Through the whole two years  we came to end our PPD sessions forever, sad to hear that for all of us. But the lessons that we learnt from the PPD is not ended through our life journey. Unfortunately I couldn’t participate many sessions.. But the full story of many sessions were come to know when my friends were discussing them as fun time. It means they were inspired that much from the PPD sessions, no doubt they have pure memories about the PPD.

This session I came to know from my friends, because couldn’t participate to whole 3^rd semester due to a personal reason.

    On that day my friends were asked to divide in to three groups and sit other side of the chair without seeing the white board. And marker pens were given to one member of each of the groups. Then they were requested to write a  story with good ending. But team members were not allowed to talk. Each of member was allowed to write one word at a time. Then each of member had to run quickly to the board and just read the current story was written so far and add suitable word to the story. The activity had 4 rounds to complete the task.

   At the end of the task they could not realize a good ended story. It was a chaos one. So my friends told me that, they could laugh seeing the finale story. Since the words were that much funny to the situation. The finale story was clearly unordered as well as it was unbalanced one.

   I thought even many experts in language were there no one can build a perfect story using this way. You know why??

   To do any of things as a group there must be plan, Because members are with different type of ideas. Even there is a plan, no one can build a perfect product without good communication. In here my friends were not allowed to communicate. That is why they could not success at that moment. As well as they could not have a time to plan, just think a little and write.

From this task we came to know the spirit of group work is always  based on communication.

Hearing the word “interview” the job seekers as well as who are willing to go another company for a new job are definitely getting fear. Because of they have doubts that they may not have done  perfectly. If you could not put great effort to the interview you will miss a great opportunity in your life journey. Therefor we have to know how to prepare before an interview.

1.Find what is the company

For the very first time you have to find more details about the company like history, what are the specialized area of the company, who is the manager, what vacancies are offering, what are the projects etc. Knowing these details the interviewers will be surely impressed. As well as knowing the interviewers may help you somehow. Their details can find from facebook, linkedIn etc..

2.Introduce yourself

You have to do a speech about yourself only related to the  vacancy. It should be included your achievements and objectives.

3.Ready or common questions

You can find the common questions those who were faced in interviews related to your area. And then you can get ready for these questions and show in your colors in the interview from these  types of questions.

4.Chance to ask question from them

If you are asked to ask questions from them, you have to think of just your image which you were maintained so far. Then ask like how many candidates are with me, how many candidates have fortune to enter this position. Etc. But asking about the salary is not suitable for the situation.

5.Be prepared for the general questions and preparing the documents

Think  about yourself and what can you do ? Expert area in your carrier, why do you suit for this position,… likewise you can question and answer them. Then you can be prepared well. Preparing documents must be in order. Therefore you can follow the structure of your CV and order the documents according to them.  And certificates should be ordered according to the date as well. (Latest to oldest)

6.Get used to actions

When you are hand shaking you must prove that you are in more confidence by tightly hold the hand and shake it.

7.External look and be punctual

For the day your appearance must be a key point to success the interview. So you must properly ware formal cloths with light colors. And always try to show  you are in confidence, always with smile, maintain the eye contact all the time. Etc..

At the end of the interview  thank them and  keep chair back before your leaving.

Punctuality is the most important things when you are willing to be a professional guy. So be there in the place 10 minutes  before interview begins.

      This is a one of missing sessions for me. After hearing the session I had so many worries about this. Because I have never faced any professional level of interviews.  From that I might able to get some experience before a real time interview.

In the session my friends had to act as interviewers and interviewees. The situation like this they had not any fear to face as  interviewees. Because there was no stress. Although in that moment my friends could realize what were done wrong. Most of them were stuck when speaking in English as well as could not manage answers pretty well.

Although the interviewers asked many questions, in that situation interviewees were felt that they were in a real interview. Because of the fear they had done many things which were restricted by miss Sarasi.

Most of my friends told me that they could not maintain eye contacts during the interview. And also they did not move the chairs as before.

From this kind of rehearsal definitely give some confidence to a real world interview. My friends were told that it was quiet nice experience.

How important CVs are??

  Now a days the CV is  the most important document for an interview. Therefore everyone better to know to write a CV  which can be highlighted your achieved qualifications and details in the interview as well as get selected to the interview. And also Judges judge with  some plus points seeing the CV, how the applicant’s neat is.

Before there was a common format  to write a CV, like

The heading was this.

But now the way of writing CV is totally changed, but the structure is same as before one, although there is not necessary to write the heading as Curriculum vitae.

So let’s in to the topic, how to write a CV in modern way,

Although the there is no special format to write a CV. It can be your own format. But only thing you have to do is , the structure should sort latest to oldest.

Technical writing????

Is it how to write proper way something in a paper??

  When I was hear the words “technical writing” at the very first time, it came to my mind like this question. After hearing the definition I could not bear my laugh for a few seconds, because the technical writing is totally different. It is word in a software field as well as it is a job in software industry. For the very first time I could participate to a workshop in a software company as a undergraduate student on 12^th of September in 2018, it is nothing but WSO₂ one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. It was great pleasure on me. At the beginning we were given WSO₂  books and pens and also the WSO₂ staff treated us many treatments for the lunch as well.

   So in the first session the friendly WSO₂ staff gave the introduction of the technical writing. The one who was teaching us was a programmer  few years before, but now she is a technical writer. In that situation we came to know that the technical writing is a pretty good job in this field. So the technical writer may have to write about 5% -10% from their total job. So the rest of the things technical writer have to gather requirements and understanding the product correctly. Therefore he or she have to study the product smoothly.

 So to be a technical writer, he/she must have proper language literacy in grammar. Therefore we were given some sentences to find the error of the sentences to give the message of how  a technical writer has to aware of the grammar.

At the end of the session they broke our boringness by holding a fun activity and  the winners were treated from the WSO₂  t-shirts and chocolates.

Expert is someone who has a prolonged or intense experience through practice and education in a particular field. – Wikipedia –

   In last week of September in our PPD session was “Expert Game”. Therefor we were divided into 4 groups by our lecturer miss Sarasi. Then we were asked to discuss  to which field your group members expert and come up with 3 expert fields, and submit a innovative simple  product using three expert fields. So in our group came up with chess, gaming and also moulding  of 3 expert fields. Since we are doing software engineering, our minds always run relative to the software. Because of that we couldn’t jump out of the well, therefor we came up with real chess game like in Harry Potter film.

    Like us other groups also couldn’t jump out of the well. But the one team came up with 3 expert fields of hand crafts, bike riding and reading. Their product was eye glass cover. It was thinking beyond the sense. But  miss Sarasi said that the combination of the fields were not connected properly. And also other team also  were advised to try do simple product.

From these kind of activities we could gain many things in to our mind,

How to work as a team

How to respect to other’s ideas

How to think without covering one frame.

How important of work as a group of people.

What do you come to your mind in the very first time that hearing the word of “reflection”, nothing another, surely a mirror should be come to your mind, shouldn’t it?    So the word reflection is come with word “self” as self reflection, your mind surely run aimlessly. But when you think about deeper it is come  reflection of your face to your mind. So how you was?.

In this PPD session we were asked to take a selfie and take a small look on it. Through the five minutes most of us looked our external picture of ours. After five minutes we were asked that “what do you see?” by  Miss Sarasi. Most of my friends answered “nothing special”. But after writing the topic of the session on the white board we came to know we should have to look deeper in ourselves.

Take five minutes and think who are you?

This I like a meditation, because we forget other things for a moment and think ourselves. Then you surely came to your mind how long you were traveled your life journey. So there can be many good things as well as bad things, whatever you can remember you have to think who are you now? Have ever taken any lesson from the bad things? What qualities should I improve? How to be the best man to the world? Have you ever been recognized by the society? Likewise you can question by yourself. For each and every question you can answer. Then get the feedback from the society from curved way and be a responsible and respectable man to the society.

How many mad things have you ever done? But no worries, because they were happened past. Now is the time to take a lesson from them and not to do such mad things further. Try the meditation of SELF REFLECTION!!!  You may feel you are going to be giant of humanity.    

At the finale day of the PPD session the trust walk was the activity  was made all of us laugh because the activity was that much interested. So let me explain the activity first.

The activity had two rounds and the second round   was little bit difficult than first round. So at the beginning we were instructed  the rules and objectives. So the rules and objectives were

1.The members must find a partner for each.

2.One member of the each group to be a guide and the other one to be covered eyes with the handkerchief.

3.So the guide must guide the blinded person to the correct destination without touching him or her.

4.When is walking though the path there were many barriers and objects, but the blinded person can only walk without touching any objects.

5.The objective was to tap a brick which was in the destination.

           In the first round we are instructed to guide the blinded person to the destination where a brick was in there and to be tapped on that brick to complete the task. So in the first round we had to walk over the stair cases, though  chairs and through a door. As a good guide we had to guide our partners how many steps should walk forward and side to avoid harm to our partners. 

   

But in the second round we had to face lots of barriers like maker pens which were grounded , a broom across the bottom of the door and a long prank was ahead of the  final destination. The starting point was same as the first round but the objective was little bit changed.  So the objective was to tap the brick which was as the first round and tap another two concrete blocks which was in the final destination.

So at the end of the session ,

            We came to know many things to our mind. One is trust!!!.... trust is the way someone can be memorized in your heart to the whole life. Once someone break our trust about him or her, it cannot fix as before like a  glass. Once glass is broken it can not fix as like before. When in the activity we trusted our partners when we were blinded. If we did not trust them we might be harmed ourselves as well as if blinded person was misled the result might be the same.And the second one is responsible to protect the trust. Once someone trust you, try in your best to protect it, it is not that much hard. When we were as guide in our activity we had to take our responsible to guide our partners to not be happened any harm. So the third one is to listen to the instructions correctly. The correct instructions are always guided to the expected objective without any harm. So in our activity we were instructed by Miss Sarasi to the destination. So some groups could not achieve the objective correctly due to do not listen to the instructions well.

The lesson is to motivate ourselves to be wise enough to trust people, take responsible to protect the trust and also listen carefully to the instructions.