CONFIDENCE BUILDING

 CONFIDENCE BUILDING

Confidence building ought to be a natural corollary to the process of education. That people are not confident after acquiring degrees / titles up to and beyond the level of post-graduation suggests a few important things. What are those?

Learning has not been on the right lines.  2  A mere ‘tentative’ memorizing  has so far been used as a strategy for ‘remembering’ a few essential items considered important for facing ‘examination’.  3 The examination process has not ‘probed’ the knowledge component of the examinees. 4. A cursory approach by way of ‘answering’ the question[s] has fetched tall scores far disproportionate to the mental skills of the examinees. 5 A clear band wagon approach has been in vogue at all levels of Teaching/ Learning / Evaluation. 6  A glaring absence of ‘enthusiastic teaching’ triggering inquisitive pursuit of ‘understanding’ the theme of any lesson at all stages of learning for the students.   A  human product of ‘cumulative defects’ can just be a biologically grown person, oblivious of the skills anticipated and the ones acquired segregated by an unfathomable gulf.  A catastrophic outcome is, the candidates are ego-enriched until a genuine evaluation during job-seeking effort, exposes all inadequacy ending up in frustration.  Well, the frustration referred to here is for both the job-seeker and the job-provider, for having undertaken an un productive exercise of conducting personal interview.

Of late, employers do not wish to spend time on viewing the candidates; they are ready to invest money on ‘selection firms’ which assess candidates for varied job profiles and furnish a shortlist of a few prospective candidates worthy of a trial by appropriate experts  on the suitability of ‘employability’.  Shamelessly our authorities project narratives that the ‘quality’ education provided ranks among the best. The ‘products’ of the ‘quality education’ so imparted are so nervous at the suggestion of terms ‘competitive examinations’, Group discussion and personal interview’ at a prestigious campus. They literally shiver and tremble in their shoes.  What bucks them? Just they need to speak, speak fluently but precisely to the point bucks them. These seem to be anathema to our graduates after a 15-16 year education in English medium.  What has gone wrong? The issue is nothing went right along the course of this form of education.  

What is the remedy?

The foremost requirement for anyone to improve self is to ‘concede’ that precious little is known. Secondly, identify all domains that need being refurbished in right earnest.  It could be your professional  domain WHERE ‘UPDATING’ MUST BE  carried out periodically, without  taking a ‘relaxed stand ‘ that I graduated just three months ago. Please remember that the syllabi prescribed in most plans are not updated and they generally cater to essential basics. So, to be among the real good contenders one has to make personal efforts of ‘knowledge acquisition’ at least in specific domains of your job interest.

There is a basic defect among job hunters in presuming that your job providers graduated several years ago and that they may not be updated. Please keep in mind that being themselves in the industry, the senior bosses are professionally updated in application of work strategies while graduates know only theory  and not its true application. They would easily peg your functional defects. So, updating for job is to be alert about functional upkeep in application of technology and not in scoring marks by repetition of set phrases defending a theory.

The second component that deserves attention is ‘ability to communicate’.  It calls for neat flawless expression of ideas in minimum words organized to present the idea. Too long and mundane expressions like ‘not only but also’ fail to evoke respect among senior professionals who look for polite and well mannered disposition. These should come into play as a natural exposition of any idea. Remember that you had liberally failed to gather the best strategies as a learner. Now you have to catch up with time, lest should settle for far lower compensations, unless ready to  take colossal efforts to  strengthen your profile by communication. Realities of life are always harsh. Soft pedaling never helps.

Prof. K. Raman