What are your career aspirations ? How will your education help you achieve them ?

What are your career aspirations ? How will your education at XXXXXXX help you achieve them ?

My career aspirations are to be the best in whatever I do.

It’s been my dream to study at XXXXXXX. If there’s one name which has inspired me the most in the last 6 years, it’s simply the name XXXXXXX. I have known quite of few of and batch mates my seniors to completed their Bachelor’s degree from our university and then gone on to pursue their higher studies in various disciplines in universities across the world. Most of them have done their Masters in Science from universities in the US but till date I haven’t heard of any one going to XXXXXXX.

I have been reading a lot on the XXXXXXX website about the university and its traditions. I have been following the discussions about XXXXXXX . Also about the courses, the students and all that XXXXXXX has to offer.

I feel at XXXXXXX, there’s tremendous scope for learning for me in terms of professional discipline as well as in terms of personal growth.

I have been working in the telecom services industry since July 2004. As part of my role of being an Engineer with the Professional Services team at Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd, I handle client requirements involving complex business designs and related technical complications. Contrary to my earlier role of merely implementing a solution, I have now started thinking from the client’s side. Since, I spent most of my work time at the client site, I tend to become a medium of interaction for noting their requirements and putting the necessary technical solutions into place such that their requirements are met and business targets are achieved. The entire purpose of deploying a new solution is based on the Return On Investment (ROI) principle where the customer is prepared to invest to optimize his available means and get maximum profit at a consistent if not growing rate.

At times this outlook of mine towards work has drawn flak from some of my superiors as it involvess getting myself involved in such lengthy discussions and negotiations with the client teams and getting to know their business strategy, their target audience and the expected returns. At the same time, the head of my department , has constantly encouraged me in the way I think and handle clients since this allows me to learn the entire paradigm of the client – vendor relationship. I have got to learn project management which cumulatively involves time and people management. It requires boldness at times along with leadership skills and willingness to work in a team. The priority is always the customer and their targets and not any individual goals. All these are helping me position myself as a consultant to such businesses since I have had a chance to get my hands “ dirty” by sitting with the operations teams on the floor and the technical teams which give me “ bit by bit “ account of the small and big successes and failures on a daily basis.

Now, I want to know how business is done the way it is done. I like asking questions and getting to know more about the way the entire business cycle is planned and executed. This helps me serve my clients better as I know what they expect from me. Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd, my employer pitches itself to be a customer responsive organization committed to the getting the best end to end solutions. In a lot many ways, I do what my organization wants me to do.

I feel XXXXXXX can offer me more such opportunities in understanding business rules and logic. I would be getting to interact with the best in the world, in terms of people, thoughts and ideas. In such a amazing confluence of multiple cultures and related fields, the level of learning and enrichment which I would be getting is unparalleled else where in the world.

I believe, no matter how big or small, any task or activity undertaken by an individual should be done whole heartedly. XXXXXXX not only encourages such thinking but makes us feel confident of the task undertaken such that it’s a success in which ever way possible. Perhaps this is why XXXXXXX produces a huge number of entrepreneurs each year. And it’s their way of showing gratitude when they offer to help the university in continuing and maintaining the rich tradition they have learnt and been through.

I hope my dream of being a part of XXXXXXX as a student would be realized.

what matters the most to me and why

What matters to you and why ?

What matters the most to me is my hunger for knowledge. I like learning something new each and every moment. I take inspiration and new ideas from everything and everyone around me. It’s an ongoing process without any boundaries or limits defined. From the behavior of an irate customer to the pages of a non fiction book, interaction with people in various forms is how I gain knowledge.

This essay topic has actually forced me to introspect into my life and my priorities and I realized if there’s one thing which is really important to me , it’s the power of knowledge. Knowledge or learning may be in any form but it’s my way of life. Whatever I do, whomsoever I meet, whatever I read or watch, even if it’s certain behavioral aspects of others, I regard everything around me as a source of learning.

I would like to break up learning into modes or phases with some examples. These are specific to my interest and are based on my experiences.

Family and Friends: My parents have been my best source of inspiration and greatest teachers’ right since my childhood. My sister and I, have been brought up with great care and affection. My parents while being strict in terms of discipline have been liberal in terms of the small wants and desires we have had as kids. We have always been surrounded by books because of which reading has become one of our favorite past times. We have had all sorts of books starting from Noddy, fairy tales to Non-fiction like Stalingrad.

I have not known the feeling of discomfort while watching other kids have something I did not. The university campus in which we stayed was like a huge family with lots of kids of the same age. So not only my parents but it was the sheer love and affection of our neighborhood which made sure these values got incorporated in us. Though considerable time has passed since then and most of us kids have moved out of the campus, the lessons learnt haven’t got lost in the sands of time.

Trying to limit the importance or influence of my friends circle isn’t possible especially when some of my friends have been with me since the first day at primary school! Making friends, studying and sharing with them without a care in the world is something which marks the entire childhood. Although there are no rules in making friends, I have found common ideas and hobbies to know people. Getting to know more people has added to my personality and given more dimension to it. The vibrant and vast cultural differences in our country give me an insight of the way others are. Different people handle the same situation in their own different way. Getting to know their line of thought and handling of the issue has enriched my experience as I can relate to people by their actions even if don’t really know them .

My friends circle is spread far and wide. Starting from primary school, right up to engineering studies, I have known new people everyday. I have tried to maintain old bonds through various means of communication. Every single experience has added a part of my friends into me. I have acquired a multitude of skills and knowledge of different subjects and topics from my friends over the years.

School and College: Schooling is easily the most important aspect of learning I have gone through. I have been to three different schools .The main focus of schools is to follow a particular syllabus for various subjects and make us aware of all the subjects namely languages, science, social sciences and mathematics. The joy of learning during interaction with my teachers and classmates was inculcated by the classroom study model. Interaction with other students of different age groups during group activities, taught me respect for others as well as handle peer pressure. .

My Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication has made me what I am today. I had opted for Computer Science Engineering earlier but took a year to understand the difference between the other branches of engineering. I changed my field of interest to after the first year as I got more interested in the communications field.

Classroom and laboratory learning at college have grilled concepts and understanding of logic in me. The refusal to take anything by its face value , ask intelligent questions and get to the core of a subject or topic is what has been inculcated into me. The entire four year cycle of the Engineering course along with the Industrial training opened my eyes to new people and ideas.

Job Experience : I have been working now for about two and a half years. I have been the youngest member of my team known as the Professional Services all this while. This is one of the most technically sound departments of the organization and has to cater to extremely high expectations from external and internal clients alike. The very fact that I was the only one selected from a batch of fifteen during the induction programme made me realize the levels of commitment and dedication that this team was looking for.

My clients have been a great source of learning too. From the very beginning, I have been exposed to front end client interactions and now my role is of the onsite implementation engineer. I get to handle all sorts of clients, which is never an easy task. Customers in a professional environment are extremely demanding and aggressively put in their requirements which have to be handled as per their terms and conditions. More so, the deadlines set as per their business targets and for maximizing profit with minimum input can be quite a thin line to walk on.

In a typical situation, the implementation timelines are very clearly communicated to the clients with the scope of work or the legal document which binds the business agreement as agreed by the two parties. Invariably during installations, things do go haywire and because of the client’s targets or high expectations from us. This forces us to work at blistering pace for long hours such that the timelines involved in the implementation are shrunk as much as possible. For me, its always done a great deal of good as I know I can push myself to extreme physical and mental limits as and when required. My immediate superiors have had difficult scenarios in which they have been forced to make tall promises and commitments to customers which seem impossible. Its when the impossible is made possible, when people sit up and take notice of the sheer dedication and hard work of the team members who put in everything into the job so that the company brand name doesn’t take a hit. At the same time, the superiors take immense pride and confidence in introducing us to the entire organization. Handling tough customers, squeezing timelines and diffusing potentially explosive situations is what adds to the experience and as well as sets bench marks for future projects and assignments.

My current job profile involves a lot of travel across India. I have been in quite a few cities down south and have really enjoyed it. I have a wide variety of experiences in during my stay and interaction with the people there. Its said India is “ Unity in diversity “ Nothing could come closer to this statement. The differences and similarities in all these places in terms of people, food and culture are amazing. Learning to take travel with hardship as well as tackle work in different surroundings has been the hallmark of my work in Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd.

I stay in Gurgaon which is known as new emerging India’s brightest jewel. My learning from Gurgaon has been the rise of the real estate business. This city had nothing but a few villages and shrubs until about five years back. Located about an hour’s drive from the heart of Delhi, Gurgaon caught the fancy of a handful of realty developers who have now put this once small sleepy town on the world map. Although Gurgaon has miles to go before it can catch up with the other well known cities of the world, its carving a name for itself because of the extremely high levels of talent and opportunity it is attracting. Seeing such a fantastic growth opportunity where others say waste is what dreams are made up of . This goes to show how opportunities can be created out of nothing and still be successful.

Sport: The never-say-spirit is what I have learnt from sport. I have been a soccer and lawn tennis player during my college days. The complete inacceptance of defeat ,no matter how tough the opponent is how I have become mentally tougher. Sports persons like Lance Armstrong, Michael Schumacher and Tiger Woods have ruthlessly dominated their sports in spite of professional, personal and health hazards. This has inspired me to at least try and be one of them. Their dedication and hard work has paid off and they reached the zenith of their respective fields. If they can, then why can’t I ? This has helped me in tackle the most tricky situations on site when clients make unreasonable or seemingly impossible demands. The 24/7 Customer, Bangalore Proof-Of-Concept project is one such example. The expectations from our team were very high and I was faced with a plethora of problems. Every single piece of hardware failed , one after the other. I had lost ten days because of this I had just 4 days to complete the task originally allocated for 14 days. All the pre-defined timelines were met and the business targets of the client and my organization were achieved satisfactorily.

Thus, every stage of interaction can be defined as a different chapter being added into my life. True learning never gets over as every single means of communication keeps adding to my knowledge base. With each passing day, I get to know more, learn more and create new platforms for further learning.