Why ranking matters?
With the HRD Ministry pushing for a national rankings system for higher education the race for top slots is going to become fierce. It is time to learn to sift and select wisely
Zubin Malhotra

In the past fortnight, two developments have brought the issue of “Rankings” front-and-center. The first was the release of the QS World University Rankings where once again no Indian institution found a place in the top-200. The second was the recent announcement of the Ministry of HRD pushing for the development of a National Rankings System for Higher Education.

It’s a controversial question, with a simple answer. To help you make one of the most important decisions of your life.

Your investment in a college degree — a critical crossroad in your life —could profoundly affect your career opportunities, financial well-being, and quality of life. Choosing the right college is the first step in getting that degree.

With a bewildering array of 35,000+ colleges and over 435 universities, selecting the right institution can be extremely confusing. In the absence of reliable and consistent data that helps you compare one college with another and find the differences that matter to you, you would need to do a massive deal of legwork on your own.

All said and done, the college you study in does matter. So take your time and choose carefully. Many people choose a college only once in their lifetime (engineering or design students for instance), so there’s not much opportunity to learn from your past mistakes. Instead, you need first-rate information from the start. Rankings make it easier for you to sift through data from over hundreds of colleges and universities. Particularly since the selection is made on the basis of assessment and verification on various parameters (including primary and secondary data).

Also, anyone can reel off names of the top-10 but what if you can’t make it to the very best? Which ones should you consider then? This is where a good ranking can be of great help.

But having said that

• Do use the rankings as one of the tools to shortlist colleges.
• Don’t rely solely on rankings to choose a college.
• Don’t wait until the last minute.
• Do think long and hard about the right place for you.

Do also keep in mind your academic and professional goals, financial resources, scholastic record, and special needs when choosing a college. And you can gather more information in a number of ways — by talking to your parents and counselors, from browsing through college prospectuses and websites; and from campus visits to form first-hand impressions.

How to use ranking tables?

The rankings provide an excellent starting point for comparing colleges because they offer you an opportunity to judge the relative quality of the institutions according to widely accepted indicators of excellence. But many other factors that can’'t be measured should also figure in your decision, including the fees, course offerings, campus life, and geographic location.

Use the rankings wisely. Study the data that accompanies the actual rankings. The tables are a source of highly useful information about colleges that is otherwise hard to obtain and which will help you narrow your search to a small number of possible choices that would be a good fit.

Consider value for money. You wouldn’t go out and buy a cellphone or a mobike without making sure it was the best you could afford given your budget. The same rule should apply for choosing a college-especially when it could cost you a hefty packet for tuition alone, not to mention room, board, and books.

While scanning the lists to find colleges that feel right, you may well find some names you had not considered — or even heard of. There are hundreds of fine colleges and universities. Ultimately the challenge is to narrow the list to a few that you’d really like to attend and more important, to customise your search in ways that make the most sense for you.

Which one to follow

With different surveys throwing up different rankings, how do you decide which one to follow?

Over the plast few years, we’ve seen a number of ranking surveys — each following different criteria and grading norms. At times, the same agencies change their criteria in subsequent exercises. This lack of consistency has led to a lot of confusion among students.

Often the movement of institutions up and down the ranking ladder, is only due to a shift in ranking methodology rather than any actual shift in the quality of the college concerned.

It is essential that all ranking initiatives follow common standard parameters (for instance in the case of B-schools, some go by average salaries, yet others by median salaries; some rely on perceptions while others go by numbers). They also tend to reflect the quality and perceptions of various stakeholders (industry, students, faculty), which is not always the case. Neither is the institution’s R&D or its contribution towards creating new knowledge and management thought or its level of industry interface taken into reckoning.

Also in situations where not all the leading institutions respond or participate in the ranking exercise, the result throws up a skewed list — with lesser ones floating to the top of the list. Which is why, you will suddenly hear a hitherto-not-in-the ranking institute going to town over its new-found position in the ranking.

On the other hand, the sustained success of certain colleges over the years and across rankings — despite the fact that all colleges follow the same syllabus and guidelines — can be attributed to their ability to attract the best students and faculty, the steady quality of infrastructure and the method of delivery.

On the whole, rankings keep institutions on their toes and competing fiercely with each other — which is a good thing.

— The writer is Career Coach, CARING (www.careerguidanceindia.com)

Subject matter: Home Science
Growing in stature and scope
Gauri Chhabra

The first decade of the 21st century belonged to IT and sciences. Over the past couple of years, however, there has also been a renewed interest in Humanities and a renaissance of disciplines that straddle science and art both. With an amalgam of Nutrition, Human Development and Family Resource Management Home Science is one such inter-disciplinary course that has grown in popularity over the past couple of years.

Getting in

For admission to a bachelor’s degree, you must have passed the higher secondary school certificate (10+2) examination with science subjects such as biology, maths and chemistry. The duration for this course is three years. Home Science graduates are eligible for master’s degree in home science, nutrition and dietetics, food science and technology, biochemistry, microbiology, fashion technology, any of the other arts courses like psychology, and MBA.

Paradigm shift towards vocational courses

Till a few years ago, home science was a discipline dominated by the fairer sex and very few male students could be found taking up these courses. But with a paradigm shift and inclusion of many subjects like retail merchandising, fashion journalism in the domain, male students too are venturing into this field.

Talking about the widening scope of this field Vinti Dawar, Professor, Food and Nutrition, Kurukshetra University said, “Home Science has taken a new form in the sense that we have given a vocational twist to it with the introduction of vocational courses under UGC programme like Food Science and Quality Control, Fashion and Textile Design, Interior Design and Textile Design. Besides, we have also introduced PG Diploma in Textile Design and PG Diploma in Fashion Design. The idea is that a student with a BSc or an MSc degree should be able to grab a job or set up something on his own. It has really worked as students are getting lucrative offers from big names like Nestle, Amul, Nutri Health Systems etc. Many of our students have joined as dieticians in leading hospitals like Apollo, Max, Fortis and the like.

When asked about the admissions, she responded, “To cast a wider net and make education more inclusive, the eligibility for MSc Food and Nutrition has been opened to graduates from any sub-specialisation in the medical stream. Similarly, MSc Clothing Textiles and Fashion Design with its new nomenclature is open to any graduate in Fashion Design. This draws in a diverse group of students and better knowledge sharing takes place.”

Our only focus while interacting with the students is to bring about a sense of pride in them about being opted for a discipline that is an amalgamation of Science and Arts. We help tem hone their skills and prove their mettle in any field they step in”, said Ms Dawar.

Career opportunities

Home science opens a plethora of job opportunities that cut across sectors like education, healthcare, welfare organisations, FMCG, tourism, food and beverages, guidance and counseling, apparel and the like.

Food manufacturing and processing: With increased focus on food and hygiene, more and more home science graduates find their way into food chains or catering at special places like schools and hospitals. In the food manufacturing industry, options are available in food processing units and food preservation departments as food analysts, quality analysts, quality controllers and quality managers. Besides, you can also enter the processing and preservation industry.

Entrepreneurship: Those with an entrepreneurial instinct can set up their own confectionery or baking units and can use innovation to evolve their own products which are more nutritive and different from the conventional ones. Besides, you can set up small units like cleaning up of fruits and vegetables, hobby classes etc.

Family, health and resource management: This area of home science equips one with skills of management of family resources i.e. time, money, energy, housing need and interior decoration, selection, use, care and cleaning of household equipment, furniture, consumer education and protection. Surinderjit Kaur, Senior Extension Specialist, Family Resource Management PAU, Ludhiana, says, “home science is the need of the hour today due to fractured relationships and fissured families. Students find jobs as counselors and family guidance experts.”

One can also join a hospital or a wellness centre as a dietician and as care takers and counsellors in child care centres and old age homes.

Image building and personal grooming: You can either open up or join grooming centers where you could provide services for skin and hair care and could be extended according to the unique characteristics to select jewelry, hair style and make up.

Fashion and couture: This domain of Home Science focuses on the selection, construction and care of clothing; its effect on the family income; the behaviour and chemical nature of different textiles; types of weaves; the quality, color; bleed ability and durability of fabrics, and design of couture.

— The writer is a Punjab-based career consultant

smart strategy
Journey from weakness to strength
Jappreet Sethi

Look around yourself and you will find people constantly struggling with their identity, their life remains a constant process of adjusting to everyone’s feedback. They keep on doing this, hoping to be perfect – they suppress their originality and never reach the worldly desired image. You will also find these individuals immersed in self-help books and looking for Harry Potter’s wand to conjure the best image in front of everyone. They live a life full of adjustments and repent this later on like no one’s business, then why do it in the first place?

What I am going to tell you is opposite to what you may have been hearing day in day out from your managers and career guides– to become perfect before you start accepting yourself.

As humans we tend to get judgmental when we like the good parts of our self and detest the other negative parts of our psyche. Denial of existence of our duality leads to suppression of the negative parts or not so cherished parts of our being, we repeatedly don’t want to feel and acknowledge it’s presence. Yet they continue to be in us, closing the eyes does not change the reality. This failure to accept yourself as a bundle of good and not so good parts leads to a endless denials propagating anxiety and negativity.

The answer lies in learning to accept the Ying-Yang of ourselves, being comfortable in holding the good and not so good parts of our self. In simple words, it means agreeing to the complete you, as a sum total you are the best – accepting oneself without any shame, guilt or denial.

What does accepting oneself mean?

Accepting oneself means being comfortable with whatever you are; it is an innate pose of being at peace with yourself. It is very difficult to accept ourselves while our heart wants us to be “picture perfect without a spec of dirt or spot . Acceptance would allow you to “BE” rather than repenting for “NOT BEING” something.

Accepting oneself means looking at yourself without coloured glasses or making critical judgments. Take a hard look at yourself – the real you. Accepting yourself doesn’t mean you can’t change anything about yourself, it means recognizing who and what you are, and then making the most of it.

How to do it

Take a sheet of paper and fold it into two halves, label one side as things that “I like about myself” and the other side as things that “I don’t like about myself”. Honestly fill up both the columns with thoughts as they come to you, don’t sugarcoat or be afraid to pen it down. I have done this exercise with dozens of individuals, mostly the list of things which you don’t like about yourself run into two pages. This is due to the inherent flaw in the current societal and organisational systems wherein every time you are reminded about what you lack and not what you bring to the table.

If I were to ask you to choose between head and tail of a coin and tell me which is better, you will not have an answer. A coin has two sides and both co-exist. Your strength brings out it’s counter weakness – eg. if you believe you are patient – the flip side is some people will see you as slow. Try to visualise the relationship between the two sides of you – the light side and the dark side. The light side is which we portray to the outer world and the dark side is hidden and kept to our inner dungeons only. Day leads to night and night leads to day – both lead to and into each other – can they be separated?

Remember that you cannot be perfect and it will be equally true to say that you cannot be a perfect failure either.

How does accepting oneself help?

Accepting and loving you for being yourself is the beginning of a larger journey, it opens you to adapt and accept others for what they are without any caveats. It allows you to relate to others wholeheartedly. You would have realised by now that you do not need to change in order to accept yourself. And the best part is you and the world would be in love with each other as you are not “judgmental” anymore.

Once you discover who you are, you can use your goodness to shape the roles you choose to dawn—both now and in the future.You may have more to gain by developing your gifts and leveraging your strength’s rather than working on the weak areas. This will allow you to tap into your known and unknown strengths. You will suddenly feel a gush of uber confidence and tasks which seemed hitherto impossible will seem doable. You will be able to feel a new rush of positivity and a keen desire to take on bigger challenges in life, the work will not become easier however you will not see it as daunting and taxing anymore.

Your friends and true partners will accept you for what you are, and you will be at peace with your real self. Accepting oneself is about carrying your weakness with pride and strengths with humility. Let go of the shame and guilt the world pours on you because you invite it.

You deserve to be happy the way you are !

— The writer is an HR & Strategy consultant and authors

www.humanresourcesblog.in

practical hr
Dividends of diversity
Srimathi Shivashankar

Diversity is the premise that cultural assimilation is eventually built on. The main reason to harbor a diverse workforce is that it drives economic growth by enhancing our nation’s human capital. Diversity is crucial to fostering innovation at the workplace as a diverse workforce brings together individuals from different backgrounds and experiences, thereby enabling businesses to more effectively market to consumers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Globalisation has also made it imperative for employees to be trained in being sensitive to different cultures and work towards building good relationships with local business partners in foreign markets.

Tools for cultural assimilation

Every organisation that is earnestly interested in appropriating maximum benefit from a varied workforce, should adopt certain tools for smooth cultural assimilation.

Mentorship

It is a powerful tool to allow a newcomer to be smoothly inducted into an organisation. By creating mentorship relationships, employees that are either new to the organisation or are relocating are given a soft landing into the new environment and a swift, easy understanding of the specifics of the new culture, geography and people. The mentor can help the new comer to acclimatise to the culture of the organisation and form new relationships that help widen his circle of friends. Organisations can easily become too exclusive and inward looking and efficient mentorship helps break this entry barrier into a new surroundings.

IT skills

In order to optimise the positive outcomes of the modern workforce, Information Technology (IT) is an essential tool. Using appropriate technologies is shown to break down cultural barriers and promote understanding of different language backgrounds and hence lead to successful collaboration. Some international employees might find applications like email, videoconferencing less daunting than physically approaching their manager. This is where IT comes into play. Virtual teams, which rely on IT greatly, assist diverse workplaces and it is best if the organisation is flexible and allows the employees to choose whatever mode of communication they feel most comfortable with.

Knowledge management

It is natural for an employee to feel much more comfortable in a new environment when he/she feels they have sufficient information about the new dimensions. Knowledge sharing, in a multicultural organisation, is primarily affected by language barriers and the different levels of fluency. This can be improved by putting emphasis on active listening skills, patience, understanding and supporting employees in learning other languages in the workplace. Knowledge flow is also easily translated within an organisation if the channels of communication between cross cultural groups tend to be more informal.

Diversity training

Owing to the demographic changing across the country, businesses need to change the way they do business and training can be the catalyst for this change. The need for suchtraining will continue to be felt till there isn’t open embracing of these differences inthought and ideology by organisations. Diversity training must ensure that expectations about appropriate workplace conduct are met with and that teams are structured in a way that they are ethnically, racially and gender-balanced. Managers and employees who proactively facilitate a healthy, diverse work environment should be recognised. Diversity programmes that are custom made and relevant for the employee should assume importance and the impetus to create such a diversity training program should stem internally and not through external factors.

cubicle trends
Working on depression

In a new study, scientists have claimed that people suffering from depression manage their depression better while attending office than by taking a sick-leave. The collaborative study between the University Of Melbourne, and the Menzies Research Institute at the University of Tasmania is the first to estimate the long-term costs and health outcomes of depression-related absence as compared to individuals who continue to work among employees with depression in Australia. Lead researcher Dr Fiona Cocker said a greater understanding of the costs and consequences of both absenteeism and presenteeism would allow for more informed recommendations to be made to the benefit of employees and their employers.

Researchers calculated the costs based on lost productivity, expenses associated with medication and use of health services and the cost of replacing an employee who was absent from work and unwell.

Cocker said that the information was important for employers, health care professionals and employees faced with the decision whether to continue working or take a sickness absence. It suggested that future workplace mental health promotions strategies should include mental health policies that focused on promoting continued work attendance via offering flexible work-time and modification of tasks or work environment.

Workplace programmes and modifications might also have positive, long-term effects on health and well-being via the maintenance of a daily routine and co-worker support. Finally, the exploration of these outcomes in blue and white collar workers allows work attendance recommendations to be tailored to specific occupation types. These methods also have the potential to be adapted to other health conditions where work attendance behaviour is affected. — ANI

Career sweetener
messing with deadlines
Perfection or procrastination

Generating results and timely delivery of assignments are one of the two biggest factors that shape the career of an individual, the room for error is minimal and any shortfall is detrimental to the modern day career. As a member of the corporate clan you don’t work in a vacuum, your assignment is mostly a step in the bigger chain of tasks and work. If you are the weakest link in the chain and the whole ecosystem is disrupted, be ready to get fired even though the delay may be minimal. It is not about the delay on your part, it is about the cascading effect it has on the entire workflow and the corporate deliverables.

So what are the common things, which add up to delaying the deliverables?

You are a perfectionist

Perfection is not because of an individual, perfection is a mindset that pervades the organisation and is deep rooted in its culture. If by any chance your organisation’s ecosystem were not great, you would forever be in the work, re-work loop. Perfectionism is tough to let go because people tend to see it as a positive trait and are happy in delaying the product. You pride yourself in never being wrong, does your perfectionism stem from collecting more data than others do to improve chances of a fault-free decision, and therefore, you detest making decisions early on without complete data. The real test is in being someone, who can make decisions with 80 per cent of the data. Trust your intuition a little bit more and with your good experience you wouldn’t stray too far.

You procrastinate things

One of the Murphy’s laws says, “The first 90 per cent of the tasks take 10 per cent of the time and the other 10 per cent takes the other 90 per cent.” You believe that keeping things open till the last minute will lead to better decisions and your history is a testimony to the fact. You like working with your team extremely hard in the last leg, according to you burning midnight oil with the team makes the team bond better and people who don’t subscribe to this thought, are not a good cultural fit; they need to be coached at best or sacked for common good.

You don’t like taking risks

Taking action may involve pushing the envelope, taking chances, charting newer paths and traversing newer terrain. Now doing these things does put you at risk, as you will be prone to more misfires and mistakes. Now you may not like to believe this, but history says that successful executives have made more mistakes in their career than those who are not so successful.

You believe in measuring risks and taking a cautious approach, why should you be the one foraying into newer ideas. Your task is to execute along the set-lines and when anything falls outside the boundary the best things to do is to wait and watch for others to jump. It is always safer to side with the majority, with this you can never be blamed.

You like working alone

Taking timely action requires that you get others on board early on, unless you are the erstwhile crown prince of your sultanate and everybody has to fall in line eventually. And you firmly believe that the rest of the team members are not as sharp as you are, getting them on board early on may not be of big help. Since you have all the data points with your decision, when you present it to others the logic will sway and there is no way they can not agree to your solution unless they are subscribers of the Satan’s faith.

You get caught in the paralysis of analysis

You firmly believe that the data on hand needs to be analysed and dissected to the “T” and you believe in statistics only. Emotions and beliefs are of no use and should not be used to substitute for analysis. Once you complete the decisions there are quite a few options and each of those hypotheses needs to be tested and simulations run, all this takes time and you fail you understand why doesn’t the world understand such a simple need? Decisions are important and the company needs to wait till all the minute details are flushed out.

What’s the solution?

Not all things deserve equal attention; learn to differentiate between big and small decisions. Thereafter, give them the attention they need on the basis of their importance, impact and eventual outcome.

What totally messes the timelines is the ego and our desire to try and decipher everything in the universe. In business you do not have the luxury of time nor the recourse to unlimited funds to learn something by running simulations. And if you happen to be in a start up company, both time and money are even rare commodities.

Don’t try to get all the answers, leave some things to the fate and put all the pros and cons of your decision on the table for everyone to see and comment. Take decisions with lesser data using the power of your people network to iterate in the absence of complete data. Don’t worry about being successful all the time; it’s neither practical nor possible.

Career Tips from www.careersweetener.com. Follow on twitter @CareerSweetener

Job hopping can put off hirers

A new study has revealed that job hopping can really hamper one’s career, as people who have five or more jobs over 10 years put off bosses. Almost 90 per cent of employers said they were likely to drop an applicant from consideration for a position if they thought the person had moved around too much during their working life and bosses see “job hoppers” as someone who will not stick around, the Daily Express reported.

Recruitment firm Robert Half interviewed 200 bosses from UK companies about how many positions they considered acceptable before they began to suspect a potential recruit might lack staying power and found that one in three (36 per cent) of the executives said they were “very likely” to look badly on an applicant they considered a job hopper, and 53pc were “somewhat likely”, with the remainder not concerned by the amount of jobs a person had had. Phil Sheridan, senior managing director at Robert Half UK said that the job market has rebounded in recent years, and employers understand that job candidates may have had short stints in some positions, however, businesses look for people who will be committed to the organisation, can contribute to the company, and help it reach its short and long-term goals. — ANI

New Avenues: CPA and CMA
Global edge for commerce students
Varun Jain

From an Indian perspective, starting from the high school level, commerce is arguably one of the most popular choice of academic streams — the other two being humanities and science. A graduate in commerce primarily deals in areas like banking, marketing, accounting, corporate finance, stock markets and the whole lot. A commerce specialist, in very simple terms, gets to understand the inner functioning of an industry and how a specific organisation deals with money.

While pursuing commerce and accounting as a career option, an undergraduate student comes across two primary career paths —

n Professional qualifications in India including Chartered Accountant (CA), Cost Accountant (CMA) or Company Secretary (CS), and

n High education options like Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with specialisation in finance.

However, a commerce undergraduate remains rather confused and at crossroads, at large, at this point — firstly, he/she is left only with the aforesaid two broad career options and secondly, both the choices take a student an average of 2-4 years even beyond under-graduation to be employable. The Indian professional qualifications have an enormous amount of academic content, a lot of which might not be needed by a “professional” and with single-digit pass rates, these can be very difficult to achieve at one shot. The MBA path again is not advisable for an undergraduate without having at least 3-4 years of work experience, and to have the right credibility and exposure from MBA, the reputation of the B-school really matters.

So, students look for an alternative which is faster and which would, at the same time, provide the them an edge in the global job market?

The solution to all these questions lies with US professional qualifications like CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and CMA (Certified Management Accountant).

In today’s world, a crucial objective of education is to be able to change not just one’s local markets, but to influence the entire world. CPAs and CMAs are equipped with this aptitude and ability to create a difference to their respective industries and thereby the international economy as a whole.

Commerce graduates from India can explore US professional certifications. For CPA, candidates can take training with certain Indian-providers or franchisees of US-based providers like Becker Professional Education. For CMA, Wiley is the global publisher for official IMA-licensed study materials.

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is the highest accounting qualification in the US and is the reigning profession for public accountants all over the world. The Uniform CPA examinations are conducted by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants). In very simple terms, CPA is the US equivalent of the Indian CA qualification.

Most Indian commerce undergraduates are eligible to take the Uniform CPA examinations which comprises four exam parts:

• Financial Accounting and Regulation(FAR) covering both US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards)
• Auditing (AUD) covering US and International Standards for Auditing
• Regulation (REG)covering taxation and business laws
• Business Environment & Concepts (BEC) covering the areas of management accounting, financial management and other key financial areas

To summarise, CPA from an career perspective means 4 exams, 800-1000 hours of study over 12 months, exams conducted in the US and extensive opportunities with the Big 4 and MNCs.

Certified Management Accountant (CMA)

The other course that has a global advantage, ease of entry and ensures completion within quite a short timeframe and focuses mainly on the managerial side of an organisation is CMA.

CMA (Certified Management Accountant) is the highest management accounting qualification in the US offered by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), US. CMA is the US equivalent of CMA/CWA in India and CIMA in the UK (see table for a comparison). The CMA certification provides students, accountants and financial professionals with an edge in the area of management accounting and financial management. A CMA is highly sought after in roles like financial analyst, costing controller, costs and variance analyst, planning and budgeting specialist et al.

The CMA coursework is one of the easiest options available, equally to students and working professionals. The CMA Exam is broken down into two exam parts:

• Part I — Financial Planning, Performance and Control, which includes coverage of cost and management accounting and related topics, and
• Part II — Financial Decision Making, which includes coverage of financial management and related topics

cat ’14
Understand the English enigma
Ankur Jain

Cracking the Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning test is a pre-requisite for aspirants trying to scale the ‘great wall’ of CAT. With around two months remaining for the most important management entrance examination, let us look at how to prepare for this section of CAT 2014.

We need to understand that scoring good marks in this section is critical, since good institutes have the concept of sectional cut-offs. Getting good marks in one section and doing badly in the other will hamper your chances since the institutes are looking for people who demonstrate all-round ability and the skills required to become a manager.

The verbal ability portion of the section checks reading and working comfort in English, the global language of business communication. It emphasises reading skills, as is clear from the high weightage to Reading Comprehension and reading-oriented VA in the recent years. Hence, now, preparation should focus on improving reading skills, more in width than in depth.

What this means is that CAT is looking at your ability to read a wide-range of reading material in some depth, but not the ability to read a small range of reading material in great depth.

So concentrate on reading things that you may not have read earlier, e.g. philosophy, spirituality, religion, social sciences, humanities, sciences etc.

Ideally, you should spend approximately 80 per cent of your time of English preparation on reading and solving questions related to these. Memorising rules of grammar or cramming up words, at this stage, will bear little benefit so do not worry too much about these. You may spend at the most 20 per cent of your English preparation time in doing these activities. Also keep in mind that solving questions on the pattern of the previous years’ examination is much more beneficial than only learning words/rules of grammar.

For the Logical Reasoning section, look at the various kinds of puzzles that appear in the examination. Be comfortable with each type. In the examination, if you face a familiar type of puzzle, it gives you an advantage over others. The examination, nowadays, gives many more incomplete puzzles, i.e. puzzles that are not solved completely but only partly. Practice them also.

Good material that is at different levels of difficulty can help you where you can start at the lower rung and work your way up. Initially, the focus should be on solving the puzzles correctly and completely. Later on, you can start with incomplete puzzles and much later, worry about increasing your speed. Learning how to make the table or chart for each puzzle is the basic necessity in the case of LR. Also, please practise individual questions as well as sets of puzzles.

Continue to take mock exams on a regular basis. This will improve your mental and physical stamina to attempt a tough examination and also prepare you for unexpected situations. Since CAT pattern is unpredictable, a test-series with lots of test patterns and difficulty levels is important. Further, analysis of your mock exams is even more important since this helps to understand one’s strengths and weaknesses, build stronger concepts, practice skills, capitalise on strengths and remove problems.

Follow up on the analysis by working on your weak areas. Whatever emerges as a strength area, can be practiced less and whatever emerges as a weak area should be practiced more. Take sectional tests to improve your weaknesses of low speed, silly mistakes and subject weaknesses etc.

All the best!

— The writer is Chief Knowledge Expert, T.I.M.E.

MBA Mentor
Jatin Bhandari

Q. What kind of social service activities should I be a part of in order to increase my chances of getting into a B school abroad? — Rajan Sayal

A. For any of the programmes you are applying to, remember one thing: Community work does not necessarily mean an NGO experience.

A lot of people in India think “I am an Indian! I do not have any associations with NGO’s! How will I showcase my community experience?”

Working on applications on MBA aspirants, I realise that many fail to understand the term “Community Experience”.

While there are applicants who not only had authentic NGO stories to present to the admission committees, but also could project strong reasons for supporting the society. In doing so, they could show the patterns of continuous engagement from their past life (starting from the undergraduate clubs and associations), and also weave in their reasons (why have you been doing whatever you have been doing? What does that mean to you? etc. ).

However, not everyone’s had a chance to teach blind children or participate in providing relief to the earthquake victims. Do not worry. You need to understand that engagement in a community has multiple forms. Schools are more keen on evaluating the way you have been carrying yourself around in society, and your diverse engagements. You do not necessarily have to showcase a humanitarian approach

Here are some activities that can be termed as ‘community engagements’ that a candidate can incorporate in the essay (these include both NGO and other engagements):

• If you graduated from your undergrad a long time ago, and are still an active member of the alumni club, and have taken initiatives to maintain that camaraderie, do mention it. It reflects your ongoing involvement with your previous academic institution and is reflective of your commitment for your next one too.
• Participation in a dance or drama
• Volunteering for social activities at school which includes either participation or organising the same.
• Participating in a volunteering activity in which you were placed with people different from you in various aspects such as education, income level, nationality and so on.
• If you did some volunteer work that has some connection with your POST MBA goals and you can weave the story around your equation of employability, this is worth mentioning.
• You have been an active sportsman and have brought an immense value to your sports team. It is also worth talking about along with the skills that you developed while you were involved in those activities.
• Active involvement in politics, not superficial knowledge of the same
• Active participation in a musical band, group or orchestra in undergrad or post that.
• Participated in a volunteer activity that helped you develop leadership or teamwork skills
• Participation in an international social or volunteer activity.
• Actively organising an entire trip or activity for friends
• Having performed as an active member, organiser or leader of a team which could be based on education such as an overseas trip, project or a seminar
• Volunteering for social activities at the workplace which includes either participation or organising the same.

Career Hotline
How are designers different from artists?
Pervin Malhotra

Q. I am quite creative — I love to draw and paint and do craft work. I’m sure I want to do something in art. However, I’m not quite sure what exactly within art. Could you please tell me how Designers are different from Artists? — Kareena Nayar

A. While there’s plenty of overlap between design and art, the central difference is one of purpose.

Fine artists may wish to create something of beauty and meaning that triggers emotion.

For graphic, fashion, industrial, interior, and other designers, these goals must be matched, if not overruled, by the needs and demands of the employer, the client, and the customer.

Most Design/Art schools have a foundation programme in the first year that acquaints students with the basics of art and design, colour, form, typography, space, materials and give you a peep into the various specialisations within art and design. Then at the end of the year, you can sit down with your course co-ordinator to choose your area of specialisation. Also, the principles of design being essentially the same, you need not worry about getting “stuck” in a particular field. I’ve seen several graphic designers go on to become excellent interior designers and jewellery designers switching over to garment design and vice-a versa.

Incidentally, this is precisely a question I’ve tackled on my weekly career show, Career Cafe. You can catch the repeat telecast of this episode on Sunday 5pm on Lok Sabha TV where I’m interviewing a leading designer.

What are the prospects for Indian CAs abroad?

Q. I am pursuing CA and I want to know about the prospects of Indian CAs abroad. Is our CA course recognised internationally or not? Can Indian CAs compete with those from other countries? Can one retain membership of ICAI if working abroad? — Daksh Johri

A. It’s not just Indian IT professionals, engineers and management graduates who are in demand overseas. The perception of Indian CAs in the international market has also changed dramatically.

Earlier, CAs from the western world were more desired due to their command over English and the colonial mentality prevailing in some countries. But the scenario is now changing. Indian CAs are valued other countries as well.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the world’s second largest body of accounting professionals with membership running into several lakhs, receives requests from over 30 countries seeking Indian accounting professionals.

Apart from the Middle East, there’s huge demand for CAs in Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria etc.

Even at ICAI’s campus placements, overseas recruiters offer plum postings to Indian CAs.

You could further enhance your profile with international certifications in accounting and continuing education options provided by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, itself.

And yes, while residing abroad, you can keep your membership active by remitting your annual membership fee to ICAI (which can also be paid in advance for three years).

Specialisation in MArch

Q. I will be completing my BArch with interior design shortly. Now I want to do M Arch but I’m confused about the field to opt for. Please suggest. — Esha Goswami

A. As you’re perhaps aware, in the two-year M Arch programme, you can choose from the following specialisations: Architectural Conservation, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Urban Design, Landscape Architecture & Planning, Sustainable Architecture, and Construction Management.

The real estate and construction boom in recent times has also fuelled the demand for trained Construction and Project Management professionals.

Your choice of specialisation will depend on a combination of factors. First and foremost is your interest — think of the subjects and assignments you enjoyed and excelled in during your BArch. Also, consider your strengths and temperament and accordingly, your suitability for different areas of specialisation. Lastly, understand the kind of work each area entails, its future scope and quantitative and qualitative rewards.

Given your B Arch specialisation the most obvious choices would be to look at either Interior Design or Industrial Design.

Even within this specialisation you could look at areas beyond home and office interiors such as exhibition design, in-store design, set design etc).

You should work for a couple of years first, and then explore future prospects in the different area, speak to senior architects and veterans in the field and then take a call on your choice of specialisation.

Continuing studies after Class XII

Q. My brother has completed Class XII but he is not interested in continuing further study. So please advise him what would be the better way for his career. — R.P. Dawar

A. Your brother MUST, MUST complete a bachelor’s degree at the very least... whether it’s in a “practical” area such as hotel management or travel and tourism or whether he does it by correspondence.

While doing the latter, he can simultaneously pursue a vocational course or apprenticeship in a field that interests him to be job-ready within the next 3-4 years.

email your queries to careers@tribunemail.com

Course cruising

Beauty courses

NR's School of Beauty, New Delhi, is inviting applications for admission to various vocational courses. The beauty school imparts vocational training in Air Brush Makeup, Make-up, Hair styling, Hair Chemical, Hair Cut, Skin Chemical, Beauty, Spa, Nail Art & Extension and Self Courses.

Eligibility: Minimum eligibility criteria is a pass in Class XII.

Forms Available till 15th Oct 2014

How to apply:

Application forms are available at: D-12/24, Sector-8, Near Rohini East Metro Station, New Delhi-110085

Deadline: October 15, 2014.

Check out: www.nrschoolofbeauty.com

Construction management courses

National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR) is inviting applications for admission to full-time on-campus courses of Academic Year 2015 Commencing at its campuses at Pune, Hyderabad, Indore and Goa:

Courses and eligibility:

1. Two-year PG programme in Advanced Construction Management (PGP ACM): Offered from Pune, Hyderabad, Indore and Goa campuses

Eligibility: Bachelor's degree in engineering in any discipline / architecture / planning with minimum 50% aggregate marks.

2. Two-year PG programme in Project Engineering and Management (PGPPEM): Offered from Pune campus

Eligibility: Bachelor's degree in Engineering in any discipline with minimum 50% aggregate marks.

3. Two-year PG programme in Real Estate and Urban Infrastructure Management (PGP REUIM): Offered from Pune Campus

Eligibility Criteria: Bachelor's degree in engineering in any discipline / architecture / planning with minimum 50% aggregate marks.

Selection criteria: Admission will be based on entrance test to be conducted at admission test centers of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune

How to apply: Prospectus and application form for all the courses can be obtained from any office of NICMAR as given below, on payment of Rs 1700 for one programme or Rs 2500 for more than one programme by DD in favour of "NICMAR, Pune":

Candidates can also download the application form from website: www.nicmar.ac.in/Admissions/ApplicationForm.pdf and send it along with application fee.

Deadline: December 12, 2014

Check out: www.nicmar.ac.in

Scholarship roundup

International scholarships

UK- based Loughborough University is offering over 100 scholarships to the new self-financing international full-time undergraduate students taking admissions in 2014 batches. The Loughborough University International Scholarships worth 25 per cent of the programme tuition fee will be awarded to the students on the basis of their outstanding academic achievement and potential. The scholarships are applicable for selected academic schools and departments including Chemical Engineering (with an additional 10 per cent), chemistry, civil and building engineering, mechanical and manufacturing, computer science, English and drama, geography, design, mathematical sciences, physics, politics, history and International relations as well as arts to name a few. Each scholarship will be for the first year of study only.

Eligibility: International undergraduate applicants will be automatically considered for the Loughborough University International Scholarship. Although different courses will have varying criteria for awarding these scholarships, in general, students will be required to achieve the equivalent of A*AA to AAA in three full A-levels (around 85-90 per cent and above in Class XII depending on state board) in order to be considered.

For details contact: international-office@lboro.ac.uk

Oxford-Indira Gandhi Graduate Scholarships

Applications are invited for Oxford-Indira Gandhi Graduate Scholarships for Indian Students. These fully-funded scholarships are provided by Somerville College and the University of Oxford with the support of the Government of India. The merit-based scholarships are available for pursuing graduate degree level at University of Oxford.

Eligibility: Candidates should be applying to start a new graduate course at Oxford and should have excellent academic record. .

Number of awards: Up to 3

Details: The scholarship will cover 100% of university and college fees and a grant for living costs (of at least £13,863). Awards are made for the full duration of your fee liability for the agreed course.

How to apply: There is no separate application process for this scholarship in order to be considered, the candidates must submit their application for graduate study by January.

Deadline: The application deadline is 9 or 23 January 2015, depending on the course.

Check out: http://www.ox.ac.uk

ONGC scholarships for SC/ST students

Applications are invited for ONGC scholarships available for SC/ST students for pursuing professional courses or master's degree. Scholarships are awarded in engineering and medical stream (professional courses) and in business administration, geology and geophysics.

Eligibility: Candidates should be a student of first year of graduate engineering or MBBS courses or first year of master's degree in geology/geophysics or MBA. The scholarship shall be admissible only for pursuing full time regular courses by ISC/CBSE/MCI/AICTE/UGC/Association of India Universities/State Education Boards/State Government/Central Government.

Number of awards: 500

Duration of award(s): Scholarship is offered to students for pursuing four- year engineering/MBBS courses and two- year master's course. The continuation of scholarships once awarded shall be subject to satisfactory performance in each year's annual examination and conduct of the candidate.

Details: Each scholarship have a value of Rs 48,000 per annum.

How to apply: Application format can be downloaded from ONGC's website.

Deadline: September 30, 2014.

Check out: www.ongcindia.com

Newsboard

ACCA ties up with Symbiosis University

Symbiosis International University (SIU), Pune, has signed an agreement with ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) to provide a unique opportunity to finance students to get a bachelor's degree in business and finance and a globally recognised professional accountancy qualification at the same time. The students will now receive ACCA tuition alongside the regular bachelor's degree programme so that a student will be able to complete their bachelor's and ACCA exams at the same time. Through their ACCA exams, students will also achieve a BSc in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University in the UK. The ACCA qualification, which takes around three years to complete, is officially recognised as being equivalent to a master's degree in the UK.

Scholarship venture for students of North-East

Sikkim Manipal University — Directorate of Distance Education (SMU-DE) has launched special initiatives for students belonging to Sikkim and North East region. The 6th Annual Vidyadeep Scholarship and Special scholarships for Digital Marketing programme conducted by Manipal in association with Google were launched during the 14th convocation of Sikkim Manipal University recently. For the financial year 2014- 2015, SMU will set aside Rs 2 crore for these scholarships. The fee waiver of the scholarships will be available for more than 2000 students from the North East region. These scholarships are applicable for all the programmes offered by SMU through their Distance Education.

The university has also launched a special scholarship on Digital Marketing programme which is offered in association with Google. This initiative will enable careers in Digital Marketing for 500 students.

SMU will provide 50 per cent scholarship for the programme that costs Rs 25,000 (exclusive of service tax).

Online courses

Pearl Academy has launched its online education initiative -Pearl Live that will offer global e-learning courses for working professionals, entrepreneurs and others interested in the creative industries who wish to enhance their skill-set and make a difference to their careers. To start with, Pearl Live is offering application based six and nine-month courses in interior design, digital commerce, social media marketing, design management, digital design and entrepreneurship for creative professions. According to press note issued by the institute each student will be appointed an Academic Mentor who will help him navigate his way through the course and who he can meet face to face on virtually.

The courses are applications based and the students will develop a portfolio, ecommerce site, business model as the case maybe along with their expert faculty. At the culmination of their course, students will participate in the Pearl Connect Program (PCP) where they will spend 4 days at a Pearl Academy campus to present their portfolios, get feedback from experts, participate in industry networking events and seminars, meet investors and finally graduate

Tata Crucible Corporate Quiz contest

Tata group has announced the schedule for the 11th edition of Tata Crucible Corporate Quiz 2014. The quiz contest will be held across 25 cities all over India. The new season integrating the Tata and the non-Tata track started from Bhubaneswar on September 12, 2014. The top two winning teams from each of the zonal finals will participate in the national finals to be held in Mumbai in the third week of November.

The winners of the national final will receive a prize of Rs 700,000 along with the coveted Tata Crucible Trophy, while regional winners and runner-ups will receive prizes of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50, 000 respectively. Starting from Bhubaneswar, the quiz will move on to other cities that include Hyderabad (Sept 13), Goa (Sept 14), Ahmedabad (Sept 17), Nagpur (Sept 19), Indore (Sept 20), Jaipur (Sept 21), Chandigarh (Sept 22), Raipur (Sept 26), Guwahati (Sept 28), Chennai (Oct 5), Visakhapatnam (Oct 6), Lucknow (Oct 9), Gurgaon (Oct 10), Jamshedpur (Oct 11), Ranchi (Oct 12), Kochi (Oct 14), Kolkata (Oct 18), New Delhi (Oct 19), Coimbatore (Oct 26), Thiruvananthapuram (Oct 28), Bengaluru (Nov 2), Navi Mumbai (Nov 4), Pune (Nov 5), Mumbai (Nov 9). Ace quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam a.k.a ‘Pickbrain’, known for his wit and humour, will conduct the quiz. — TNS

Fortnightly Quiz 473

Sports extravaganza

1. What percentage of people in Scotland voted to remain with the United Kingdom recently?
2. What is the capital of Scotland?
3. Which river wreaked havoc in many areas of the Punjab province in Pakistan recently?
4. Name the founder of Wikileaks.
5. Name the actress playing the lead role in the movie ‘Mary Kom’.
6. Which countries will host the 2015 Cricket World Cup?
7. Who won this year’s men’s US Open tennis title?
8. Where are the Asian Games being held this year?
9. What is the mascot of the 2014 Asian Games?
10. Name the only Indian to have made it to the final of the Asian Games squash event.

—Tarun Sharma

Winners of quiz 472: The first prize by draw of lots goes to Apeksha Sharma; Class 10th; Holy Child School, Morni Road; Panchkula (Haryana) Pin Code —134205

Second: Vishal Mehra; Class VIII; Mount Carmel School, Baijnath (HP); village Pandtehar; PO Girtholi; tehsil Baijnath; district Kangra (HP); Pin — 176125

Third: Chandan; Class IX-A; DAV Centenary Public School; Sirsa, Haryana; Pin Code — 125055

Answers to quiz 472: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana; Nalanda; Shinzo Abe; Varanasi; INS Sumitra; Tawi; Three; Bastian Schweinsteiger; Asmir Begovic; Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Cash awards of Rs 400, 300 and 200 are given to the first, second and third prize winners, respectively. These are sent at the school address.

Note: Kindly mention the pincode of your place on the letter/postcard to facilitate the delivery of the prize money.

Answers can also be sent at quiz@tribunemail.com