Anticipating good things to come is a pleasure without bounds. Even when I was a school-going kid, the most exciting days were just before joining the new academic year. What would be the subjects…who would be teaching….which new books…so many things made up our chit-chat points among friends.  And I see that happening every year even today, but in a different way.

Of course the medium of interaction with friends now is savvy with technology.  There are social networking groups, specialist portals and what not.  Very often when new students join our institute they would have been in touch with senior students who would have set the tone of expectations.  Biased or not, they become the starting points in the student-lifecycle. We, as teachers, therefore have tasks cut-out with not only meeting those unknown expectations but also chalk out plans to learn, relearn and also unlearn.  Nonetheless it is probably as exciting for teachers as the new students.  Because teachers too have that pleasure of anticipation… sometimes greater expectations of what their students would become!  And that pleasure as teachers certainly has no bound!

Recently at our Advisory Board meeting, one of our eminent members, Vipin Tyagi, wondered how  we reconcile the huge gap between the workplace of students’ dreams and the reality of mundane table and chairs they would occupy.   Indeed, reality check is an important aspect of learning process.  An IT B-School like SCIT can only give a glimpse of life but one needs to be rooted to the ground.

Nonetheless it is worth sharing an experience as suggested by another eminent member Suhas Kelkar, what I recounted to Mr.Tyagi.

Community work in various forms is a part of curricula although often students wonder why it is a part of B-School programme.  In 2003-04, as a part of the curricula, we had arranged a weekend trip to Ralegan Siddhi, a model ‘reengineered’ village in the heartland of draught and water-starved Ahmednagar district near Pune and architected by the social activist Anna Hazare.  The village is a marvel of what one can do to uplift.

A batch of our students, a busload with our enthusiast Registrar Mr. Mahadev, went there with our mission of “give & take”.  What we had to give was our knowledge to the students and teachers of the unique school where admissions are only for those who had failed.  Our students trained in communication and with the fresh idea of sharing their knowledge conducted computer classes and were really impressed by the concept of the school.  But ‘take’ part was the one that remained imprinted in my mind.

A road-building project was going on at Ralegan Siddhi mostly with labour of love. Our student batch of nearly 30, were given a small part of the road to be built.  For two hours our students were digging and building.  At the end of the time, the work was measured in money value by the village office.  All the work that the batch of 30 carried out for two hours had earned meagre Rs.49.00!  It was shocking but an eye opener not just to our students who would normally sit on ivory towers enjoying cool air-conditioned breeze and drawing fat salaries, but also others who had not seen ground reality from close quarters. The take away was far more valuable than what we gave or what we earned.

There is no better way to know reality than to experience it!

Truly, I feel, just like my students, the joy of getting an excellent grade. Our University, Symbiosis International University, was being assessed by NAAC, the accreditation wing of UGC of India.  As I posted earlier, the peer review process was a discovery and in a way an internal journey of what we are.  And what’s more, 13 Symbiosis institutes went through a similar process to get a combined grade ‘A’.  This achievement was an all-round score as there were interactions with faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents. This has been a totally unifying process instilling new enthusiasm to excel further!

Yet, our journey of quality just begins! But, recognition makes one run!

January and February have been so full of activities that my blog post has remained behind.

Certainly one of the things that stands out, is a student club called Eklavya, totally initiated by students and an act of reaching out to people around.  Some of our theatre-oriented students got the bug and also got others enthused about street plays. Of course conscience prevailed.  A club was born and named Eklavya.   As they say, success leads to success.  SCIT’s street play “Every vote counts!” in the intercollegiate competition at SID, was the winner of the first prize. We all loved to watch it at our National seminar.  It really made us think.

They were at Mood-I, SIIB, SCMHRD….. Soon, fired by the response, Eklavya organized a short festival of street plays just for the students of the campus in our beautiful auditorium.  No need to say it was jam packed.  I must say Symbi students know what to appreciate when they see.

Eklavya is again taking off! Great going, Guys!

January and February have been so full of activities that my blog post has remained behind.

Certainly one of the things that stands out, is a student club called Eklavya, totally initiated by students and an act of reaching out to people around.  Some of our theatre-oriented students got the bug and also got others enthused about street plays. Of course conscience prevailed.  A club was born and named Eklavya.   As they say, success leads to success.  SCIT’s street play “Every vote counts!” in the intercollegiate competition at SID, was the winner of the first prize. We all loved to watch it at our National seminar.  It really made us think.

They were at Mood-I, SIIB, SCMHRD….. Soon, fired by the response, Eklavya organized a short festival of street plays just for the students of the campus in our beautiful auditorium.  No need to say it was jam packed.  I must say Symbi students know what to appreciate when they see.

Eklavya is again taking off! Great going, Guys!

There is no single way to give a pointer. But I can try to put experiences and achievements of the past students together to give some directions.

Typically there are two types of interest areas: 1. Management-oriented and Technology-interested or 2. Management-interested but Technology-Oriented.

The first type is largely successful with some traits of a personality. Not that these traits are not useful in the other type but prominence of these can bring out results faster. This may suit a person who is somewhat extrovert and likes to meet clients.  Profiles in this require being with customers and building relations. Having a flair to convince or influence will be an added advantage.  Some of these traits are useful for streams like ‘IT Business Management’ ‘Information Systems & Security’ ‘Systems’ but more importantly an eye for detail and patience to get clear understanding from customer pave the way to success. Technology understanding is crucial and skills across technologies & methodologies bring value. It requires an interest to go beyond your own domain and understand customer’s domain and understand external environment.  A flair to understand financials just as technology would boost the grasp of customer requirements.

Although most of the personality traits are not restricted to the first variety, the second category relies a lot on technical strengths. Both ‘Networks & IT Infrastructure’ and ‘Software Solutions & Management’ require thorough technical knowledge and good hands-on experience of using it, in addition to managerial skills.  Any techno-managerial role where technical solutions are handled, understanding of the subject plays a key role. In all streams analytical abilities, clarity of thought and a facility with English language is certainly are important talents.

Of course these are general characteristics and always there are exceptions and success stories.  Many graduates have changed tracks.  Those in ITBM have gone into Security; some in Software Solutions have gone into selling hardware.  One of the important aspects is that the foundation received at SCIT has helped them to choose a path and make a career!

This is a question put to me by scores and scores of prospective students.

Is SCIT the right choice for you? Well, at the cost of repeating myself, I must again express my views. As I have always maintained, decision to go in for a programme should be in accordance with one’s own plan for the future, own interest areas and capabilities.  Choosing a programme to fit into that is the right way of proceeding and choosing a professional programme. 

I would recommend, check out the programmes and its contents on the website.  Look closely at possible profiles one would be getting ready for in case a particular programme is chosen.  Now comes the important part.  Look within. Are these the kind of roles you will be happy working in, through most of your career? What are your interests, talents & capabilities? Are you interested in learning new skills that this profile may demand?

Once you have zeroed in on what you want to do, check out its requirements. Of course there are other practical issues in this competitive world. The first is the SNAP score that is a prerequisite to SCIT. Call for GD/PI is heavily dependent on the number of applicants and their scores.  The only guiding figures are from last year which may or may not be a reflection for this year. Check out Admission pages on www.scit.edu. It is important that one should identify alternatives. If you are not in a position to decide on a particular programme, you may apply for more than one.

Yet, if the call of your talent or passion is a particular programme, whatever may be your score it is worth a try.

Advice from elders, professionals, peers of course helps.  But in my mind it is the self evaluation that would play an important role.

So best of luck!

Since the SNAP Test held on Dec. 21, 2008, I have a deluge of mails. Most are concerned about whether their scores are good enough for admission to SCIT. And also they want to know which stream they should apply to.

One of the most important things in life is to know what you want to do.  As the Chinese proverb goes, if you do not know what destination you want to reach you can take any road. Well that pretty well sums up how we should find our own path.  First and foremost, it is your own interest, passion and possible vision of your future.  At times we are driven by marks and scores.  Yes, they too are important and sometimes we may not have requisite numbers. At such times we need to have alternatives.

SCIT website describes possible careers for each stream.  See if you like any of the typical profiles.  Check your interest and aspirations. Identify alternatives that suit you and your capabilities.  It is common knowledge many would like to choose a career that offers high-value pay packet.   The fact is pay packages are driven by individual performances although entry point packages become determining factors which in actual fact are not the right indicators.  One who loves his job never works for a day and keeps earning.  So go by the call of your heart or rather your talent and make the most of it.

That brings me to another point. What is the right SNAP score to make it to SCIT? Honestly it can not be predicted. It is a relative score and depends on the number of applicants for that stream.  The only benchmark that one can look at is the cut-off marks of last year.  But that is only indicative.

So, go by the call of your heart and take the plunge!

This was truly amazing. Every face that I saw entering the campus had a broad beaming smile. Alumni from Mumbai and Pune came on December 6, and it was really a joyful reunion.  SCIT has been holding such Meet’s at various metros in India.  But this time Mumbai alumni had a special request.  They wanted to be back on the campus and savour those old memories.

They were just glowing stories of successes. “Mam, I am among the graduates of the highly rated institutes.  But I can tell you that they still have to learn a lot while I can start delivering”. It was Saurabh working at one of the top five IT companies who was proudly announcing.  “ Mam, can we revise the 45-day average time that SCIT graduates are  supposed to take before delivering in the revenue-earning streams? Because, most of us really start on billable projects just in a week.” Kedar, a graduate of Batch 2006, was questioning with a lot of pride. His experience of getting into the grooves of his company quickly and being a part of the team was a replication of experience of several others. Mitesh of Batch 2008 too found that though he was the only fresher in a team of 96 experienced professionals of his company, he was not only able to make value addition but at times was surprised that many experienced professionals came to learn from him about some nuances.

I can only say every Alumni Meet takes my deep satisfaction of making industry-ready professionals higher and higher.

May their tribe grow!

Much as the disquiet of the Mumbai massacre aftermath disturbs my mind, life must go on. There are small things that cheer you and nothing better than the new things in the environs around.

Innovations happen in small things, I believe.  In fact people with passion make it happen.   Even in this internet era, when academic worth is seen in a library, our Librarian whose genuine love flows through SCIT Library is often at pains to see that more visitors keep coming.  Of course, the Library does have PC’s in position for checking out books or Internet browsing. But the lament still remains at low readership, even though every month brings in a good number of new publications.

This is where something is happening at SCIT.   Students are quite eager to see who is the “User of the Month” announced by our Library staff.  Just as they see news stories about the IT industry readily available on the bulletin board… a human search engine at work.   But most interestingly, the real movement of books has started when a new display stand “Have you seen these books before?” was kept at a prominent place.  The Library staff identifies non-moving or slow moving books on the contemporary topics and bring them on the display stand. And strangely enough these books not only see the light of the day but also get read. Quite often, in any Library one can find a number of books just remaining on the shelves from the day they come in. This novel idea has been a real kick to see these books moving. Isn’t this an innovation? Every time I visit our Library this display stand brings a great smile on my face.

Recently one more activity has taken root.  The Library has started “Book Review” meetings in its environs.  Whether students, or Faculty members, all are welcome to participate. Initially the numbers were small.  Now they are slowly increasing. 

Hopefully someday SCIT Library can think of removing their innovative display stand “Have you seen this book before?”!

Innovation in small measures makes the workplace more interesting.