Recently, I was updating my resume as a part of an assignment in the Professional Communication Skills’ class. The skills’ section hit me like a thunderbolt. I could tackle a problem of string manipulation or something similar, but that is nowhere close to the programming skills required to solve real world problems. I missed that lecture, I guess.
But who is responsible for it? The blame game started and it was my college’s turn to bear the brunt of my anguish. Somehow, the fury fizzled out after 30 minutes. I realized that blaming the college is a futile exercise. It is true for most of my college mates. The fault lies in our approach. We become so dependent on the institutions where we study that we fail to realize why they exist. They exist to show us the path by being our guiding light, but they cannot walk the path for us.
In the same breath, I did a quick rewind of my college days. I suddenly remembered all those seminars and workshops that the college had organized for us. And of course, all those were conveniently missed for a match of football.
I also thought of all those summer internships which I could’ve undertaken, but instead chose to spend the entire summer idling away. And that nerd who had invited me to become a part of his research project, but like always I made fun of him and gave it a miss.
All these were opportunities to upgrade my skills, hone and enhance them. Opportunities that I lost forever; they might never come my way again.
Almost all of us have absolutely no clue where our life is headed; we are like rudderless boats in a stormy sea. We need to take control of our lives, set our goals and strive towards achieving them. You may have questions, you may be lost, but there will always be those who will help you, but first, you need to help yourself. Start attending those seminars and workshops. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the speaker conducting those seminars is knowledgeable than you are. So why not let your ego take a day off and learn something worthwhile, eh? Bag an internship. You have no idea how helpful it would be. It will give you a fairly accurate picture of what you might end up doing for the next 30 years of your life. Get involved in research projects; it will help you develop the most important skill of all, a drive never to give up on a problem.
This article is part of PaGaLGuY’s innovative internship certification programme for engineering students. Currently, two such programmes are on – one is an Internship in Creative Writing, and the other is a Certification in Digital Media. If you are interested in partaking and bagging a certificate, besides learning the nuances of effective writing, write to us at [email protected].