Hello
My name is A J Balasubramanian, for my friends I am simply "AJB". After graduating as Mechanical Engineer from College of Engineering, Guindy, in 1984, I worked for a brief period with Defence Research and Development Organization's (DRDO) battle tank R&D unit CVRDE near Chennai. Without knowing the risk of starting a company, I started a high-tech start-up with my friends. After experiencing both successes and failures, I quit my partnership in 1997. Then I started working for Internet and IT companies. Currently I am working with a US based Health Care Software product Company, in their Product Development Center in Chennai, India. During the last 25 years after passing out, by chance I had an opportunity to continuously work in recruiting and developing fresh graduates from college and had developed a liking for learning more about recruitment of freshers and developing them inside the organization. Although I progressed within the organization to senior levels, I never missed the opportunity to identify, evaluate, interview, test and recruit fresh graduates. I also had lots of opportunities to watch them grow inside the organization.
Knowing the nature of my job, many of my friends and relatives, approached me for help in guiding their wards for different things, ranging from which course to choose, or which college to go to or which company to select in placement etc., I have been advising them based on my experience and knowledge in the field. But as a recruiter, I also realized that despite the availability of large pool of candidates, companies find it difficult to get the right talent. Government, NGOs, Industry bodies and Educational institutions express great concerns about the quality of candidates, their employ-ability and the methods of evaluation / selection by firms as well as the potential shortage of talents required by the industry.
I feel that these issues cannot be addressed as a simple issue with any short-term solution. However, solutions to these complex problems need not be complex. Encouraged by my publisher friend, I have set out to come up with this book, which would start as a blog. In these columns, I am planning to address the following issues and propose some solutions based on my experience as well as my observations. Some of these ideas have already been applied with reasonable success and some may be experimental in nature.
I am planning to cover these following Topics in this book. This book and this blog will remain as a draft. I am also interested in getting the feedback of students, parents , Placement officers, HR Managers, and Policy makers to come and share their views in the comments column. We can co-create the book as we go.
The following is the tentative index for my book
Introduction
Target Audience for this book
- Students in Schools, Graduate, Engineering and Diploma
- Parents who want to help their Sons and Daughters
- Placement Officers and Educationalist
- Planners and Policy Makers
- Research Scholars
- Companies and Recruiters
The Role of Jobs in Economic Progress
- Unemployment rate as a critical measure of National well-being
- How growth and Society’s health is linked to job creation and sustainability
- What creates jobs and what destroys jobs
- Increasing role of Technology in job creation
- The need to learn
- Employability - What it means?
- Capability and Competence
- Role of Education
- Quality of Education
- Mistakes in Measurements
- The Need to change
Becoming Employable
- The Four components of Competence building
- IQ - Verbal, Math and Thinking skills
- Soft Skills
- Intent / Ambition and Attitude
- Academics and Hard Skills
- How Primary and Secondary Schools play important role in building basic competence
- How to bridge the gap?
- Role of English
- The Value of Reading
- Communication Skill - Listening, Comprehending,Thinking and Presence
- Mindfulness
- Key Behavioural traits needed and Developing them
Selecting a Career Path
- Modelling a successful career
- Where to start?
- Self evaluation - identifying your strengths and weaknesses
- Match Making - Talent vs skills
- Building on strengths
- Eliminating weakness
- Orienting towards a Career
Researching Career Opportunities
- Focusing on Future
- Let passion be your driver not fear.
- Hype-curve and avoiding pitfalls
- Catch 22 - How to find opportunities to get trained in new areas
- Mass Vs Niche
- Being at the Top
- Managing when you are at the middle or bottom
What to do after you select a Career?
- Focus
- Creating a Road Map
- Building relevant competence
- Bridging Gaps
Role of Intent and Goals
- Wish, Desire and Ambition
- Alignment
- Narrowing your choice - and need
- Starting early
- Course Correction
Factors that influence
- Nature Vs Nurture
- Peer Groups
- Place of Residence
- Influence from Institution
- What Families can do?
- What Schools, Colleges and Teachers can do?
The Biological and Neurological Problems of Students
- Why most students lose track ?
- How to bring them back to track?
- Mindset - A great idea on developing people’s potential
-
Extraordinary Competency Development
- Outliers
- 10 years and 10000 hours
- Where are you in the Bell Curve?
- How to define your Bell curve and remain skewed to the right?
- Supporting Outliers
- Supporting the Challenged. Dyslexia, Dispraxia and Low IQ
Understanding Happiness - the concept of Flow
- Why we do what we do?
- How to do what we want to do?
Unconventional Careers
- Entrepreneurship
- Social service
- Art and Sport
- Creative pursuit
Measuring Success
- What is your scale?
- Why is it important to define your scale?
If you want to suggest any other topic, please go ahead and suggest them. Also, share these pages with your friends. Thank you.
My name is A J Balasubramanian, for my friends I am simply "AJB". After graduating as Mechanical Engineer from College of Engineering, Guindy, in 1984, I worked for a brief period with Defence Research and Development Organization's (DRDO) battle tank R&D unit CVRDE near Chennai. Without knowing the risk of starting a company, I started a high-tech start-up with my friends. After experiencing both successes and failures, I quit my partnership in 1997. Then I started working for Internet and IT companies. Currently I am working with a US based Health Care Software product Company, in their Product Development Center in Chennai, India. During the last 25 years after passing out, by chance I had an opportunity to continuously work in recruiting and developing fresh graduates from college and had developed a liking for learning more about recruitment of freshers and developing them inside the organization. Although I progressed within the organization to senior levels, I never missed the opportunity to identify, evaluate, interview, test and recruit fresh graduates. I also had lots of opportunities to watch them grow inside the organization.
Knowing the nature of my job, many of my friends and relatives, approached me for help in guiding their wards for different things, ranging from which course to choose, or which college to go to or which company to select in placement etc., I have been advising them based on my experience and knowledge in the field. But as a recruiter, I also realized that despite the availability of large pool of candidates, companies find it difficult to get the right talent. Government, NGOs, Industry bodies and Educational institutions express great concerns about the quality of candidates, their employ-ability and the methods of evaluation / selection by firms as well as the potential shortage of talents required by the industry.
I feel that these issues cannot be addressed as a simple issue with any short-term solution. However, solutions to these complex problems need not be complex. Encouraged by my publisher friend, I have set out to come up with this book, which would start as a blog. In these columns, I am planning to address the following issues and propose some solutions based on my experience as well as my observations. Some of these ideas have already been applied with reasonable success and some may be experimental in nature.
I am planning to cover these following Topics in this book. This book and this blog will remain as a draft. I am also interested in getting the feedback of students, parents , Placement officers, HR Managers, and Policy makers to come and share their views in the comments column. We can co-create the book as we go.
The following is the tentative index for my book
Introduction
- How it started?
- What is the context?
- How the book ideas evolved
- Support and Acknowledgments
- Conclusion
Target Audience for this book
- Students in Schools, Graduate, Engineering and Diploma
- Parents who want to help their Sons and Daughters
- Placement Officers and Educationalist
- Planners and Policy Makers
- Research Scholars
- Companies and Recruiters
The Role of Jobs in Economic Progress
- Unemployment rate as a critical measure of National well-being
- How growth and Society’s health is linked to job creation and sustainability
- What creates jobs and what destroys jobs
- Increasing role of Technology in job creation
- The need to learn
- Employability - What it means?
- Capability and Competence
- Role of Education
- Quality of Education
- Mistakes in Measurements
- The Need to change
Becoming Employable
- The Four components of Competence building
- IQ - Verbal, Math and Thinking skills
- Soft Skills
- Intent / Ambition and Attitude
- Academics and Hard Skills
- How Primary and Secondary Schools play important role in building basic competence
- How to bridge the gap?
- Role of English
- The Value of Reading
- Communication Skill - Listening, Comprehending,Thinking and Presence
- Mindfulness
- Key Behavioural traits needed and Developing them
Selecting a Career Path
- Modelling a successful career
- Where to start?
- Self evaluation - identifying your strengths and weaknesses
- Match Making - Talent vs skills
- Building on strengths
- Eliminating weakness
- Orienting towards a Career
Researching Career Opportunities
- Focusing on Future
- Let passion be your driver not fear.
- Hype-curve and avoiding pitfalls
- Catch 22 - How to find opportunities to get trained in new areas
- Mass Vs Niche
- Being at the Top
- Managing when you are at the middle or bottom
What to do after you select a Career?
- Focus
- Creating a Road Map
- Building relevant competence
- Bridging Gaps
Role of Intent and Goals
- Wish, Desire and Ambition
- Alignment
- Narrowing your choice - and need
- Starting early
- Course Correction
Factors that influence
- Nature Vs Nurture
- Peer Groups
- Place of Residence
- Influence from Institution
- What Families can do?
- What Schools, Colleges and Teachers can do?
The Biological and Neurological Problems of Students
- Why most students lose track ?
- How to bring them back to track?
- Mindset - A great idea on developing people’s potential
-
Extraordinary Competency Development
- Outliers
- 10 years and 10000 hours
- Where are you in the Bell Curve?
- How to define your Bell curve and remain skewed to the right?
- Supporting Outliers
- Supporting the Challenged. Dyslexia, Dispraxia and Low IQ
Understanding Happiness - the concept of Flow
- Why we do what we do?
- How to do what we want to do?
Unconventional Careers
- Entrepreneurship
- Social service
- Art and Sport
- Creative pursuit
Measuring Success
- What is your scale?
- Why is it important to define your scale?
If you want to suggest any other topic, please go ahead and suggest them. Also, share these pages with your friends. Thank you.
