Archive for July, 2009
A Few Useful English Writing Tips
Just came across a video on YouTube and thought of sharing it here on the blog. The video is about effective writing skills and provides six tips to make your writing better. It is about writing in the professional sphere and teaches you how to convey your message in a strong and focussed manner. I did find the tips quite nice though it might be difficult to follow all the rules at the same time. Apart from that, keeping a set of rules in mind while you sit down to write can be quite limiting and restrictive to the flow of thought. However,gradually incorporating a few of the tips in your writing through regular practice can definitely change the way you write for the better. Check out the video here.
Provide Effective Feedback
One of the important aspects of communication, one that is usually not given much importance is the ability to provide feedback. In a job that requires extensive networking, communication and sessions with clients and customers, the need for feedback is paramount. Your feedback could be asked for if you are a part of quality control or if you are required to review and write about new launches and products. Feedback becomes an important responsibility if you are a part of a material development team or working in a publishing house.
Feedback has to be objective and should be formulated after thorough examination. Make sure you have reviewed the product in question intensively before working on a feedback. Your feedback has to be goal oriented and you need to think about all the various ways to improve the product. Positive feedback is graciously accepted but when you are giving negative feedback, you need to ensure you have valid reasons and suggestions on what has gone wrong and how you think that could affect the quality and appeal of the product. For example, if you are objecting against controversial content in learning material or a book, you need to clearly state how the content in question can cause trouble and what you think should be done to alter it.
Make your feedback impersonal and always remember to cite sources if you have consulted any. Credible and esteemed sources can lend a lot of value to your feedback-both positive and negative.
Onward to Online Training
For the industry, training is an important aspect alongwith hiring. As educational institutions usually offer nothing more than theoretical knowhow, companies have to take up the responsibility of grooming new recruits and getting them ready for all they have to face in the corporate world. Therefore, on top of the expenses associated with hiring, there comes the additional burden of training expenses. While profile-related specific training can be best learned from seniors and qualified corporate trainers, more and more companies are looking at alternate means of training when it comes to general training such as communication, ways of dealing with clients and using certain popular software.
A solution in this regard is online training which is emerging as a productive as well as cost-effective solution. With the internet becoming an indispensable part of our lives and the multitude of tools available online, it is no wonder that online training is gaining some serious ground. With the advent of online training, the debate that is doing the rounds is whether it will completely replace face-to-face teaching in the long run. Before attempting to answer that question, a thorough examination of the potential of online training is pertinent. More posts to come on this exciting field.
Get Trained and Master Your Domain
Would you like to be known as the jack of all trades or master of a domain? As you go ahead in your profession, you have to keep this in mind. You may have a set of skills that makes you eligible for several positions. But it is always wise to select a domain that you like best and stick to it so that in a few years, you come to be regarded as one of the authorities.
Jumping jobs and exploring different avenues might sound exciting but that never allows you to settle in a particular line of work. You end up learning the basics of a lot of domains but will never be able to master any. Your growth and prestige largely depends upon your mastery, so a concentrated effort on an area of your liking is advisable. Frequent job changes and alteration of position also results in a question mark on your credibility. Looking at your records, Companies will not be able to trust your commitment. It is always more impressive to display a record of excellence along a particular line of work as opposed to dabbling in a variety of spheres.
Make your choice early in your career. Decide upon an area that you find exciting and rewarding at the some time. Equip yourself with all the skills necessary to make it big in the area of your choice and stick to it. With all the experience and expertise that you will gain, you might even consider starting your own company after a while.
Be Employable, Be Secure
For those of you who are worried about the future of IT in the wake of the recession, there is nothing to worry as IT is here to stay and is actually still in its initial stages. It has a long way to go and a lot of growth to see. So said Mr. P. Rajendran, Director and Chief Operating Officer of NIIT. From his experience of being associated with NASSCOM, Mr. Rajendran opined that while growth rate has slowed down and is currently going ahead at 16-17% from the erstwhile 27%, it is by no means an alarming situation. He emphasized on the prospect of public-private partnerships which can give rise to exciting possibilities. According to him, and rightly so, enhancing employability will automatically lead to a feeling of enhanced security. If you have trained yourself properly and have made yourself desirable in the job-market, then security is not something you should be terribly worried about.
Read the detailed report in The Hindu here.
Explore, Learn and Decide
Many of us, prior to looking for a job, have the impression that whatever we are doing in our classrooms and laboratories are exactly what we will be doing in professional life. In a way we view work as an extension of our student life. There is no denying that our education is equipping us with certain skills and theories which will be put to practice once we step into the professional sphere, but there are a lot of other things we need to know and be prepared for. As long as we were students, we never really knew what deadlines mean in the industry, how critical a project and its timely execution can be and how quickly we need to think and improvise. Often our services might be required for something apart from our projects and it will be expected from us that we adapt and deliver.
As the course comes to an end and thoughts of starting work dawn, it is important to research and get to know more about the functioning of different companies. A good idea about the structures of various organizations, big and small, will go a long way in giving aspirants an idea about what to expect. It is important, in my opinion, to look at the various profiles, develop an understanding of the core and added responsibilities, get to know the management and explore opportunities to grow and learn. Working for big companies will enable you to boast of a name and expose you to an assembly-line style of work but ascent will take time and the work can get monotonous. New and smaller companies can be a little disorganized and might want employees to figure things out on their own but offer flexibility and quick growth.
A decision has to be taken regarding what kind of exposure and work-experience would one like before taking up the first job. Once that decision is made, a lot of things become clear.
Go The Diploma Way
If you do not have the time or means to pursue a full-fledged degree course or if you are already working and would like to pick up some additional skills in your domain, a diploma might be the perfect choice. Over the years, diploma courses have become quite popular and with the introduction of new domains, new diploma courses are being offered to cater to the demands. A diploma course aims to provide the required skills within a limited time and sometimes work better since it is more focused.
In India, diploma courses are often not placed at the same level as regular degree courses which results in most students shying away from them. However, in terms of job-opportunities, there is a healthy demand for diploma holders. Plenty of diploma holders get job offers immediately after completing their education. Where it takes a considerable amount of time to start a new degree course with adequate faculty and infrastructure, short-term diploma courses are easier to implement. Owing to this, diplomas can boast of offering a wide variety of skills and sometimes outperforming degrees in making students job-ready.
Open universities like IGNOU have several diplomas to offer in distance mode. So if you are looking at honing specific skills or eyeing an emerging domain, check out what diplomas are bringing to the table.
Attrition Rates: Nightmares of the Industry.
If we are to talk about some of the problems ailing the industry in India, one of the first things that come to mind is attrition. Though its presence is felt in every area, the BPO industry is seen to be suffering the most. High attrition rates have become common in BPOs and HRs need to come up with effective solutions to tackle this problem.
When freshers join a BPO, the company has to spend a considerable amount of time and money in training the new recruits. To enable the employees to communicate well with foreign customers, they are provided voice training, accent training and other tips and tricks of communicating over phone. The candidates need to know a lot about the company and its products as well. So after all the training, if employees leave for other opportunities, it’s back to square one for the companies with another bunch of new employees. Thus bringing the attrition rate down is a priority for most players in the industry.
Some effective strategies to tackle this could be to give employees a sense of job-security, offer them attractive rewards for good performance and make the environment of the offices fun. Work can get stressful at times and various recreational activities can be arranged so that the employees can look forward to a lot more other than routine work.
The attrition rates have lessened over the last year (25-28% on an average) compared to earlier years (55-60%) but that’s largely due to recession. The sooner the companies take effective remedial measures, the better.
Gaining Momentum by Looking At New Courses
While established universities are looking to enhance their appeal and reaching out to the new generation by introducing new courses, new universities are relying on these courses to gain a foothold for themselves. In this time of diversity when the industry is coming up with new profiles to cope with new responsibilities and is constantly re-inventing itself, specialized courses that prepare students for these new posts are gaining ground. Upcoming and newly inaugurated universities know that established universities, owing to bureaucratic problems, will take a while to set up the necessary infrastructure to run these courses, so there is nothing like starting with the courses in demand.
Nithm, an autonomous institute jointly established by the Govt. of AP and the Govt. of India, is offering courses like Diploma in Travel Agency and Tour Operators, Diploma in Facilities Management, Event Management, Food Production and Restaurant and Catering Services and Housekeeping and Tour Guiding programmes. Such courses will definitely see plenty of takers as there aren’t too many institutions in India offer such a wide array of Hospitality and Tourism courses. What is important though, is that capable and knowledgeable people are selected to run these courses. Since the courses are new, getting experienced faculty will be difficult. Let us see how Nithm and other institutes go about it.
A Look at Copy Editing Jobs
As mentioned earlier, this is my second post on working in a publishing house and in this post I will attempt to give an overview of copy editing. While attempting to gain a thorough experience in proofreading is an excellent way to start your career as an editor, copy editing is what will put your skills to a tough test. Copy editing often involves starting with a raw manuscript and working with it all the way till it gets published. This essentially involves starting from scratch it is surprising how much the manuscript changes from its initial stage.
While working on such a project, you need to interact extensively with the author and keep informing him/her of the changes you are making and if it is okay to make them. If you come across potentially objectionable or controversial arguments, you will need to tell the author to rework on them and rephrase them as much as possible. You need to keep the reputation of your organization in mind and should be very careful that no such content is published which may raise a hue and cry. While copy editing, you will have to constantly cross check the references made in the manuscript and the sources cited. In case of online journals, make sure the links given are correct and the dates of publication match. Often manuscripts undergo so many makeovers that the final product turns out to be vastly different from the first manuscript. There are instances where editors have to rewrite entire essays owing to lack of cooperation from the authors.
The usual routine of checking for spelling, grammar and consistency remains unchanged. In case of illustrations provided, you will have to see whether they complement the accompanying content. While the manuscript is turning into a book, you will have to keep a keen eye on the layout, the consistency of fonts and highlighting and the page numbers. After everything, you can revel in a job well done when you see your project becoming a bestseller;though the lion’s share of the credits will go to the author.