Freedom

The freedom fighters fought for the freedom of India for almost 100 years and I never understood the necessity. I mean, had we got independence a couple of decades later, probably we would have been much more developed, Hong Kong and Singapore are living testimonies to this fact. What then inspired a whole generation of youth to give up the possibility of comfortable lives for this seemingly abstract concept of freedom?

Contrary to what people say, I do not think that it was the wish to see their country being ruled by their own people that inspired them. It was rather about the freedom to think about that possibility. It was about being able to choose what they wanted to do, whom they wanted to work for, and most importantly, think the way they wanted to. These thoughts sometimes cloud my mind and I often wonder if in this race to beat the world am I (and for that matter many people) beating myself by compromising on that one thing for which millions of people gave their lives.

Managerial Communication – 3

Interpersonal communication is probably the most challenging area of managerial communication. This so happens because, every human being has the right to refuse to be part of a conversation. No amount of force can guarantee that the other party is actually listening. Hence, a managers communications style needs to have an element of persuasion in it. Only the tool of persuasion can increase the possibility of participation of the other party in a conversation. This has to be complemented by refined communication skills.

The case in point are interviews. Giving an interview is an art. Contrary to most of our thoughts, interviews these days are in no way a willingness of the interviewer to know you. Few jobs and many applications gives them this liberty (I am, of course, not considering the IT sector of India which is in need of a lot of talent). Hence, it is important that with each question, the interviewee puts forth her candidature with assertion. Interviewees commonly answer the questions put to them literally and hence fail. Only if with each answer a candidate proves a point about her characteristics can she, at the end of an interview, be sure of the success. At the end of each answer, the interviewer should have some additional information about the interviewee which reinforces her application for the job. This art of giving a convincing interview can be perfected by some persistent practice though, it must be admitted that interviews can place even the best in a spot. Hence all the more reason to develop this skill!

This is a good site to start off the interview preparations.

Pseudo – Intelligensia

Panel: So tell me something about yourself

Me: (Don’t you read resumes before recruitment? Bloody free riders) Blah, blah, blah (=> me is the best, was born for your company, for this job, hehe)

Panel: You seem to have good academics. Tell us something about non-academic things you do.

Me: (You don’t want to know the truth, do you? I sleep!) Sir, I read sci-fi, play lawn tennis…..

Panel: So you read science fiction? Which is the latest one you read?

Me: (Gotcha!) Neuromancer. (I talked about the book). I’ve also read Brave new world, Calcutta Chromosomes, Frankenstein…

Panel: (Looking confused) Hmmm…. Don’t you read Asimov?

Me: (Bloody, I hate him. And for all the intelligence you claim, don’t you know anything about proper science fiction? Hell, and you claim to be a sci-fi buff!) Sir, I read a book from the foundation series but did not like it much.

….

That was just a snippet of what I faced in a job interview. Such shallowness of knowledge is not uncommon amongst the managers. They can talk about various things for hours, and probably this impresses their clients. But any person who is a master in the area will shred him to pieces. In fact, you don’t even need to be a master to do that. I, who is just a student, could spot the consult (from a reputed firm) who came to recruit at our place claiming glory for what somebody had already published in the Harvard Business Review! (Obviously the rest of the students were negligent of the fact as they come to b-school only for that 6 figure salary and never read something that is not directly related to it, even if that thing is HBR)

B-School Placements

I am forbidden to talk about the details. Its taboo to do so, hence, do not expect any details on this post! Nonetheless, today concludes the pre-summer placement process here with majority of the companies coming out with their “CV shortlists”. A mixed bag for most people. A lot of egos broken and many hopes thrashed. I have been lucky, and I must thank my amazing academics for that, to have had a fairly decent number of shortlists. But for once, I realized the importance the so called “pedigree” can have. I could name a whole long list of companies (but as I told you its forbidden) who shortlist you just because you are an IITian or NITian. Now to me, who rejected a confirmed seat in Mech. NIT, Trichy, it seems rather amazing. I made a conscious choice to go to a college which is on the rise (DA-IICT) and where I would have the opportunity to learn rather than just ride on the success of my predecessors. Learn, I did and trust me I do not, even with the short shortlist that I have (which is pretty long compared to most people though), regret my decision. I guess its only fair, if my aim is to learn then going to a company that short lists just on the basis of pedigree does not make sense. After all, all they need are show-pieces who can brag about their glorious past and impress people (am I consoling myself here? Shit, I wish I could list these companies). I do not want to do that, its so “demeaning” (now there’s a story related to this word also). I guess for now I’ll prepare for my interviews and GDs tomorrow. Its a sin to be blogging at this point of the placement process! (More in the next post)