7 Steps Journey: Fresher to Professional

After successfully completing BE (Computer Science & Engineering), 20 years before, during my Fresher's days - I realised & learned many things through self-experience. I always dreamed that there should be a framework or journey guide which will help & guide other Fresh Graduates in a more simpler manner to embark on their career journeys.

* This journey guide is like a programming language
* Write your own career code
* You can't Copy & Paste
* Add your own logic with your education code imported
* Compile the career program on real world platform
* Run your career program 
* See the output & show to others        

Here are some journey guiding steps those worked & working for me:

1. Face the New World

• Out of College: The golden years are over now. Your education armed you with some wings and provided a launch pad for you - now let's fly.
• New World: You need to fly in an all-new sky - which is full of global competition & world talent. So you need to really gear up & buckle up.?New world, new place, new friends, new learning & new fun/challenges may be complementing or complaining your journey.?
• Chemical Locha: Post education Chemical Locha bring a change in your mindset & thinking - we suddenly feel grownups and want to be self-sustained and be on our own. We want to earn our own or do something different. This is quite natural, don't worry about it.
• Confusion ?? Confusion ?? : During initial days we are like an innocent kid who lost his father's finger in a big crowd. What should I do? How should I do? Where to go? Whom to follow? Can someone help & guide? What is the success formula? Am I lucky? How long is my struggle? And what not? Confusion ?? confusion ?? solution ??? ??? ????? ... :(

2. Self-Discipline & SMART Goal Setting

• ?Time Schedule: It's very difficult to be self-motivated.?Prepare your own timetable - allocate time for all your activities throughout the day. Try to put together 3 months or 6 months plan together considering all key activities like festivals, family functions, and other commitments - that way it will give you a good idea where you are heading.
• SMART Goal Setting: Once you are self-motivated - set your own goals to achieve. Your goals should be SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Prepare an action plan for to realize your goals. Plan your further Education, Certifications & other Career Courses aligned with your life goals. Please don't just get dragged with the crowd, do complete analysis on your own and go for it and take it to success.
• Enjoy New Life: As mentioned above you should have a smart action plan to achieve your SMART Goals thereby giving good & considerable time to recharge yourself. Develop and flourish your hobbies and pursue them to the next levels. This will energize you to do & stretch more.
• Expectation Setting: Where do you want to see yourself in next 3-6 Months & in 3-6 Years? What type of Job Profile suits you? Job or Own Business? In the initial days, you can hop between streams. You can make your hands dirty and take your own experience of doing different things. Take a decision and stick to it for some time with 100%. Don't compare yourself with others who are succeeding & shining. Everybody has their own days to shine.

3. Preparation

• Jack of ALL & Master of SOME: Quick principle of success - you should be 'Jack of all and master of some areas'. Make yourself familiar with multiple areas, topics, technologies, subjects and domains (Finance, Healthcare, Insurance, Hi-Tech, Media, Telecom etc…) through reading, discussing and other channels.?Based on your interest try to be a master of some. This will make you suitable & perfect candidate for many opportunities out in the market.
• Strong Foundations & Basics: We all know & agree that foundation needs to be strong to put a sky rising tower on top of it. Clarify your basic key concepts which you don't need to explicitly prepare for any further. Those basic things should become so obvious that you can spend your efforts & energy on more complex things rather than simple things.
• Current Affairs: It's not only Civil Services aspirants but you too, need to be very well aware of what's going on in your own state, country & globally in your areas of interest. What's the latest innovation happening? What challenges & problems the world is trying to solve? This will give you enough inputs to make a decision in terms of shaping your future & career.
• Buzz Words: You are in a new world - try to get acquainted with buzzwords. You should try to understand the detailed background about buzzwords and most importantly try to use them in your interactions. These buzzwords might be in terms of Diploma Courses and Certifications - pursue them and get accredited for those.

4. Preparation ++

• Communication Skills: C to S - Communication is the key to Success. You are part of global competition and techno age where communication is the most important element of your skillets. To justify & convey your technical & other expertise you need strong conversational skills. You should learn & acquire both verbal & non-verbal communication skills early in the game. Tons of material available on the internet which can help you build these foundations.
• Email Skills: Written communication skill can be easily tested, verified & exposed to the world through your emails and social media posts. Again for recruiters, HR and other connections with whom you never met, your email content will help them to envision your personality. Get familiar with Email Etiquette and impart those in your day to day life and make it part of your obvious skills.
• Multiple Perspectives: Learn new perspectives for looking at things. Try to understand the different point of views for the same things and then wisely make yours. Start handling situations & social pressures with these perspectives.
• Mentors: As rightly mentioned by Dr. Anand Deshpande - CEO of Persistent Systems in one of his speeches - 4 Types of Mentor relationships Dronacharya - Eklavya - Your inspirational figures & Idols whom you can't meet but read & hear from various channels???Trusted Advisers - Your go-to guys to bounce ideas and give pros & cons analysis for you - your friends & family can be part of it??Domain Experts - Expert in subject topic or field???Krishna - Arjuna - Your savior who can solve your problems & crisis But at the end the battle is yours & yours only ... :)

5. What's happening around?

• Social Media : With smart phones & cheap data plans the whole world is literally in your hands and at your fingertips. Now it up to you how to make most of it and harness the power to its fullest extent. Join right What's app, Facebook & LinkedIn groups. Participate proactively & actively in those groups there by asking questions, sharing information and commenting/answering other member's questions. Listen to TED, Webinar & other useful & relevant YouTube videos. Some inspirational videos will make good & ever lasting impact on you.

      
Keep your eyes & ears open and understand the global trends, 
where the markets are heading and analyse the overall impact 
to your career plans & adapt accordingly.        

• Attend Events : When you are proactively & positively listening to social channels then you will come across various useful events, meetups, corporate events, innovation competitions & other social gatherings which will help you to become Jack of all & get different perspectives.
• Networking : The benefits of networks we are enjoying through internet and we admire the power of internet as soon as we are connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data. :) Similarly there is an importance of individual networking through various channels - social, remote or in person. This networking can help in many ways and those networks will be forever for you. Follow networking best practices and be proactive in maintaining the bond.
• Walk-ins & Drives: You are preparing, active on social media, attending events and openly networking all this results in getting information about various Recruitment Events & Drives and other Entrepreneurs Opportunities. Try to prepare and plan to attend those based on your set goals.

6. Hunting for a Job

• Resume : A resume is a document used by a person to present their backgrounds and skills. Resumes can be used for a variety of reasons. This is virtually YOU sitting next to reading person so try to follow all resume writing best practices to present your image. Try to include all key information in your resume which will give right weight-age to it. Look for samples and make your own unique. Use right naming conventions & format options while sharing.
• Practice it & Script it : Prepare smart - have standard interview question list with their answers ready. Have your questions ready for all rounds like technical, HR and other. Make sure you align your preparation based on the said position and role.?Ask your friends/roommates to conduct mock interviews for you. Pull up your socks & sleeves to prepare the level best.
• Understand JD & Employer : Carefully go through the Job Description, if it's available. Also go through the Employer website to understand the company's services, offerings, locations, management team etc. This will give a good perspective about the Employer and reduce obvious questions and confusion for the interview. Try to collect as much as information about the Employer from all possible public information sources like LinkedIn, Current Employees and Glass Door for company & management reviews by current & past employees.
• Interview Rounds : Clarify all your initial queries with the HR person in touch from the Employer. Prepare for all different interview rounds like Coding Round, Written Test, Puzzle Test, Logical & Analytical Tests, Personal Technical Interview, Group Discussion, Multi-Panel Round and HR Interview etc.?Many rounds will be on same day and you need to be prepared & ready for all.

7. Cracking the 1st Nut & on and …

• 1st Offer Letter : After all this smart & hard work success will be yours only. You need to cherish the moment and give a pat on back to yourself. Ready all the clauses from the offer letter carefully. If you can't understand some of it then approach your friends & mentors to decode meanings of those clauses. Consult all pros & cons of accepting it taking things forward.
• 1st Job : You got an opportunity everything worked very well - you feel yourself lucky & privileged - off course you are. :) You took hard efforts and your dedication helped you to get here. Take a pause, celebrate it and plan to spend considerable tenure. Your actual on job training started now - you have to learn new tools & techniques among new people.
• Continuous Engineering?: You already stood out from rest of your competition by displaying unique strengths & spark. Now you need to continue it further this will be ongoing continuous process forever. Follow similar path to shine and it will take you for an interesting ride in your professional life.?You did it professionally and these skills will help you in shaping your personal life as well. You can seamlessly manage & balance your professional & personal life there by shining and achieving all targeted goals in Personal & Professional Life.
• Miles to go … : I have promises to keep,?And miles to go before I sleep,??And miles to go before I sleep

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