Posts Tagged ‘communication’
More Endeavours to Improve Employability
Every day, more and more institutions are waking up to the fact that students passing out from their portals are not equipped enough to contribute to the industry. What they are lacking is employability skills. The institutions are worried because a dip in campus placements reflects poorly on their capabilities. They know that the best way to attract students is to show them a long list of successfully placed candidates. In order to ensure the development of soft skills, they are tying up with companies, training institutes and universities like IGNOU. Among the soft skills, effective communication is given the most importance as most students are weak in this area. Click here to read a report about it.
Hiring in Progress for Wipro BPO
Wipro BPO has always been a top employer and judging by the current scenario, hiring activities show no sign of weakening. For all those who want a coveted position in Wipro and are reasonably confident about their abilities can take advantage of Wipro’s ongoing recruitment activities. In addition to great benefits, Wipro also offers opportunities for rapid growth and chances of shifting to different positions within the company.
Wipro has its BPOs all over India and currently they are recruiting in large numbers for its Hyderabad and Kolkata offices among others. Candidates from other states are welcome to apply and if selected, will be given free accommodation for 15 days in Hyderabad or Kolkata so that relocation can be facilitated. The recruitment process involves only one round of interviews in which your communication skills will be put to test.
For more information on what Wipro has to offer, follow this link
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.
Keep Territories in Mind While Writing English
The young, tech savvy generation might be doing well when it comes to being acquainted with cutting edge technology but when it comes to communication, especially writing, an adverse effect of technology is slowly but surely making its presence felt. Some social networking sites impose a word limit on the users and we all know that mobile messaging (one of the most popular ways of communication nowadays) comes with a character limit. This is leading to the development of a whole new lingo in cyberspace where correct spellings are given very little importance owing to the necessity to provide as much information as possible within the character limits.
While messages like “Tk cr” and “Nice to c u 2″ have come to be accepted in messages and scraps, the trouble starts when people start mixing business communication with personal exchanges. Alarmingly, we are observing more and more people using short forms and incorrect spellings while writing business proposals, letters and so on. They might not be doing it on purpose, but heavy messaging and frequent chatting is modifying their writing style in such a way that they are failing to spot the incongruities of messaging lingo in their official assignments.
Care should be taken to avoid this at all costs as such writing will not be tolerated outside personal exchanges. Messages should be written in proper and correct English to avoid this habit from creeping into the writing style or if that is not possible, a conscious effort to keep personal messages personal and official communication official has to be made. Since messaging and social networking are here to stay and influence almost everybody, educational institutions have a role to play in making young minds aware of this problem.
Exploring Technical Writing Jobs
Time to look at another prominent and attractive opening in the domain of language and communication, namely, technical writing. A basic research reveals that almost all big and small companies in the industry have requirements for technical writers. So if you happen to be good with the English language and are looking for a job that involves writing and also exposes you to cutting edge technology and latest products launched by different companies then technical writing could be a profile you will enjoy.
Most companies would require you to write about their products, launches and other news related to their research. So you will be writing user manuals, designing brochures and working closely with the development team to form a good understanding of the offerings of your company. As a technical writer, you will be catering to all the users of your company’s products and that can be a big number. You need to remember that your audience will consist of people with and without an understanding of technology so your writing should explain things in a clear and straightforward manner.
People generally get put off by a lot of text so you will have to cultivate a skill for designing. If you take a look at the user manuals of products launched by some big names, you will see almost every page carries pictures, illustrations and the text is arranged in short paragraphs. Often buletted points are used so that the main features get highlighted. If you are trying to explain to your clients how to operate a product, it is important that you show the various processes through pictures in addition to writing the steps down. Using different font colours and formatting will make your work visually appealing. You can consider using different background colours for different sections. Needless to say that a good knowledge of MS Office and a few photo-editing software will be an added advantage.
As for the origin of technical writing, I got a surprising piece of information in the process of finding out more about it. According to Wikipedia, the practice of technical writing can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Renaissance (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries). However, the full fledged utilisation of it came into being during the first world war when a lot of technical documentation was required by the military,manufacturing, electronics and aerospace industries.
Fast and Accurate:The Keywords of Typing
In this post, I would like to focus on a skill which i feel is somewhat neglected by trainers and trainees alike. When you talk of job training or improving employability, the first few things that come to your mind are communication, organization, writing etc. However, several positions in the industry require you to possess efficient and fast typing skills in addition to the obvious ones. It will definitely add to your credentials if you work on your typing speed and accuracy.
Practicing typing is largely similar to practicing writing, with the difference being you can choose not to be imaginative and just copy text from a book or article. While typing, keep a watch handy so that you can calculate how many words you are typing in a minute. Most companies which are keen on your typing speed would want to know your WPM (Words Per Minute) count. As you go along, pay attention to accuracy as well. It won’t do to have your fingers flying all over the keyboard at lightning speed only to create content which is full of typos. Try to stay away from the “delete” and “backspace” buttons as much as possible and hit each key only once to form words.
Start slow and with practice, you will surely pick up pace.
Learning English:Exposure Emphasized
One of the most important things you need to remember as a BPO employee is that the people you will be calling might be very different from you and me. They are based in different countries and belong to various cultures. The way they speak and use languages are different as well. Different countries bring in certain unique words and expressions to the English language which are derived from their cultures and their native languages. While training a BPO employee, companies usually spend a lot of time familiarizing him/her with these unique expressions since failure to comprehend these might lead to a breakdown in communication.
If you are aspiring for a BPO job and looking to enhance your employability, you will do well to look at some of these unique words and phrases and make a habit of using them while speaking. I am pretty sure an expression like “It’s a lemon” will perplex most of us in India but in the US, this phrase is commonly used to describe something that is defective. Thus a good knowledge of these expressions will surely help you get ahead of competition if you are looking forward to a rewarding BPO career.
BPO Demands-An Outline
Talking about what it takes to make it big in the BPOs, this video provides some useful information. In addition to stressing on communication skills, it mentions a few more requirements which are quite important and leads us to think about the complexities of training a BPO aspirant for the job. I will be taking up training issues in detail in the posts to come.
Create A Zone of Your Own While Learning English
Very often people want to know how to go about improving communication skills in English. In reply, I always say that there is nothing better than regular practice. If one communicates in English regularly with another person or in a group every day, his/her communication skills will certainly improve. However, what keeps this from happening is apprehension. When someone who is not very proficient in English attempts to speak in it, the person is often afraid of being ridiculed and corrected at every step. Fearing this, people keep quiet or prefer to stay away from speaking English.
It is extremely important to have a circle where one can speak without any inhibition or fear. If you are learning English, you need to spend some time every day with a group of people or with an individual with whom you can communicate in English without having to worry about being slighted. Feel free to talk about anything that comes to your mind. Regular interaction will not only help you learn the language but will also make you confident enough to express yourself in English in social circles.