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.

The choice of a career

Education system in Mauritius, as most of you might already be aware, consists mainly of 3 phases : primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary cycle lasts for 6 years having a major exams at its end, in order to obtain a seat in a decent college. The secondary level lasts 7 years, having tow major exams: School Certificate and higher School Certificate. If a student has been successful in his HSC exams, he will hence be eligible for a seat at a university, whether in the country or abroad. Hence university is the last phase of an education cycle, that is tertiary level.

The choice of a career in Mauritius is really a hectic path for most of the students. Most of the careers are already starting to shape as the student enters the fourth year of the secondary level, whereby they are asked to choose the side they will be opting for during the later years of college. These sides consist mostly of science, arts, technical and economics. That's the first screening.

After having gone through the various stages of the secondary level and successfully cleared out the HSC exams, the major hinder in the choice of a career arises. Well, you are already eligible for a seat at any university and you just need to choose the career you want, it sounds simple. Yet it is not. There are various considerations that you will need while making your choice. These include first and foremost your financial position. You should also ponder about the possibility of moving abroad or studying inland. Thereafter, you should ensure that you have enough points to qualify for that course. The prospect of actually landing a job after the completion of your undergraduate should not be neglected.

In all these processes, sometimes you tend to rely on the advice on other people's advice. Well, the equation is simple - its all what you want to do with your career, not what others would like you to do. Can an office dealing with career guidance be helpful in this situation? For sure not! These officers are just lazying off in their warm seat, and they would give a penny of thought to your career.The best thing to do is to read and document maximum possible in each and every career opportunities that will lie ahead of you.

Many times, just it happened with me, the choice of your career would eventually be your own ultimate decision. Sometimes I tend to regret the choice of my course since I had so much interests in other fields. But these particular fields was not reachable for numerous factors to me. It has been challenging through and through to stick to my decision for my career. When I think about it now, I think it could have never been better.

Yes, it has never been easy for me to choose my subjects. Yes, it was never easy for me to choose the course I wanted to do at university. However, it is only when putting into practice whatever you have learnt throughout all these years, that you started to finally liking it. Throughout the past 5 months, I could never have asked for better to have an internship on a construction site of a power station in Mauritius. It is once in a lifetime opportunity.

However, it did once again the flaws of the education system in Mauritius, this time at tertiary level. All engineering subjects are situation oriented subjects, meaning it is of prime importance to understand, visualize and project all situations in practical applications. Hence, when working in a construction site, it is useful to be knowledgeable of all engineering terms in local languages being spoken. Therefore, the practical aspect of all taught subjects at university level is not really put into limelight. It has been an enormous challenge. Moreover, it is essential to understand the importance of time frame and deadlines. Hence, for every task allocated, planning and timing of work is importance, which is another aspect not essentially highlighted during university days.

On a conclusive point, I am personally very much for the competitive edge of the educational system. I sincerely believe, that for an individual to progress, it is important that there is a level of competition in our education system. The tricky part of this issue is where to fit in the competition or the rat race. Is CPE suitable for children at 11 years old? Since our only resources are our manpower, it is important to ensure the children are competitive at the earliest age possible and hence moulding them in such a way to face the competitive edge of the job market so far.

Elections at UoM

Ever since I have joined UoM, the students' union elections have always been a major event through out the academic calendar. Well, as fresher in my first year, it was obviously an exciting event since you get to know a lot of seniors and enjoy an unusual high degree of attention from them. Obviously, we were not that much knowledgeable of the tactics adopted by election parties within the campus to gain votes. Moreover, I did not care too much why there was so much fuss about elections or why we were being targeted. I only thought that as long there were outings, parties or any kind of events, life at university was worth living then.

As expected, the first elections turned out to be a very memorable event, if not to say one of the biggest highlight of my first year at university. And the party we "worked" so hard towards won.. As it happened,  when I went to my second year of university, I was approached to stand as Faculty Representative for  the Faculty of Engineering. Well, it was not an idea that entertained me a lot to be honest. I was quite concerned by the amount of time to be devoted to the campaigns as well as the costs. Well, elections at UoM do cost hell a lot. Nevertheless, I let myself being convinced by certain people I trust and decided to stand as candidate. Was i gambling my future? Certainly not! I had precise and honest ideas to materialize for my faculty. It was a huge challenge for me to convince the students of the biggest faculty on the campus to vote for me, and to top it all, I had 2 weeks to do that. Despite my efforts,which was quite moderate to other candidates, I lost.. But i gained huge knowledge out of all this circus, which then started to make me drift out of this selfish circle.

It is only when you formed part of this inner circle that you started to realize then that were was no difference between national and university politics.. All of them do it for their own motive. There was not real motivation to work for the students, apart mainly trying to "loot" the funds generated for the Students' Union. Using students of first year was a common tactics since generations as students in second, third or fourth year have already been acquainted to the running of the Student's Union Office.. I wonder why I never tried to understand the source of budget of an election party during a campaign period. 

Were the "investors" doing it for the benefit of the student, or for their own motive? And how would they recover their investment? Would it be through those various committees that they would be sitting on as representative of students? Or do they invest in these elections just to obtain one of these posts? A parallel can be drawn hence to the general elections in the country. Close people to the ruling party obtain high commissioner post or chairman of the various state institutions though out the country.. Well, as it seems, the leaders in the country are already inspiring the young "leaders" at the university. I always wondered why not a proper selection of the most suitable candidates for those various committees were never carried out.. Arrete protez pti copains! :S

Another fact that made me disgust elections at UoM was the presence of "election gods", or simply previously elected students on the students' union. As it seemed, they always had a huge hand in the selection of the candidates for "their" party. They would still do ground campaigning for the beloved candidates. The best out of all, develop sick tactics in order to defeat opposing parties. Well well well, i guess university students are no more babies to babysit them. Let them face the challenges and consequences on their own. Then they will be able to manage the office of the student union on their own. your time at the campus is gone buddy, just learn to let it go.

Hopefully, the next management team of the Students' Union would be able to clean up the office somewhat, not make it a den for their own, a place without any rules. Maybe they should adopt one of the most hilarious points I have ever heard of during my time at university, replacing the office door by a transparent one. It might not be such a bad idea after all. Then the students would realize what those people are really upto in the office, working or just making it a casino or a dating place..

The only advice I could give to freshers, is to prove that they are grown-up,mature people that could differentiate between the right and the wrong. Its simply putting the right people at the right place..! :)

Football

Since early childhood, I guess football has always formed an integral part of my life. Well, it is not a surprise when you consider that football is one of the most favorite sport in the country. I still remember, when I was really young, about 4-5 years old, how my dad used to take me to football matches. Well, my dad was a great goalkeeper during his career, and a good volley-ball player as well. I will never forget one day when I went to watch a football match at Anjalay Stadium, the match ended up in a general riot.. We had to run through people who were rioting.. I was freaking afraid at that moment..So we had to squeeze among people causing trouble,running for life.. I should admit it was quite exciting!

The more I think about this sport, or maybe the love for sport in general within our family, I think it has all rooted from my late grandfather. He had a vivid interests for all kind of sports and whenever there was any live broadcast on the national TV, he was always the first one to be in front of the TV set. Another good memory related to football was the world cup in Japan/South Korea in 2002. Due to the time difference between these 2 countries and Mauritius, the first football match started as from 9am here and the last one would start at 17.15 pm. At times, there were 4 football matches in a row. It was an absolute no-misser from all of us. Me, my cousin, dad and my uncles would all barge into my grandpa's room and would squat there whole day.. And we had delicious cookies prepared by my grandma.. I should admit I miss both of them a lot now..