals. E.g.: Engineers working in call centers and BPOs Weekend and summer jobs 2.How to choose a career a. Analyze ourselves through SWOT analysis b. Observe and study the industry you want to get into # How it is behaving for past 5 yr. # Depending on this result how it might behave for the next 5 yr. c. Career counseling

3.Why should we develop our career options? As the famous actor and director Raj Kapoor rightly remarked moving forward in life and you are dead the day you stand still, saturated, exhausted. One might wish to be a software engineer and might join a company as software engineer. Then the next goal should be reassessed to be either a team leader or the trainer. If one wishes to be a sales manager and becomes a sales manager for a state, the next goal should be to become the sales manager for a zone and then for the country.

5) RESUME BUILDING.
a) The format. b) The size. c) The importance.

6) INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES.
1) THE ATTIRE AND THE OUTLOOK. For BOYS: For GIRLS: 1) Light shirt preferably plain 1) Salwaar(plain) or formals. 2) Dark pant & matching tie 2) No heavy make up. 3) Pressed white kerchief 3) Pressed white kerchief. 4) Neatly cut nails 4) Manicured nails. 5) Polished shoes preferably black 5) No pencil heels footwear. 6) Shave a) PRE APPROACH. Be at the office atleast 10 min.s in advance to the appointed time. Pronounce the name and the time of appointment to the receptionist clearly. If needed to wait, sit in a comfortable and relaxed manner. Do not change the posture unnecessarily. If you want to read a newspaper or a magazine, read only the important and general knowledge articles. B) APPROACH. As soon as you enter the interview cabin, close the door behind your back, so that you will not show your back to the interviewr/s. Greet everyone with a pleasant smile. Pronounce your name clearly to each of them, while handshaking. Do not sit before you are asked to. Sit in a position, where you will be comfortable for atleast 30-40 minutes. Do not keep changing your posture.
2)

C) INTRODUCTION. 1) Name. 2) Academic qualification. 3) Career goal. 4) Professional qualification. 5) Hobbies and extra curricular activities. 6) Family background. 7) Keep looking from person to person. D) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 1) Start the answer, only after the question is completed. 2) If you can not understand a question, be apologetic and request the question to be repeated. 3) Do not ever bluff. Be apologetic if you do not know the answer. Do not either lie or bluff. E) BODY LANGUAGE. Maintain a non-aggressive, positive body language. Keep your hands on the armrest and use your hands only if required. Do not lean on the table. F) Given a chance, ask the interviewr/s about your responsibilities on being selected, promotional and career prospects etc. G) LEAVING. Thank each of the interviewers with a warm handshake, wish a good day/evening/night and leave. Thank the receptionist before you leave the office. H) THANKS GIVING LETTER. If the interviewer had not given you his or her card, take the e mail id from the receptionist and e mail the interviewer thanking for the opportunity given to you to present your candidature. Do not add anything personal.

7) MEMORY DEVELOPMENT 1) Story development. 2) Picturization and visualization. 3) Co related words. 8) CONCENTRATION DEVELOPMENT. 1) Meditation. 2) Breathing. 9) GROUP DISCUSSION TECHNIQUES. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Communication. Voice modulation. Taking initiative. Body language. Presentation of views. Avoid arguments.