8th CORPORATE VOICE 2013

                                          The 8^th Corporate Voice was held in our campus on 19^th 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.

Sri S. Seetharaman, Managing Director, Visvas Promoters, Madurai:-

                      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. Sri S. Seetharaman listed the above 7 virtues of an engineering professional, and he wished that students should be guided by these cardinal principles of professionalism.

Sri S. Arunagiri, Vice President, Technical & Process Services, CetharLimited, Trichy:

                                        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.

Dr. M.P. Ananthapadmanabhan, Academy for Research, Chennai:-

                                               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.

Sri C. Subramanian, DGM-HR, TVS Rubber Factory, Madurai:-

                                             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