Oct 14, 2009

My First Guest Lecture!!!!!!

It gives me immense delight to write down the following stuff. As we rewind back 3 years from today that is in the year 2006 I never imagined of whatever, wherever I am today. The fire was there but it was just as lost as I was. What to do, how to do, when to do, I had no clue. My career took a radical shift once I joined Indira, Pune for MBA in Marketing. Those two years are the best phase of my life where I learnt the actual meaning of my existence, I found, I understood, I learnt my limitations and strengths and I worked harder than ever. All the hard work of those two years has paid off. I received a call from my college. They wanted me to deliver a guest lecture to the new batch that joined recently in the month of July. I took some time to think and then I called them back and gave an affirmative answer. 10 hours is what it took for me to create the presentation for this batch. I decided to speak on the importance of personality traits to succeed in MBA and hence in life. A batch of 240 students was supposed to attend the session in two slots of 120 each. I doubted my capabilities of speaking for 3 hours as told by the management to me. However, to my surprise I actually had to cut short few topics and managed to finish it off in 3.5 hours. It was an awesome experience to be on the other side of the class for the first time in my life. I thought this would be the first and also the last time for me to deliver a lecture to students. However, with the response that I got from students I understood that I had done a decent job and I am sure I would be doing this stuff again, and again, and again…..

Sep 2, 2009

Social Media: The Next BIG Thing



During the mid 90s when getting a landline phone and obviously a number for it became easy things started changing. I was a small kid then, so I actually can’t recall the actual change and the impact of it. However, I do remember my Mom saying that we used to write letters to our relatives, friends and the dear ones. With the access to phone we saw the concept of letter writing rubbished to a larger extent. Then arrived the pager from Motorola which was a mini revolution. It created a buzz in the market until the invention of mobile that happens to be one of the biggest revolutionary inventions in the history of communications. Slowly the pager fazed out and made way to its successor. Having said that you all might be surprised to know that pager is still in use. It created revenues of $2.1 Bn in 2008 which compared to $6.2 Bn in 2003 is peanuts. However, point to be emphasized here is that it still exists. During the same period of mid 90s internet took over with a bang and we entered the digital world. Since last 15 odd years we have been seeing, using these applications and devices for commercial, personal, professional use with great ease and with increasing expertise. But am I now seeing these technologies getting obsolete soon? Yeah. I know they are not going to faze out but I think very soon we would at least see a drop in the use of these things. The reason being the surge in the number of SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES (SNSs).



Some info for my readers…. SixDegrees.com was the first recognized SNS which was founded in the year 1997. The craze though caught upon later in the beginning of 21st century thanks to Mark Zuckerberg with his invention which popularly is known as Facebook. Thanks to the changing demography and psychology showing more affiliation towards digitizing we are seeing yet another revolution. There are more than 400 SNSs today in the world to say the least. Please get it confirmed with the following links.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites


http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/



There were days when we used to call up our friends to ask the score of cricket match. But these days we have twitter to send instant messages that to free of cost. The call rates once stood tall at Rs15.20/- today are down at a meager 30 paisa. Browsing internet would create a hole in the pocket leaving us at least Rs 50 short of our savings that too for within an hour. A pub was attacked in Mangalore by some Sri Ram Sena activists. Soon, the pink chaddi campaign was in the making and ably supported by these SNSs. Facebook even had “Pink Chaddi Campaign” community which got fan following in thousands. “Michael Jackson RIP” community on Facebook has fan following of 4.5 million people on FB alone. That’s crazy. This tells us how much we are getting into this SNS thing. Blogging has come up big time. Celebrities have started blogging. It has helped people communicate and express their feelings with people they don’t even know. Never in my life have I been to Jammu and Chennai. But today I can say I know at least one person in these places. The list of SNSs is never ending from FB to orkut to tagged to myspace to hi5 to something else to something else and on and on



I think very soon the telecom sector will find this out and they would stop charging for calls and the only charges would be for data i.e internet usage. With all the stuff written above I think I can say “Social Media is the next big thing”.



What say Guys???????

Aug 20, 2009

Name is FLU, "SWINE FLU"


Myself Swine Flu,


Hello everyone, I am sure you all know me at least by name if not in person. I would love to meet you but I know no one amongst you wants to meet me. Cholera, Plague, Dengue, SARS; I have come to existence in various forms. This time I chose Pune as my home town to settle down. Why Pune? This definitely might be the question from all Puneites.


All Puneites might be thinking didn’t it get another city to thrive into. Well the reason being that Puneites proudly say that anyone once accepted in Pune, the entire Maharashtra accepts it because Pune happens to be the cultural capital of Maharashtra. The revolution of “No gifts please” at functions was started by Puneites (that is what they all say) and now it has started spreading across the country. So, I thought once accepted by Pune, I wont face major problems later on. And that is what has happened. Barely couple of years ago I appeared in the form of chikungunya in Sangli, Solapur and the Marathwada belt. To my credit, I also managed to take some wickets !!!LOL!!! I swear I never thought I would get the kind of publicity that I have actually got. Each and every sheet of newspaper here is giving me a hell lot of footage and I am seeing everyone covering their faces with masks.


One thing that I never thought was that in spite of my vicious impact I would be liked by some people. Yeah!!!! The medicals here are selling masks worth Rs 2/- for Rs 10-15/- and even 20/- at some places. Pune enjoys special treatment form the govt here. There are hundreds of villages that face up to 15 hours of power cut daily. But Pune being Pune, a special Pune pattern has been created and adopted so that Puneites do not face a single minute’s power cut. These people can’t even climb couple of floors. They need a lift for it. Now isn’t that a good reason for me to land here, create some terror and get started with my work. People have marked mails to Obama saying if he could not export business why did he export me? Poor Obama!!!!!


The media here has got its act together and have managed to impede me from spreading more. However, it seems Delhiites are showing some sort of soft corner to me and I think now I would be shifting my base there.

Aug 11, 2009

BOTOX Please!!!! India needs a facelift

As India gears up to celebrate the 62nd Independence Day, here are my wishes......."Happy Independence Day World! Yes, I know I said “world”. Well!!!! Why shouldn’t I????? I am blessed to be born in a certain country named “India”. Ohh yes!!! With all major countries finding a handsome chunk of Indian community present in their living rooms we certainly aren’t going unnoticed. Hence, “Happy Independence Day World.” Yeah!!!! The birth of my country has not only been a boon to us but a boon to the entire universe. So, I would like to wish the entire world.


Talking about my country I need not tell you that we are making waves all over the globe. Last two decades have seen the young India take over and cause ripples all over, be it sports, business, beauty pageants, entertainment, science, technology, education, outsourcing etc etc etc etc. India has made a serious mark of it’s presence on the global map. We have 2nd highest billionaires after US in top 20 (post recession figure). We are the hottest outsourcing destination. We are the one who have taken the sports world by storm with invention of IPL. We are the one to bring in the cheapest car in market. We are the one who have seen the “H1N1” google search top the charts in recent times. To be frank I am not proud of the last point but then the point to emphasize here is that we are not the first to be affected, but it created heck lot of changes in the world’s most dominant search engine.


However, it seems the fast track growth and development is not being taken in stride by the other entities of this universe. We are facing unhealthy repercussions and conduct from others. It can be seen all around us. We certainly don’t deserve this. All we need is a facelift. The world needs to know that there is something special in the soil of this country. And for that we need a facelift. A facelift that will make the country glow with pride!!!!!!!


I urge all Indians to come forward and contribute from their end to help us grow and grow mutually with the world because we are here not to grow selfishly but grow selflessly.


Leaving a video for you all…… enjoy!!!!!!



Aug 2, 2009

Friendship Day

Life means: 8 Friends, Mild Rains, 8 cups of Tea; Lonavla

Life means: 200 bucks of petrol, 6 rusty old bikes and an open road to Malshej

Life means: MIS class, 10 back benchers and 1 JACKASS solution

Life means: Maggie noodles, Flat No 12, Akshay Park, 3:10 am, 52 playing cards

Life means: 1 Prep leave, 1 night, 1 book, and 6 duffers watching India-Australia Test Match

Life means: 1 day, 4 birthday celebrations, 17 friends and a party at Khaana-Peena-Jeena

Life means: Last day of exams, 3 am and 6 friends preparing speech for farewell

Life means: Last day of course, group of friends, crying together @ Level 9

Life means: Friends

Life means: Friendship.........




Thanks a lot guys!!!!!!!! Thanks for being a part of my life and leaving me with the memories which I have tried to capture in the following video.



Jul 28, 2009

"Rat Race" alias "Quarter-Life Crisis"

The spark in the eyes has gone. The sense of humor has fazed off. The feeling of growing up sooner and sooner that was there during childhood now looks like a dim-witted one. Today that the teenage is history the present looks like a big mountain to climb. Jobs are ON, some have got married, some are abroad, some are back home with family, some have started their ventures after running out of chances, though ALL…. almost all are not happy for a reason that probably even they themselves don’t know.

Why? Why? Why is this feeling haunting our minds??? We never could live a moment with our friends. We always wanted to be like them. We always were jealous of high fliers in our vicinity. We broke friendships, we made friendships. We flirted. We had; wat… probly n number of crushes!!!!!!!!!!! Today the same friends we parted away with look like were the ones we actually should have hold on with. It’s not long back that we thought like our friends but today we have different goals and we realize that our interests lie in something different and we have no company to walk with to achieve those interests and dreams. We also realize that the job we are doing is the one that we would have never done in the entire life of ours, but we are still sticking with it. Not far back did we stop playing cricket for soccer, soccer for basket ball, basket ball for volley ball, volley ball for something else. We loved change. We loved to experiment.

Where has that spark gone????? Where has that risk taking ability gone???? Getting job was a dream. We achieved. Getting a good profile was a dream. We probably achieved. Now that job was there guys got married and bought home. Because home was bought leaving the job was now next to impossible because of the fat EMIs. Now that’s the result that ppl have lost and today are clueless of what they are doing.

The life was so different some years back. There were no boundaries. There were no limitations. There were several sweet fights amongst friends. Life was so selfless. Movies, Masti, More Masti and even More Masti was the mantra of the life.

Well!!!!!!!!!!! Things have changed and the life has taken a 360ยบ turn and as Robert Kiyosaki says this is called as a “Rat Race”. Another definition for this problem is “Quarter-Life Crisis” (inspired from a mail from my good friend Theo).

This mail is meant for all those who are in their 20 something. And hence the definition “Quarter-Life Crisis”

One interesting thing is that everyone who reads this will relate himself/herself with this article but only a handful will work forward to not to fall in this race or this crisis.

Jul 4, 2009

Indian National Anthem and it's Meaning




Jana-Gana-Mana

(Thou Art the Ruler of All Minds)

The Indian National anthem, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950. It was first sung 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. The complete song consists of five stanzas. The lyrics were rendered into English by Tagore himself.

NATIONAL ANTHEM OF INDIA

" Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya He

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata

Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha

Dravida Utkala Banga

Vindhya Himachal Yamuna Ganga

Ucchala Jaladhi Taranga

Tubh Shubha Name Jage

Tubh Shubha Ashisha Mange

Gahe Tubh Jaya Gata

Jan Gan Mangaldayak Jay He

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata

Jaye He ! Jaye He ! Jaye He !

Jaye,Jaye,Jaye,Jaye He "

Playing time of the full version of the national anthem is approximately 52 seconds. A short version consisting of first and last lines of the stanza (playing time approximately 20 seconds) is also played on certain occasions.

Translation of The national anthem- Jana Gana Mana In English

Thou are the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India's destiny. The name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sind, Gujurat and Maratha. Of the Dravid and Orissa and Bengal. It Echoes in the hills of Vindhyas and Himalayas, mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by the waves of the Indian Sea. They pray for your blessing and sing thy praise. The salvation of all peaople is thy hand, thou dispenser of India's destiny. Victory, Victory, Victory to thee.

Jun 21, 2009

For all those who are in hunt of their first job

First job probably (yes….. probably and not definitely) architects our future because though we move out fresh from college with loads of talent and exuberance, couple of fancy degrees in our hand, the ability to take head strong decisions we are not aware how much the corporate life plays an important role in deciding our future. We can get away with an overloaded pocket at the end of month but then it is of no use if you are not into the job that you do not like. In today’s world, getting a job is not tough, sustaining in the job is. And it is increasingly tough to do so if you do not like your job even if you are taking away a fat six-figure cheque back home.
I would like to pen down some points that a fresher should consider while hunting his/her first job.
1. The 5 important parameters while applying for a company.
a. Brand of the company
b. The Sector in which the company operates
c. Salary offered
d. Location offered
e. Profile offered
These are possibly the 5 most important points (not in the sequence that I have noted them) to be considered while looking for a job in any given company. Now, you need to rate every parameter according to your priorities. It’s highly improbable for all 5 parameters to be fulfilled. So while applying for any company you need to consider above parameters. If at least 3 of them are fine with you, then I would suggest going ahead and giving a try. For fresher I would suggest to rate profile and industry above everything because as I said earlier, the work you do in first two years will probably be the base of your future work.

2. Importance of a good CV; not a Resume or Bio-data. (Know the difference between them? No!!!! Click
here)
The contents of a CV are and should be written in following manner
a. Objective: Objective should include
- the job you are applying for
- why you would be great in this position
- what assets will you bring to company if hired.
Never copy-paste the objective of others. Create one of your own. It will be easy for you to justify it if questioned for the same.
b. Professional Details: You need to bullet down the important facets of work done in the internships. Try avoiding following ways of writing;
- I covered the Western Mumbai region
- My work was to handle the Western Mumbai region.
- Never write I, Me, and We in your professional details
Instead, write in this manner
- Covered the Western Mumbai region and was responsible for….. etc etc
c. Work Duration: If you have work experience, try avoiding following ways of presenting it;
- XYZ tech (25th July ’07 – 24th Nov ‘08)
Instead, write in this manner
- XYZ tech (July ’07 – Nov ’08)
Note: The contents of your CV should be entirely written by you and they should not be copied from anywhere else. I small point that you have copied be it objective or a weakness, if you are asked to justify the same, it will be really tough for you to do so. The reason being, whenever we write specific details about ourselves we actually think about it while writing which is enough for us to justify while facing the interview.
You should know every single word in your CV and should be in a position to explain the reasons behind it.

3. Group Discussion
I will write down the basics of a GD and not what topics to prepare on. That is something that needs no guidance at this point of time when you are about to apply for a job.
There are certain myths involved around Group Discussions. Following are the points to be considered.
- Speaking first gives you advantage: A highly wrong notion that we all carry. Just to speak first we concentrate more on that rather than thinking constructively about the topic. Instead spend the time in constructive thinking and listen to what first 2-3 candidates speak about. You may then get an idea and accordingly you can guide the entire discussion (provided your preparation in the initial time given to you was good).
- Concluding first gives you advantage: Again a wrong notion. Same things written above apply here. Never be in hurry to do so. Conclusion is that part of GD where no one will interrupt you. Effectively this is the most important point in GD where you can create the maximum impact with a good conclusion.
- Speaking more and in high tone works for you: Guys, it’s a GD, a corporate is examining you. So try and maintain composure, don’t be soft but be firm enough in while speaking to create impact and it also looks sensible and decent. Speaking more and in high tone will land you in wrong place and possibly in wrong job.
- Stats and Figures: What of the following sounds good?
a. Indian organizations acquired many MNCs in USA in last two years.
Or
b. At least 143 MNCs in USA were acquired by Indian organizations in last two years.
I don’t think there is need of further more explanation on this point.

4. Personal Interview: Some important points to consider
- Be yourself. Do not try to pretend. If you are not good at something you are not good at it. As simple as that.
- Admit if you are nervous. The interviewer is a human being and won’t eat you up if you try to hide it. In fact, he may then go a bit easy in your case.
- Be thorough with your objective, strengths, weaknesses, scores in all the examinations, justification for low scores, reasons to join that specific company, industry study (stats and figures), company study (key executives, revenue details,)

If freshers follow these steps I am sure they would be better prepared to get the right job and not a job that they are not interested in because as I said in the beginning of the article, "Getting the job is easy, sustaining in it is tougher".
I will like to wrap up the article here though would keep on updating it as and when I get some more points to add to it.

For anymore queries mail me at sumeetkiranshah@gmail.com

Difference Between C.V, Resume & Bio Data

People use the words RESUME, CV, and BIO-DATA interchangeably for the document highlighting skills, education, and experience that a candidate submits when applying for a job. On the surface level, all the three mean the same. However, there are intricate differences.

RESUME
Resume Is a French word meaning "summary", and true to the word meaning, signifies a summary of one's employment, education, and other skills, used in applying for a new position. A resume seldom exceeds one side of an A4 sheet, and at the most two sides. They do not list out all the education and qualifications, but only highlight specific skills customized to target the job profile in question.
A resume is usually broken into bullets and written in the third person to appear objective and formal. A good resume starts with a brief summary of Qualifications, followed by Areas of Strength or Industry
Expertise in keywords, followed by Professional Experience in reverse chronological order. Focus is on the most recent experiences, and prior experiences summarized. The content aims at providing the reader a balance of responsibilities and accomplishments for each position. After work experience come Professional Affiliations, Computer Skills, and Education.

C.V CURRICULUM VITAE
C.V Is a Latin word meaning "course of life". Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) is therefore a regular or particular course of study pertaining to education and life. A C.V. is more detailed than a resume, usually 2 to 3 pages, but can run even longer as per the requirement. A C.V. generally lists out every skills, jobs, degrees, and professional affiliations the applicant has acquired, usually in chronological order. A C.V. displays general talent rather than specific skills for any specific positions.

BIO-DATA
Bio Data the short form for Biographical Data is the old-fashioned terminology for Resume or C.V. The emphasis in a bio data is on personal particulars like date of birth, religion, sex, race, nationality,
residence, martial status, and the like. Next comes a chronological listing of education and experience. The things normally found in a resume, that is specific skills for the job in question comes last, and are seldom included. Bio-data also includes applications made in specified formats as required by the company.

A resume is ideally suited when applying for middle and senior level positions, where experience and specific skills rather than education is important. A C.V., on the other hand is the preferred option for fresh graduates, people looking for a career change, and those applying for academic positions. The term bio-data is mostly used in India while applying to government jobs, or when applying for research grants and other situations where one has to submit descriptive essays.

Resumes present a summary of highlights and allow the prospective employer to scan through the document visually or electronically, to see if your skills match their available positions. A good resume can do that very effectively, while a C.V. cannot. A bio-data could still perform this role, especially if the format happens to be the one recommended by the employer.

Personal information such as age, sex, religion and others, and hobbies are never mentioned in a resume. Many people include such particulars in the C.V. However, this is neither required nor considered in the US market. A Bio-data, on the other hand always include such personal
particulars..

Thanks...... Do leave your views about the content.

Jun 18, 2009

T20 World Cup Loss!!!! What can we learn out of it????



It’s really hard to digest the ouster of our team from the ongoing world cup. We are living in an emotional country and as a result understanding the vent of the on going anger against the team is very obvious. But I fail to understand the logic of this mind. When we are wrong we seek compromise and we speak judgment when others are wrong. I would agree to the fact that even I am one among you all and together we all, I think are making an issue out of the loss. Effigies are being burned around in the country, our cricketers are being cursed for the loss. But then why are we forgetting that this is the same team that won us the world cup last time around. Has any one ever expected the same out of himself/herself? Had we been there in the same position we would have compromised by giving petty reasons but because it was someone else involved we got angry and started passing judgments. And to encourage them we have our media who is nothing less than a hopeless crap, creating nuisance each and every time. Can anyone explain me why should Dhoni be fired from captain’s role???? He is the same guy who won you the cup last time.

Our life is a cycle. Ups and down are part of it. Till the time you don’t face the downs how are you going to grow. He took charge of the team after being knocked out of 2007 ODI world cup. That was even big a disaster in Indian terms. In last two years Indian cricket team and Dhoni in particular have seen a complete cycle. He enjoyed the success in 20-20, Australia, England, New Zealand and the loss in recent world cup.

Instead of sitting and crying over the loss we should find out what all can we learn from it?

Optimum use of resources: Several times did Dhoni err by not using the resources up to their potential. Example: Couple of our specialist bowlers did not get their quota to bowl. Yusuf’s power went under utilized.
Right people in right place all the time: Yuvraj being sent lower down the order did not help his cause because his arrival was at the time when he could not set his eye in before unleashing. Another example being Jadeja.
Discipline: Though bhajji bowled brilliantly he will not forgive himself because somewhere within he knows that even he is responsible for the loss against England. He bowled 5 wides twice in that match.
Importance of Basics: Never did Ishaant or Irfan try to use the conditions to their favour. Ishaant was too full most of the times.
Respect your adversary for his Strengths: Rohit Sharma under rated the bowlers and got out twice in same fashion against W.I. & England.
Teamwork: Not once did our bowling attack looked to have any vigor. It takes two to tango. Had there been a spell of good bowling from both ends we would have done better.
Accountability: In today’s world you just cant get through by doing your amount of work. It doesn’t mean you need to do others work but you need to compliment and be accountable for the output. You need to make your team mates feel comfortable in tough situations


These are some points that we can learn out of the loss and try and implement them in our day to day lives. 1 big thing I have learnt in life is “Caliber of a person is not how well he prepares for everything to go right but how he stands up & moves on after everything has gone wrong.”

So, I am sure very soon “Team India” would bounce back and would be causing tremors in every opponents psyche.

I will keep adding to the points mentioned above. So keep a track of it.

Jun 12, 2009

Just 4 Things

Four jobs you’ve had in your life

  • Customer Associate
  • Retail Sales Manager
  • Business Development & Research Analyst
  • Business Development

Four jobs you wish you had

  • A Media Guy
  • A Consultant
  • A Guest Lecturer
  • A Strategist

Four movies you can watch over and over again

Not a movie buff…but still

  • Munnabhai Series
  • Guru
  • Behind Enemy Lines
  • Cast Away

Four cities you have lived in

  • Pune
  • Mumbai
  • Amravati
  • That’s it

Four TV shows you love to watch

  • Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai
  • Khichdi
  • Cricket Extra
  • Sports Center

Four websites you visit daily

Four of your favorite foods

  • Masala Dosa
  • Pav Bhaji
  • Uttappa
  • Burgers

Four things you won’t eat

  • Roadside stuff
  • Chinese
  • Non Veg
  • Stuff with Paneer

Four things you wish you could eat right now

Exactly as my list of favorite foods

Four things in your bedroom

  • My Bed
  • My Laptop
  • Lots of Crap
  • AC (Can’t live without it)

Four things you wish you had in your bedroom

  • · Macbook
  • · Bookshelf
  • · Collage of My Favorites
  • · Fridge

Four things I’m wearing right now

  • Tee
  • Jeans
  • Shoes (About to leave, waiting for sister)
  • That’s it.

One place I’d rather be right now

Some Hillstation

One fictional place I’d rather be right now

No Idea

Four people you’d really love to have dinner with

  • My Family
  • Praveen, Gaurav,
  • Harsh, Pratik
  • Sheryl, Anjali, Suppu, Zarna

Four things I am thinking right now

  • How many more things do I have to fill!
  • Whom d I tag after getting over with this?
  • Should I quit and start a business?
  • Which book next to read?

Four of your favorite things/people

  • My Cell
  • The Book that I got as a gift from my boss
  • My Car
  • My Family

Four people I tag

Thanx a lot Shilpa!!!!!! All who would have read this, it is because of Shilpa as she tagged me and I completed this small questionnaire and pasted it here on my blog