Campus Blog Category

LEARN, APPLY AND MOVE CLOSER TO YOUR CAREER GOAL!

Career Development (Placement), IILM University,

Traditionally, after completing the undergraduate program, students have three options – to join their family business, go for higher studies or take employment. Whether it is for getting a job or admission in a higher education institution, the students have to go through a selection process. After clearing the initial elimination rounds of written tests and group discussions a student moves into space wherein the individual has to sell themselves.

It is also a well-acknowledged fact selection panels of education institutions or reputed corporates traditionally recruit incumbents who have great communication skills, technical skills and a good attitude (meaning qualities like being proactive, having a positive attitude,  solution providers rather than problem creator, people management skills and similar skills ). While the students’ qualification, classroom-based or MOOC Certifications shows what technical learnings they have acquired, it is the application of the same and demonstration of life skills that interests and are normally being evaluated by the selection panels.

I am detailing a few activities which can be used to add depth to the students’ resumes as well as help them learn skills that selectors are normally seeking and move them closer to achieving their career goals.

Organizing a community activity/event – Most of us live in residential communities. Organizing a social/ cultural event for the benefit of the other members of our community helps us showcase our initiative, our organizing ability and our ability to influence people and get their support. The community activities that can be chosen by students could include

o    Organizing a free health checkup for residents of a locality by connecting with a reputed hospital and your local resident welfare organization / Blood Donation Camp ( Red Cross),

o    Organizing Diwali Mela  / Christmas Gala / An Entertainment night / Children’s Day Activity / Children Painting competition to encourage art and

o   Coordinating with Municipality or local governing bodies ( residential welfare association)for providing better facilities at your residential area  – installing Garden Gyms / Better club facilities / Water Harvesting Initiatives/creating a volunteering group to provide support to the elderly population in the vicinity

Volunteering for a cause – For a student, it is critical to identify a social cause one is passionate about. Whether it is saving the environment, or educating the children or caring for animals, it is important to have the conviction to improve the plight of another.  Connecting with an NGO related to the cause and participating in their multiple activities, allows the incumbent to highlight her willingness to contribute towards society’s wellbeing. Showcasing the same in one’s resume and interview exhibits empathy, ability to work for a team/cause, enthusiasm for one’s belief, which is qualities well appreciated by any selection panel. Additionally, the content ( photographs and videos) from these add value to the digital footprint for a lifetime. For example, if a student chooses to become a member of IILM University NGO-Club – Yuva Goonj , and helps in teaching the children in the nearby slums, it demonstrates that the student is a responsible member of the society, believes in contributing towards the development of others and is willing to take extra responsibility.  These are laudable qualities that are appreciated in any institution.

Internships on a part-time and full-time basis – Internships and other experiential learning opportunities are the final keys to maximizing the value of students’ college degrees. It is a well-accepted fact that securing employment after one’s degree is dependent on how well one has built experience during the period of education. Employers expect students to have experience before applying to minimize training needs.   On another hand, to get admissions into good educations institutions for further studies, it is critical the student has a good understanding of the concepts taught, which is again dependent on application.

In view of the above, in addition to doing mandatory internships to earn credits, it is always advisable for students to take on short projects on a part-time basis through the terms of their courses. These projects need not be with big brands, but with be start-ups who are hungry for hardworking and enthusiastic manpower and are willing to teach. Some of these projects could be in space of

–          Content creation

–          Market research

–          Sales promotion

–          Book Keep

–          Updating records

–          Lead generation

–          And many more

Each of these activities teaches generic skillset as well as function-specific skillsets that always impress the interviewer.

Needless to add, all the above avenues are in addition to the certifications the student has earned, and the extra-curriculum activities a student has participated in. So adding such new experiences can help the student fulfill their career aspirations!

IILM University’s students teach underprivileged children.

Do share your feedback on :

What are the other relevant initiatives one can undertake to make one’s resume more impactful?

Do such initiatives add to your life skills and also help you understand your interests better?

 

Our behavior shapes our economy – Stay calm amidst dire situations – COVID19

Blog Catgeory, Faculty, General Blog, IILM University

COVID19 has been termed as an unparalleled dire situation; though the world has experienced pandemic earlier, the one actual and big difference between this pandemic and the others in the past is the volume of information at the click of a button. We are being poured 24/7 by broadcast news around the globe and social media. Mass media is serving our qualms and inhibiting us to think rationally creating shared panic and forcing people to take emotional irrational decisions. In a historic period of excessive loss and distress, today is the necessity of more than ever discipline, civic sense, and calm attitude.

Stocking the mind with overpowering questions drains our energy leading to wastage of time as well. We ought to silence the mind, not letting it go on with opinions of criticism, feeling like a quarry, condemning or denying the situation.

  • Situation Proofing Yourself

Life without critical situations is similar to living a life in an imaginary unreal world, detached from reality. There are two kinds of people. One will see the situation as trivial by having positive insights or optimistic way of looking at it. The other will see the situation as severe by having negative perceptions. How much control do we have on our thought process, to what degree is this human mechanism and state of mind in our hands? A calm mind, according to some, working a full day at the office, with demanding deadlines and different people with their different ways of working and opinions and simultaneously looking after the household responsibilities is next to impossible. But then, a calm mind with a robust intellect can certainly face all these dire situations. Moreover, practices like meditation will assist us in doing that.

  • Constructive Use

We are constantly learning a lesson at each step of our survival. The real-life circumstances are our hidden learnings which in a way impart us something or the other during a short span of time. All of us ought to be wary but then there is no need to fear or get panic. Instead, let’s not have complacency either. Receive this challenging situation and comprehend how you can make use of it in a constructive manner.

  • List down and evaluate the pros and cons

 It is easier to let our emotive side form our choices however as an alternative, create an unbiased list of pros and cons once confronted with a demanding situation. Contemplate critically and stick with unprejudiced principles concerning the situation.

At any time a difficult state is trying to affect you or you feel that you are fairly distressed due to a negative occurrence, look for positivity within in order to upkeep yourself emotionally and mentally. Likewise, hunt for signs of goodness outer in everyone and the entire thing, which will help in keeping you calm, composed and powerful. Possibly, nature wants everyone to slow down a little from the haste and hurriedness they are in.

Stay stable, calm and gratified!

Dr. Rachna Madaan

 

Being Optimistic in times of Pandemic- Corona 2020

Blog Catgeory, IILM University,

Being Optimistic in times of Pandemic- Corona 2020

In the year 2000 Dr Toshihiko Maruta of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, reported that optimists have a longer life span than pessimists. Maruta found that people with a positive outlook on life live on an average 19 percent longer than those who are miserable.

Twenty years back Dr Maruta did not anticipate what the world would be facing and with what intensity. Maybe a scenario where a potentially harmful virus affecting all countries alike and spreading like a pandemic was suited more for a thriller movie than one’s reality today.

People with their routine lives have been warned and coerced to stay at home and worse work from home. World over, barring some professions, everyone has to now get used to this transition in work while carefully balancing work-life balance which everyone knows is a delicate harmony often difficult to achieve.

Uncertainty of events and overload of  information is not letting peace within, so the question is can we be optimistic in time of Pandemic the one that we are going through- CORONA 2020?

I think while going through stream of messages and newspaper articles, we are actually living through a moment in history- something we grew up reading in books and always wondered how people back in those days did it. Their trials, tribulations and finally achieving a little more than success- they became die hard optimistic who later guided others of what life really means.

Optimism is something we are born with like a disposition and something we cultivate over the years with experience and endurance to life.

To be honest it can be very difficult but not impossible to keep your head focused on end goals when there is so much uncertainty and constant restless news that keeps shaking our faith that it will all be fine one day.

With the help of theory on Optimism by Snyder, I could technically help readers to stay aloft this crucial time of despair and keep it going.

  1. Goal– (What we want to happen?) To be safe from Corona Virus
  2. Pathways– (How are we going to get there?) To social distance, keep hygiene at all times, self-isolation for some days as directed by the government knowing it’s in our best interest
  3. Agency– (How much motivation do we have in going after that goal?)
  • Rigorous self-isolation and hygiene to be followed at home, with self and others
  • Thorough planning of keeping work and home life balance which could falter given kids and spouse being at home- look for quick fix solutions and plan your day in advance,
  • Allowing moments of letdown- nothing beats stress like exercise even at home,
  • There is a difference in snacking and mindless binging both in spreading news and eating. Avoid Junk from everywhere, munch on something healthy(apple and a book) once in a while
  • Genuinely look within on doing things you always wanted to do but couldn’t because of lack of time; to start with spending least five minutes in silence (sit in one place and focus on your heartbeat),

It is possible that we won’t get everything right step by step as explained in theory, but even if we reach halfway in that attempt, we bring back some satisfaction of making that honest effort to hold self and significant others steady at times when we needed our selves the most.

Optimism is not only a theoretical construct, it is something we need right now, we need to be more hopeful to return back to that normal life’s madness because we have lost ourselves somewhere there. This Pandemic will change us (hopefully) for better, pause and think how we can transform ourselves when we got to spend the maximum time alone with self.

“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out“

John Wooden

Globalization at Peril?

Faculty, General Blog, IILM University

With buzz like ‘Just-in-Time’, ‘Comparative Advantage’, ‘Outsourcing’ disrupted the supply chain in the name of profits and efficiency. No doubt the effort taken paid back well for the last few decades. But in the wake the outbreak of the virus, the entire supply chain has crippled and all major industries and economies are facing the brunt of over-dependence. China a manufacturing hub of the world and it gets most of its machinery from Germany. As China is unable to set in the manufacturing cycle, demand for new machinery from Germany has reduced. Germany is the major player in the EU, the impact of slumber in trade is felt in all EU countries. Such a phenomenon is called a domino effect wherein the fragility of supply chains is exposed, a major concern of globalism. The worst-hit industries are automobiles, electronics and more importantly drugs and medical supplies a crucial element for fighting the pandemic.

Scholars cite that the current situation of over-dependence and interconnectedness has reached an inflection point. They predict that from now the process of globalization may change its course and multilateral organizations may have to restructure their bargain. Certainly, nations like India and its neighborhoods will be the worst hit as they have always accrued the benefit of globalization in terms of employment, investments, etc. Countries may have to revamp their strategies to adapt to new realities keeping in mind the stakes on the economy at large.

Though globalization is inevitable, going back to its business as usual form post-pandemic recovery is highly unlikely. However, a sudden exodus from multilateral cooperation will certainly have greater ramifications that need thoughtful consideration. On the contrary, instead of fallback, it will be pragmatic for economies to restructure and prioritize. Targeted restructuring can reduce over-dependence and push for better control in stabilizing economies. Globalization is no doubt a necessary evil however the question is are we playing the right cards with it? Our focus was only to channelize factors of production across borders which is proving very dangerous.

The Power of Poetry

General Blog, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM University, , , , ,

Poetry has survived and survived really well…It is one of the finest and powerful forms of writing. In short, poetry is creativity in disguise. It teaches us to communicate in a compelling way, thereby enhance learning. Poetry is about expressing those thoughts and emotions we keep the most suppressed. An integral part of writing poetry is to be honest with ourselves about what we feel in order to write anything worth reading. It’s about connecting our hearts and our minds to ourselves and our environs. It’s about finding peace.

Poetry is one of those skills that will remain in use for your entire life no matter what you end up doing professionally. It gives us a salubrious outlet for pouring our emotions. Reading original poetry aloud can foster trust and empathy in a community, while also accentuating speaking and listening skills. There are many of us  who don’t like writing essays but may like poetry, with its dearth of fixed rules and its kinship with rap. For such people, poetry can become a doorway to other forms of writing. All forms of writing benefits from the powerful and succinct phrases found in poems.

Additionally, poetry can help us to learn how to utilize grammar in our own writing by studying how poets do—and do not—abide by conventional writing rules in their work. Poetry can teach writing and grammar rules by showing what happens when poets strip them away or distort them for effect for example; Dickinson often capitalizes common nouns and uses dashes instead of commas to show sudden shifts in focus in his poetry, similarly, Agee uses colons to create dramatic, speech-like pauses. The more we read different poets, the more we can carve out our own style. The point of reading a poem is not to try to decipher it. Still, that quantifiable process of elucidation is precisely what needs to be encouraged often in lieu of curating a powerful experience through literature.

So, don’t wait…reach for the pen, and let go of those things that have been encumbering your freedom. Read poetry with your heart and let it affect you in one of the most defining ways.

 

 

 

Reinventing Pedagogy

Faculty, General Blog, IILM University, , , , ,

Reinventing  Pedagogy

Every challenge is an opportunity, they say. I cannot begin to imagine how a deadly virus could be a game-changer for the humanity at large. These are trying times for all of us, but we need to accept that what began as an alternative approach to ensure business continuity is most likely to become the new normal. COVID-19 has brought along a reality check – that education technology that delivers prodigious content and engages students and teachers has never been more vital.

Corporates have been using online video collaboration platforms to keep business going, but for an industry like Education, this is the time for upskilling in a way that we continue to provide learning opportunities and other critical services to our students. This is the time to reflect and think beyond the challenges of the next few weeks.

Today there is an application for just about anything in education. A lot of us are deploying the best in AI, VR and AR and they are demonstrating the power to serve as a teacher in cases where students need to be isolated. However, we should not need a crisis like COVID 19 to rethink how education can function; because students, no matter where they are and how old they are should be able to make their way through their education and work journeys with the benefit of superior technical innovations that can more seamlessly identify, respond, correct and expose them to deep learning.

Let’s hope that when COVID-19 is in our rear-view mirrors, the innovations and technology that is helping our students today, continue to offer adaptable, online formats to educate our bright young minds. We should focus on developing our online infrastructure and have everything available to us and also because it’s not complicated. We need to change the age-old structure of imparting high-quality education that requires a face-to-face format.

While we wait with a lot of uncertainty for now, but there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s keep moving forward with all the resources that we, fortunately, have with us. Let’s together fight and emerge more stronger and consistent, because this too shall pass…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPORT-O-MANIA-2019

SPORT-O-MANIA 2019

Campus Life, Events, Faculty, IILM Stories, IILM University

14th March, 2019

And here we go, coming in one of the most exciting and most entertaining collegiate of sports event, SPORTS-O-MANIA 2019 as part of MOSAIC, the annual festival of IILM University. SOPRTS-O-MANIA is the best platform for the sports enthusiasts to showcase their talent and discover their true potential for sports.

The trill, sportsman spirit, the competition, the stress, the outbursts, the friendships and of course the beautiful memories and lots of fun, it was the perfect package.

The entire first day of mosaic, 2019 was devoted to myriad of sports events. Preparation started good number of days before the D-day and the entire college converted into sports ground. Everybody feels sporty, light and active. The volunteers even wore IILM T-shirts to keep the spirit on, and at the same time cheering up for the IIL M teams.

The action began soon after the lamp lighting by the student core team members and the management on day 1, with the massive crowd thronging at the basket ball court, loud and proud cheering up for the home teams and to witness the first event of sports-o-mania. Once the matches began, the air was filled with cheering and tons of encouragement for the teams.  This was just the beginning; the sports club had planned lot more the entire day.

Large number of teams from other colleges participated, setting the whole energized and competitive atmosphere. The spirit to win was seen everywhere and the whole atmosphere seem electrified.

The basket ball tournament ended in a heart break in hard-fought loss in the finals to the champions from North Campus University. While in table tennis, carom and slow cycling, our IILM teams blew out their hapless opponent in a lopsided victory.

And as soon as these games get over, quick prize ceremony began. And then, the most awaited event began fun cricket, where maximum participation took place. With some twists and new rules and regulation this soft ball tournament, in this sports both boys and girls showed their spirit. The entire tournament was on knockout basis and each team showed passion, energy and aggression to qualify for the next level. Everyone showed their skills in form of batting and bowling and the huge sixes, amazing strokes and rattling of stamps. With semis into the play, high pressure moments and the joy of winning on faces of team members were visible to everyone. The final match, the ultimate game was reserved for the next day where both the teams from Pg 1 batch played and ‘IILM Warriors’ stood victory.
With all the matches getting over and the victors decided, everyone waits anxiously for the prize ceremony. Where all the winners and runners up were applauded with trophies, medals certificate and of course cash prizes.

The event ends on the note of thrill and excitement bidding good bye to the day.
This time Mosaic’19 raised the bar even higher, with close games, sportsmanship, enthralling performances and overall good vibes, giving all those who attended good two day to remember.

Contributor: DIVISHA AGARWAL (MBA 2018-20)
Faculty Coordinator: CA. VISHAL GOEL


How to Mindfully Develop Your Self-Confidence

Career Development (Placement), General Blog, IILM University, , , ,

Why focus on self-confidence?

How many things in your life would you be doing differently if you were thinking and acting from a place of deep self-confidence? The capacity for authentic self-confidence offers many benefits, for example we become more creative and expressive, we find access to greater capacity for focus, mental stamina and energy, we experience greater peace of mind, and we experience life as fundamentally enjoyable and playful.

What is self-confidence?

We will all have our own ideas of what self-confidence is, but the definition I normally work with (following Nathaniel Branden’s definition of self-esteem) is that self -confidence consists of two distinct parts:

  • Self-worth – The belief that I am worthy of happiness, pleasure, enjoyment, well-being, success & so on and..
  • Self-efficacy – The sense that I have the capacity to be successful in the face of life’s challenges. Even if I currently lack the skills to be successful in a particular task, self-efficacy is a confidence in my ability to learn those skills as and when necessary.

If you lack a fundamental sense of your self-worth or of your capacity for self-efficacy, then your self-confidence is going to be built upon shaky ground!

Mindful methods for developing your self-confidence:

With the above definitions in mind, we can then start to adopt a multi-faceted approach to developing self-confidence, here are a few suggestions:

1. Connect and nourish your present self-confidence – No one completely lacks self-confidence, look for times and places in your life where you have felt and experienced self-confidence. Revisit them mentally, take an inventory of them, recall how it felt. Then look at how you can translate those experiences into feelings and attitudes of self-confidence in the face of your present life challenges.

2. Know what self-confidence feels like in the body – Practice holding your body and feeling it in a way that communicates confidence and self-assurance to your mind. Our posture is often communicating all sorts of messages to us psychologically, so we need to take advantage of this rather than being victimized by it!

3. Make friends with the parts of you that are not self-confident – As the famous Gestalt therapist Fritz Pearls said ‘As long as you fight a symptom it will get worse’ (I recommend meditating on that sentence for a long time!) Open to and get close with your fears, your vulnerabilities, the parts of you feeling fragmented. Care for them, experience them, open to them, allow them to become the basis of your self-confidence, rather than the things you are trying to escape from by developing your self-confidence. This needs careful thought, reflection and experience to understand, but it is super-important to get right!

4. Find role models for your self-confidence – Find real life examples of people who are appropriate and inspiring role models for the type of self-confidence you want to have. Study them carefully and draw conscious inspiration from them.

5. Do something each day to engage your self-confidence – Do something manageable each day to test and develop your self-confidence experientially and in real-time.

6. Practice mindful framing – ‘Last month I was depressed, and this month I’m still depressed’ sounds like a bit of a failure. ‘Last month I was very depressed and although this month I am still depressed I feel less depressed, and there have been days when I have actually felt good’ sounds like progress and a cause of boosting our self-confidence. How we frame what happens to us mentally is crucial in terms of whether we experience something as supporting our self-confidence or not!

Conclusion:

If you want to make this article a practical exploration, you could take one of the above six suggestions per day as a point of mindful focus for the next three weeks or so. See where it takes your own experience of Mindful Self-Confidence!

INTERNATIONAL B-PLAN CHAMPIONSHIP @ IIM KOZIKHODE

Events, Faculty, IILM Stories, IILM University, ,

New year bought new and unparalleled opportunities for some of the PG1 students where they got a chance to visit the top management institute of India i.e. IIM KOZIKHODE.

Later in the pervious year a workshop on personal branding & entrepreneurship skills was held in collaboration with Makeintern in IILM Gurugram campus itself where almost every PG 1 student participated.  Top 5 students were selected to further represent our college on national level, those students were Akshat Tyagi, Atishay Sobti, Radhika Mishra, Riti Sharma and Simran sarna from PG 1st year.

So under the guidance of  Vishal sir, team was all set to participate in 6th International B-plan championship by Makeintern which was to be held at IIM Kozhikode. Every year teams from reputed B schools come and participate in this event. This year teams from 50 Bschools from all over India came all in, and one such team was from ours i.e. from IILM University.

The dates were finalized i.e. from 1st feb till 4th feb and our team was all set to fly to IIM K with their B-plan model on IWMS i.e Integrated waste management system named BinTraq . Kerela surely a tropical paradise and to add on to that the campus of IIM K was like its own little world situated away from the city and on a hill top and one could see the city lights from above.

Day 1 at IIM k was a magical concert night with legendry musical duo Salim-Sulaiman. It was a good time to break the ice and interact with other teams as well as with the students of IIM Kozhikode, for that moment everyone forgot that they came for competition and was enjoying the moment all together.

The next day was the first round of the competition in which each team was given 5 min to pitch their B-PLAN to the jury followed by the questions from the jury itself. There were in total of 50 team from reputed B Schools and our team from IILM university qualified the first round. We were among the top 16 teams that qualified for the next round which was really a proud moment for the students of IILM university.

The final round was the brief explanation of your b-plan, every team gave a tough competition to each other. Some teams even bought the working model of their business model and some even made detailed videos. This time each team was given just 10 min to briefly explain their business plan.

At the end of the day results were announced and top 3 teams were picked which was from Pune, Hyderabad and Bhopal. Our team didn’t come in top 3 but we got appreciation from panellists, it was a good exposure for the us, and next time they will come back stronger for the competition.

We would like to thank the faculty coordinator CA Vishal Goel sir for helping in organising such a wonderful event and for being a torchbearer for the students during the course of the event. Such opportunities really help students to get out of their comfort zone and explore the world outside their college.

Contributors:                                                                                                                      Faculty Coordinator:

PG1 2018-2020 Batch                                                                                                                 CA. Vishal Goel

Riti Sharma, 

Akshat Tyagi

Romancing the Balance Sheet ‘For anyone who owns,runs or manages a business’.

General Blog, IILM University

Anil Lamba’s book, Romancing the Balance Sheet, shines like a laser beam for anyone who owns, runs or manages a business. It is a self help book for the new business tycoons.

Romancing the Balance Sheet is a book with latest edition of 2013  written by Anil Lamba who is a Chartered Accountant, International Corporate Trainer and Financial Literacy Activist. This book is a well refined version of various online training sessions covering diverse aspects of Finance Management for all those who have faced challenging situations while experiencing finance for the first time. Anil Lamba is also known as author of the bestselling books like Balance Sheet va Finance Samjun Ghetana.

This book is divided into fifteen chapters and is further subdivided into six sections. Each section has been well explained by the author covering all viewpoints of problem solving that may arise at present or in future.

Section 1 talks about getting your basics right which states that even if you are a non finance person even then you can easily deal with financial statements and also it gives us a glimpse about what really profit is and how inventory impacts profit.Section 2 deals with the concept of managing our finances better.It mentions about two golden financial management rules ,the first rule being “Never invest your money without ensuring that the assets you acquire can generate a return which is at-least equal to the cost of your capital” and the second rule being “Invest your money in such a way that the assets will generate an inflow of funds before the liabilities demand an outflow”. Thereby Anil Lamba suggests that if a person goes by these golden rules he will be able to manage his finances better. In further sections Mr. Lamba describes how an individual can maximize his profit as we can see that in today’s era it has become important to get profits and also to maintain assets and liabilities in a business. Similar to this, Break even analysis is also an important concept which is a point where there is no profit no loss and hence its analysis is very important to carefully understand about the business.

During my course at IILM, I have covered this book in elective “Corporate Restructuring” in 2nd year which is a very good book of around 200 pages. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in managing or running a business. This book helps us not only to know about the balance sheet but also how to prepare the fund flow statement and maximize profits in our business.