The Members of Rise N Shine Club are planned to organize an Individual Development Meeting on " WHAT NEXT??" for the benefit of the group members by Mr.Pratap Sethu , Director , Win Win Consultanzys on 21/3/15 in Ramanujam Conference Hall at 10.15AM.
HR officials and Interviewers of the renowned Organisations, ask the candidates, this most common question: what value will you add to your organisation other than your job oriented skills and knowledge? They expect the answer which enlightens the soft skills of the candidate.
What are Soft skills ( SS) then?
According to Naresh Naresimhan of Tectronix–
1) ability to communicate an idea visually,
2) ability to have balanced point of view on key issues and
3) ability to convert ideas into result and is not only plain communication but also the people skills.
In the broader context, SS would also include negotiation, decision making, reasoning and problem solving, and conflict resolution skills required in the working environment.
Intangible skills such as language proficiency ability to work with global teams and positive attitude form the basis of career development in addition to technical skills, personality and the problem solving techniques. These are termed or known as soft skills.
Soft skills are non technical, interpersonal, and communication skills required by an engineer, to solve problems and apply his technical skills.
Rajesh Choudhary HR head, Xilinx India says, “Personality traits such as common sense, optimism, responsibility, Integrity, attitude & behavioural competencies that include, analytical thinking, result orientation and achievement, communication, team work, conflict management, customer orientation and attention to details come under soft skills.
Zulin Rashid, Head of Training ZR India believes that just as hard skills teach us about domain specific skills like technology, products and processes, soft skills make us know the interaction with people with whom we work. Soft skills can also refer to a set of skills that determine how one interacts with others and work for the growth of the company.
Simply put, Tina VAS, Vice President of Collabera, says, “soft skills have more to do with what we are than what we know”.
Engineering Graduates and Soft Skills :
In India, 56% of Engg. Graduates lack the SS. and cognitive skills. They don't understand that 1) non technical aspects of Engineering such as communications, relationships, temperament, emotional intelligence and risk management, make the difference between success and failure, and 2) that Engineering is more an economic and most importantly a human activity rather than a technical activity.
Recent soft skill survey by Electronics For You team shows that 62.63% respondents believed that SS were important but are not the deciding factor, 25-29 believed that SS were extremely important, remaining 12.08% believed that these were important as complimentary skills.
Here is the list of most desirable SS that HR heads of various companies look for :-
1. Interpersonal skills such as communication (both verbal and written, including email etiquette), Persuation, Presentation and active listening and learning.
2. Good attitude with respect for the job at hand.
3. Desire/Passion to share and be trained consistently.
4. Able to confront reality
5. Problem solving and decision making.
6. Honesty, Integrity and uncompromising Ethics.
7. Time management and stress management skills.
8. Flexibility to work in a team which has diverse background
9. Positive approach and initiative.
10. Application of knowledge without fear.
How to improve Soft skills :
1. Reading extensively, the available books written by professionals in the market on communication skills, qualities of good team member/leader, ways to improve relationship with people.
2. Practice what is studied. Without practice, knowledge gained is of no use.
3. Third step is to continue doing the practices relentlessly.
In addition to your Engineering skills practice soft skills which the company expects, and be a successful engineer.
(Excerpts from the Magazine Electronics For You- By Mr. Abhishek Mutha)
The 8th Corporate Voice was held in our campus on 19th January 2013. It was conducted to benefit the Final Year Students of Civil, Mechanical, & EEE. This event will benefit the students and motivate them in the right direction and help them to visualise the corporate world and this will make them industry ready. Every day is an opportunity for learning, the students will be able to know where they are and how to match their talents with the company expectations.
He was an eminent builder in Madurai, known for the quality of constructions. He is a graduate from Madura College, who took the real estate business, in spite of offers in banking organizations soon after his graduation. He started his career as a land broker. Then he ventured into the construction industry. In his career over 40 years, he has constructed more than 4000 houses. Since his constructions have quality, his apartments are in great demand in Madurai. What are the expectations of the industry from freshers? To this questions, he made the following observations – 1) Love for one's profession, 2) Whole-hearted involvement in the profession, 3) Service coupled with profit to be the motivators to thrive in the construction industry, 4) Creativity & Innovation in one's performance, 5) Acquisition of all associated skills in the industry – particularly awareness of the latest technologies in the field, 6) Quality is a must to survive in the industry, 7) Infusion of life in one's design or creation. These 7 cardinal virtues are what should guide a civil engineer in his profession. Love for one's profession is a must to drive a person towards success in his career. It is the first step which a person must take in his professional ventures. Involvement is another important trait, failing which no achievement is viable. Service to mankind is service to God. This should be one of the motivating factors. But service-mindedness should go hand in hand with productivity and profit making. An engineer is one who has to be creative and innovative in his approach. He should try to leave an imprint of his originality in what he does. Any thing which he does should be unique and reflective of his abilities. Quality is a brand name by which a professional is being assessed. Without quality, there is no possibility to survive in the market. The last important virtue is the infusion of life into what one makes or builds. That is to say, an engineer is a creator, a God, who breathes new life in what he makes. SriS.Seetharamanlistedtheabove7virtuesofanengineeringprofessional, and he wished that students should be guided by these cardinal principles of professionalism.
He spoke his organization and its growth over the years. He listed the products of his company, and explained the various machineries being used in the various plants of his organization. Much of his focus was on the designing and making of boilers, tubes, drums, etc., for manufacturing industries. Then he talked about the expectations from engineers of today. They are 1) Technical Proficiency, 2) Excellent Communication, 3) Team Work, 4) Leadership, 5) Determination to work hard and to do smart work, 6) Medical Fitness, 7) Knowledge of regional and global languages for communication in the region of work, and in the global environment, 8) International Certification. What are the skill requirements from freshers? 1) Problem solving skill, 2) Analytical skill, 3) Project Management skill, 4) Communication skill. What are other expectations? Good ethics – Loyalty, Devotion, Perseverance, Endurance, Flexibility, Adaptability, Service-mindedness, Social Concerns, etc.
He spoke of the current employment scenario in India. There are nearly 3000 engineering colleges in our country. Every year 3.5 lakhs of engineering students graduate and get into the employment market. There is tough competition. There are engineering professionals who are highly paid, working in multinational organizations, while at the same time there are engineering graduates, who are not suitably employed. This grim situation prevails, because of skill gap, which the industries highlight. There are certain basic skills, which students of today have to be concerned about today. They are 1) Aptitude Skills, 2) Technical Skills, 3) Communication Skills, 4) Life Skills, & 5) Social Skills. Industries quite often point out the skill gap noticed in graduates of today. This odd situation can be tackled quite successfully, if the institutions and industries interact periodically through seminars, guest lectures, industrial visits, etc.
He pointed out the grim situation in the present time, which is that only 26% of engineering graduates are employable. Majority of engineering graduates face a tough situation in the market. Mere academic knowledge is not enough. Technical skills have to be developed. The pathetic situation is that 74% of engineering graduates struggle to survive. It is because of the skill gap noticed in them that they are unemployed or under-employed This has to be tackled effectively, as otherwise there is no scope for improvement of the situation. Skills have been developed, according to the demands of the industries. Only then entry into the industry is possible. 1) To be successful as an engineering professional, one has to understand the goals of the organization and work with commitment and devotion to attain the target. 2) Working for the organization is working with others towards the common objectives. Flexibility and adaptability are cardinal principles of a working professional in an organisation. Team work is what judges the efficiency of an organization. 3) Any task, which is done, has to be done quite innovatively. Innovation should be the guiding principle of an engineer. 4) Engineers, in managerial positions, should learn to work under pressure. Emotional intelligence is quite vital to manage the complex situations in the industries. 5) Analytical Skill is essential to make success in one's profession. 6) Computer literacy is a must, without which one becomes a misfit. 7) Technical skills have to be updated continuously, according to the latest trends in technology. 8) Leadership skills are essential for an engineer, as they enable him get elevated in the hierarchy of an organization. There are a few more essential traits of a successful engineering professional. They are honesty, integrity, morality, dedication, hard work, dependability, responsibility, positive attitude, motivation, self-confidence, and willingness to learn in any given situation.
Each of the above 4 sessions ended with the vote of thanks, proposed by students. After the talk of each of the four speakers, there was interaction with students on the expectations from the industry and the skills which students have to develop in order to get into the corporate world
5th Corporate voice was conducted on Sept 29th 2012 in our campus for the benefit of the final year students. The main purpose was to educate the students about the expectations of the company and the skills that they have to develop in order to make themselves ready for job in the industry. There was interaction between the company officials and the students. Nearly four people from industry shared their experiences and insights about how to develop employability skills.
Mr.R. James Rajesh, Senior HR Executive, HCL, Chennai:
The first session was inaugurated by Mr. James Rajesh, who started his speech with the brief introduction about his company HCL Technologies, that HCL is a company initially started with 5 employees and now with more than 90000 employees, and the mantra followed in HCL is that they will give more importance to employees than customers since they are their internal customers and if they are satisfied automatically they will be in charge of their own customers, that is the success mantra of HCL. He told that the HCL has spread its wings in almost all fields( Airlines,Mobiles etc).
He stressed that the to enhance the employability skills an individual need to follow the steps like communicate, manage information, use numbers, think and solve problems, demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours, be responsible, be adaptable, learn continuously, work safely, and he stressed that certifications plays an important role in the success of an any employee, and the session ends up with Q&A session and students were very much interactive and he answered to all the queries raised by our students.
Mr. Durai he started the session with the brief introduction about the reliance industries and also about his profile and his growth in that company. He gave an inspirational and Motivational speech. He showed some videos related to some sports person and stressed the importance and outcome of “Never give up attitude” (Example: Carl lewis, Kapildev). He has given some insights that the employee need to develop to survive in this competitive world namely
Verbal communication
Team work: T - Together, E - Everybody, A - Aim, M – More
Initiative and self motivation
Written communication
Planning and organising
Flexibility
Time Management
He stressed that for improving the communication they need to concentrate and improve their Telephone Etiquette, Presentation skill, Giving and accepting criticism Motivating and supporting, Persuading and negotiation,Gathering information, Listening skill,& Body language.He stressed the importance of“can do” attitude in all the activities. He explained that the students need to know the importance of “ABCDE”A – Ambition ,B – Belief,C – Challenge,D – Dedication, E – Efficiency . He also stressed some important magic skill that a freshers need to develop, such as Managing Time,Accountability and Ownership, Goal orientation, Interpersonal relationship, Creativity and problem solving.
He explained the importance of VISION-, and Values as: Versatile, Adapt, Love, Understand, & Evolve. He showed a film by name “Lakshya” which stressed upon the “Self Motivation” Finally, he insisted that students need to be passionate, intuitive, initiative in all the aspects of life.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan, Senior Engineering Manager & ACS Site Leader, Honeywell, Madurai:
Mr. Gopalakrishnan during his session he gave an overview of Honeywell and he quoted that “We are building a world that's safe and more secure, Morecomfortable and energy efficient. More innovation and productive-that is “HONEY WELL”
They have landed in many sectors such as aviation, airlines, oil refinery, medicine, software etc. And it consists 1,30,000 employees in more than 120 countries. Then, he delivered the importance of getting placements and recent scenario in India. He gave some ideas about the placement rounds (Aptitude, Technical, Group discussion, HR).
A winner is someone who recognize His God – Given Talents, Work his Tail off to Develop them In Skills. At last, he asked the students to be innovative and passionate in each and every work. He stressed that When you know more about who you are and what you want out of life – not other people say you want – you will have more confidence in yourself and what you can do. What other people say or think will have less of an impact than it used to because you know who you are better than they do. And since you have had all these experiences, since you have taken time to really get to know yourself and stretch yourself you will trust your own opinion and ability more than anything outside of you. You become stable and centred in yourself. Finally he session ends up with Q&A session and students interacted well.
Mr.M. Siva Anand, Project Manager, Ford Technology Services India Ltd., Chennai:
He started the session with a brief introduction about himself and he spoke to our students about how they have to prepare themselves for challenges in the industry. He stressed students to bear in mind the three-pronged strategy of life, which is KSA – K stands for Knowledge, S stands for Skills, A stands for Attitude. These three aspects are what the companies look for – namely, the right attitude towards the corporate life, the right skills for the right job, and the knowledge essential for the given tasks in the corporate world. He explained the various process of Performance appraisal system followed in his company. He motivated the students to fail; because failure also can teach the most unforgettable lesson & experience. He mentioned the four ways in which failure can help students:
You learn. Instead of seeing failure as something horrible you can start to view it more as a learning experience. When standing in the middle of a failure, you can ask yourself questions like: What’s awesome about this situation? What can I learn from this situation?
You gain experiences you could not get any other way. Ideally, you probably want to learn from other people’s mistakes and failures. That’s not always easy to do though. Sometimes you just have to fail on your own to learn a lesson and to gain an experience no one can relate to you in mere words.
You become stronger.Every time you fail you become more accustomed to it. You realize more and more that it’s not the end of the world. And, again, you get desensitised. You can handle things that would have been very hard to handle a few years back. Failing can also a have an exhilarating component because even though you failed you at least took a chance. You didn’t just sit on you hands doing nothing. And that took quite a bit of courage and determination.
Your chances of succeeding increases. Every time you fail you can learn and increase your inner strength. So every failure can make you more and more likely to succeed. Finally the session ends up with the Q&A and the students interacted well.
Mr.B. Shyam Kumar, Training Manager, Lucas India Services, Chennai:
MR. Shyamkumar of TVS LUCAS addressed the students and he gave a nice introduction about the company profile and his position in that company. He shared with students his experiences in the selection process of engineering students. He stressed that the company expects engineers to be strong in fundamental concepts. He stressed upon building Self confidence of the budding engineers. He told that the most important step in building self confidence is simply to take action. Working on something and getting it done. He made a point that the Self-confident people inspire confidence in others: their audience, their peers, their bosses, their customers, and their friends. And gaining the confidence of others is one of the key ways in which a self-confident person finds success. And he also added that the good news is that self-confidence really can be learned and built on. And, whether you’re working on your own self-confidence or building the confidence of people around you, it’s well-worth the effort! He divided the session into two parts: one for motivating, and another for Technical. During his technical session he concentrated more on Total quality managements concepts that followed in LUCAS. He explained KAIZEN & 5S concepts and stressed the importance of Quality in reaching and maintaining the success in the corporate and competitive world. His session was an interactive session and students raised many questions and he answered to all the queries raised by our students.
4th Corporate voice was conducted on Sept 1st 2012 in our campus for the benefit of the Final Year Students. The main purpose was to educate the students about the expectations of the company and the skills that they have to develop in order to make themselves ready for job in the industry. There was interaction between the company officials and the students. Nearly four people from industry shared their experiences and insights about how to develop employability skills.
The resource person Mr. Brindly stressed on the Employability skills and self confidence. Employability skills are the non-technical skills and knowledge necessary for effective participation in the workforce, and can include skills such as communication, self-management, problem solving and teamwork. They are also sometimes referred to as generic skills, capabilities, enabling skills or key competencies. He stressed that apart from the degree in hand students must also posses these skills to be employable. He also stressed that students should be aware of the current affairs and emerging trends in technology like Cloud Computing. Mr Brindly insisted that students should do their projects on their own and should be able to put concepts learned into practice. He insisted that the students should prepare the resume in KISS format i.e. Keep It Short and Simple. He asked the students about the technology used in mobile phones. The session was very interactive with active participation from the students.
Dr. Pattabiraman started the session with a detailed history of TCS. He stressed that TCS expects the recruited students to have strong conceptual knowledge and good communication skills. The filtering process happens both during the recruitment process as well as in the project allocation. So one has to hone both technical and communication skills continuously. He underlined the importance of the strong conceptual knowledge to enhance confidence. The worth of a good education can never be estimated, simply because it means different things to different people. However, the common denominator is that it gives your self confidence a hefty boost, one that makes it possible for you to go out and do your own thing without being afraid of failure or ridicule. Education is not just about going to school and college and piling up the degrees behind your name; it’s the learning process which augments our knowledge and provides us with enhanced skills, acumen and wisdom. Learning and knowledge allow you to put forth your ideas more eloquently and with greater conviction. You’re sure of what you want to say and how to say it, and this makes your message all the more powerful and ensures that it has the intended effect. He said that opportunity galore for the prepared and the confident. He revealed that TCS is going to hire in large numbers for its upcoming branch. He answered with enthusiasm to all the questions raised by the students.
Mr. K. Purushothaman, Senior Director-NASSCOM, South India:
The session with Mr. Purushothaman was very lively and interactive. He briefed about the history and organizational details of NASCOM. He informed that NACTECH test scores are the passport for entering into industry. He explained in detail about the Syllabus and the importance of the test score. He stressed that clearing the NACTECH test is the gateway to success. One has to ably prepare oneself to grab the opportunity. One has to keep himself abreast of the changes in the markets and the technology and mould accordingly. He finally quoted that “A useful approach when looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them. Finally the students were given a chance to shoot questions and they did really well and he answered for all the queries raised.
The Afternoon session was addressed by MR.Ganesh Chandrasekaran from CTS, and he gave an insight about the Certification & it's advantages in this competitive world. He stressed that the students need to develop their technical knowledge and they need to be master in their own domain. He concentrated more on “Testing” and he explained the opportunities in testing esspecially for female .He also educate the students to develop their self confidence, and explained the steps to develop the confidence like
1.Doing what you believe to be right, even if others mock or criticize you for it.
2.Being willing to take risks and go the extra mile to achieve better thing
3.Admitting your mistakes, and learning from them
4.Waiting for others to congratulate you on your accomplishments
5Accepting compliments graciously.
He also requested the students to take care of the world, and stressed the importance of
“ GO GREEN” and final part of the session with Q&A session and the students interacted very well and raised many questions related to Testing and also related to their general development.
Major tragedies, experts' study says, could have been avoided, had the timely precautions were observed properly. One of the reasons for the recent disasters, which brought an end to many innocent lives, was unawareness about the handling of the First hand Fire Fighting appliances and First Aid Awareness among the people concerned. Keeping this view in mind the College management thought, it is necessary to conduct a Lecture cum Demo Programme on Fire Fighting & First Aid Awareness. Accordingly this demo was conducted at 3.00 pm on 10-09-2012, in front of I Year Block. The I Year Students, Teaching Staff, Non Teaching Staff, canteen workers and drivers of Vickram college of Engineering took part in this demo class. The programme was conducted by Mr.R. Chandra Sekharan, Asst.Prof of the VCE. The types of fires, the proper use of the various fire extinguishers as per the types of fires, the procedure to be adopted while extinguishing the fire, the precautions to be observed and the first aid procedures to be adopted to treat an ailing person, were explained and demonstrated to the participants. A total of 333 persons were benefited.
The corporate voice: students' skill development programme was organised on 31,7,'12 at 10 a.m. in our campus. The objective of the meet was to make the HR Officials and Industrial Experts to address our final year students, and interact with them on the expectations of the industry.
The programme enabled to bridge the gap between the institute and the industry, thus throwing open the windows of the understanding of students on how to rise up to the challenges ahead of them in their proposed career through appropriate skill development in tune with the demands of the industry.
SNO
SPEAKER / COMPANY
POINT OF DISCUSSION
1
Sri D.V. Krishnan, Managing Director, Hydraulic Systems, Bangalore
Important aspects of Hydraulics, his company's HR practices, recruitment procedures, employability methodologies and expectations from industry. He stressed that the self confidence, and self belief is more important for a fresher to face this competitive world
2
Sri Ramakrishnan, Recruitment Head, & Sri Sakthivel, Regional Head, Sterlite Industry, Tuticorin
Expectations from a fresher, and touched upon the importance of Logical Thinking. Also, he advised the freshers to stick on to a company for at least 5 years and learn many things and thereby gain experience
3
Sri Radhakrishnan, Plant Manager, RMC in Charge, L & T, Madurai
Company's projects in various countries, practices and recruitment procedures and the skill set required from the part of the fresher. He also threw light on the need of enhancing communicative abilities, concern for the environment and acquiring basic manners.
The corporate voice: students' skill development programme was organised on 28,7,'12 at 10 a.m. in our campus. The objective of the meet was to make the HR Officials and Industrial Experts to address our final year students, and interact with them on the expectations of the industry.
In the first session, Mr. Peer Mohamed, HR Manager, Coastal Energen India pvt. Ltd., addressed the students about his company's HR practices, recruitment procedures, employability methodologies and expectations from industry. He stressed that the self confidence, and self belief is more important for a fresher to face this competitive world. In the next session, Mr. David Manickam, Asst. General Manager, Fenner India Ltd., spoke on the expectations from a fresher, and touched upon the importance of Time Management. Also, he advised the freshers to stick on to a company for at least 5 years and learn many things and thereby gain experience. The final session by Mr. A. M. Muruga Perumal, Manager & Admn., Eversendai Construction India Pvt. Ltd., elucidated briefly about his company's projects in various countries, practices and recruitment procedures and the skill set required from the part of the fresher. He also threw light on the need of enhancing communicative abilities, concern for the environment and acquiring basic manners.
The programme enabled to bridge the gap between the institute and the industry, thus throwing open the windows of the understanding of students on how to rise up to the challenges ahead of them in their proposed career through appropriate skill development in tune with the demands of the industry.
A two-day staff development programme ( 13. 7.'12 and 14. 7. '12 ) on BRICSCAD drafting tool was organised by department of Civil Engineering for faculty members of various disciplines like Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Electronics Engineering and also few non teaching faculty. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. S. Kathirrvelu, Principal of the College and Mr. Sanjay Jamalpur from Bricscad offered a comprehensive view and handed on training on 2D and 3D Modelling which is said to occupy an advantageous position when compared with the existing drafting tools. The training rendered to about 30 members would facilitate in imparting the same to the students and thereby equip them to cope with the industry expectations.
The training was coordinated by Associate Professor L. Ponraj sankar, Department of Civil Engineering.
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