A hero in real life

02.09.2012

Together, through years, you have forged our house into a small home
Built with never ending love, care and affection
Ups and downs, we met them all way along
Yet you were always the first one to stand up as our shields
Never let us down, never let any harm bruises us..
Sacrifices were your constant companion throughout
Still, you never missed an opportunity to bring a smile on our face

While you are celebrating another milestone in your life today,
We can only be indebted to you
For having made our lives so cosy and lovely

As you were blowing your 50th candles, 
I can only say THANK YOU
For having made me as I am now
For having always guiding me through and through
For having always believed in me, when the rest did not
For having always been my HERO in real life..

And we can only pray to God, 
To grant me all necessary courage to make your long time wishes come true..
And they will become true..I promise!

Love you pops

Job Hunting

The biggest milestone through out your educational life is without doubt the day you land your degree. Ever since you first stepped into the educational system, the target has always been to come out with atleast a degree. Here in Mauritius, it is always assumed that the responsibility of parents is to ensure the education of their children upto maximum tertiary level. Hence, once the children are graduated, it is generally assumed they are independent enough to decide about their futures now. And most importantly, it will be easier to get a job.

This illusion was totally so far fetched for me in my case. Having just completed a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I have always displayed amazingly unbent optimism to land a job as soon as university is over. It has been nearly 1 month since I am done with my tertiary studies and surprise, no job yet. I guess the good learning point for me here was that the more educated you are, the narrower are your chances of landing up a job. Moreover, it is of general knowledge that you can easily land a job in the public sector through your personal network of contacts. That difference between public and private sector is being rapidly levelled. Hence even in private sector, your own network of contacts is of immense help.

Alright, I might be sounding so dramatic. Others might be telling that it's been only so short time since the tertiary studies are over, you should be landing a job sooner or later. But, believe me, I feel like sitting inside a pressure cooker. There is huge subtle pressure of landing a job as soon as possible at home, and mostly to apply for the government sector. I have kept wondering why it is such a great deal, STILL NOWADAYS, to land a job in the public sector. Alright, apart from the security part of it, what else? For me, what is more important, is job satisfaction. For those who did management will recognize the term intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. Right now, I feel I am more aligned to working in the private sector, in order to grasp maximum knowledge, to harvest it at a later stage of my professional career.

So through the past 3 months, I have applied for over 40 companies, landed 3 interviews and selected in none. Quite a horrible track record you would say, right? I was discussing with my friend, Varun, today about my track record and he shared with me an article, that really left me wonder. Here are the main points of that article, which I am sure, will make you reflect about your job application process as well.

Five reasons a company never reply you back:

- Not qualified for the vacancy published.

- You have not keyword-optimized your application

- Resume not properly formatted.

- The resume was substantially different from your online profile such as myjob.mu, linkedin

- You were the 499th applicant out of 500 :)

Another interesting part of the article is how to make yourself stand out as an applicant through your application package. Here are the 5 main points:

- Use of social media

- Get professional help to write your resume

- Don't wait until you are out of job to start job hunting

- Use of personal network

- Start blogging in your field of studies :)

Well, these are not bad and difficult ideas to implement. I guess it is high time to modify my approach towards job application. What about you?

The art of letting go

As we grow up, we have always had the natural reaction of clinging onto experiences, things, emotions. Have you ever wondered why you do so? Is it because of the fear of love, safe, jealousy or simply success? Letting go can be visualized as entering a no entry road, being simply against the effortless glide of life. I would rather term it as being in our comfort zone.

The way we were brought up, it was always instilled at our very first steps to always grab as many opportunities as given. You have enough time to squeeze in a tuition after school hours and before another tuition, take it. Do not leave any opportunity go waster. That's fear of being unsuccessful. Let it go. Focus on what you have already.

I have always tried to understand why is it so difficult to move on from an unsuccessful relationship. Is it the fear of not meeting the same kind of person, love or experiencing the same kind of feelings. Or have you ever wondered why your heart always misses a heart beat at any kind of touch with your ex? Let her go. You have been wasting so much energy in trying to preserve her memories, rather than investing it in something more purposeful. Life is short, life is full of meeting new people. Move on.

During the course of your professional career, you will for sure encounter a situation whereby you will be required to make a choice. That choice will be making you so much sweating out, spoiling numerous nights, simply your days so stressful. Let's say for example, you would have to choose between quantity and quality. Yes, a lot of people would straight  forward tell you to go for quality. But your choice should reflect your initial target in life. And it can be simplified by the following 4 Questions.

Do I have a feeling that this might just won't work?

How important will this seem to me in six months?

How important will this seem to me in two years?

Is there a more enjoyable and productive way I could be harvesting my time and energy right now?

If the answer to the first and last questions are "yes", or the answers to the other 2 questions are "not much", it is time to let go.

( From Tony Schwartz work)

Can you relate how letting go and comfort zone are interconnected. Whenever you feel safe, loved and assured of successful, you would seldom go for new adventures or risks. Hence, you are not letting go since you are so comfortable in your comfort zone. Have you ever wondered what if I opted for the other way? Have you ever wondered what if I had once decided to brave the storm and just did not sign that contract with that prestigious company, rather grow up with a smaller one?

Always remember the above quote. No one would like to wake up 10 years later with a thought, what if I decided to choose the other way. When it will be time for you to go, and when your life will flash as a movie in your minds, you should appear as a hero in it. 

Let go, it is not an art, it is simply a choice for you to make.