Working on oneself

Working on oneself does boost one’s confidence

Working on oneself can be

- taking care of your body

- wearing clothes that highlight your body

- eating well

- pursuing interests etc

You need a little bit of everything

There might not be anything wrong with the company you keep but you need to have more breadth and depth to what you absorb from around

My group has varied interests. I have book lovers, movie lovers, photographers etc in my group

They are wannabe philosophers too

Hence our topics are very vast. That itself will help one develop interests in topics. When you develop an interest in topics, you naturally learn things

I used to watch only movies and share only things about movies 15 years back. But I forced myself into learning new things

Last year, I was using Uber. A Kenyan was driving and I could talk to him about Kenya, food, and their passion

I used Duolingo to learn new languages. Once a French driver was picking me up. I spoke to him in broken French

It doesn’t have to be French or Kenyan

Just developing an interest in the driver who is driving is good enough to learn new things

If not anything, you will learn more about the part of the town they come from

Now to be very pointed. I feel that you have to expand your friend’s circle. That way, you will learn beyond your current area of interest. I think your strength currently is networks, coding, and security. ( I make this inference from your forwards). You should expand by joining interest groups online or offline.

Rock your profile - a linkedIn engagement story

So I attended Rock your profile sessions with LinkedIn experts with Great Learning. This old dog is trying to learn new tricks. May the universe align with her!

The basic point they tried to drive home is 'Your profile is your story. So make it interesting'

Work experience

    Add examples. Write your own content and share it. Feature those stories. It will help the recruiter to know what you are up to without going through your entire profile.

    Work experience should be detailed, not short, and very objective kind. Take a look at the examples in sample profiles.

Volunteer experience

   Are always good to have. It will give a great vibe to the recruiter.

   Do mention technical-specific skills. But don't restrict to that. Add general skills as well, because many a times recruiter would search with generic skills. Make sure that you are included in the wider search

The cover story is a relatively new feature. It's recommended having a small video of yourself, introducing yourself, preferably closing with a call for action

It is recommended to write your own posts, and add featured posts. It will give an idea of what you are working on currently/more recently. Celebrate occasions and post them on LinkedIn

At times recruiters filter candidates who follow the company. So follow the company you are looking out for opportunity.

This is one of the star points. Spending 15 minutes a day on the professional platform will help us to keep abreast of new developments as well as help to improve the profile and reachability.

Sample Profiles

promises to keep

I promise to myself that I will keep myself as my absolute priority

I promise that I will be accountable for my actions, and will account for the space that I occupy

I promise that I will be more aware and be present

I promise that I will always believe in a better future

I promise that I won't waste my time with people to who I don't matter :)

I promise that I will love and accept my body and her needs

I promise that I will try living a self-fulfilling life that I won't look out for acceptance from anyone other than me

Need of the hour

 Mom mentioned that the neighbor's kid went to Sweden, during the pandemic. It shouldn't have bothered me, but then she added that she saw the update on FB. I was sitting there lazily waiting for my daughter to finish her dinner. I had spare time and so I ventured to check my FB. The protagonist is closer to my age than Mom's. And I have over 500 friends. Let me peep into her online life. To my dismay, I was not on the friend's list and she had her profile locked tight.

Mom was still hovering over and rubbed it into my face. 'Everyone around is on my friend's list. Wonder why you are not there.' After a pause, she added. 'R is a lucky charm for her husband. Soon after their marriage, he got an onsite project.' I couldn't agree more. They are both lucky if you consider living in a rich country as a consultant is a great opportunity. 

As I was dawdling, I decided to make better use of my time - peep into the guy's FB account. Men, duh, they keep their posts and account-wide open like a public place for they believe nobody is jobless enough to snoop around. His onsite persona suggests he is a new generation 'woke' guy. Their marriage pics, unfortunately, took me to my old past, making a fool of myself, adorning jewels and red silk saree. While I was struggling to come out of it, I heard her saying - There is no point glancing through a random person's profile, if you wanted, you should have struggled enough and tried getting onsite and moved out.

I left the room in a hurry for D had finished her dinner. Returning back to our room I realized one thing. For people like us who don't have too many good and flashy things happening in our lives, social media is a bad thing. I did what I should have done a long time ago. Suspended my account.

For a new start.

Yo yo yoga!

 I have a sweet little thing to celebrate today.

Our Curtain panels got old (it was plastic) and a couple of them fell off in the last two weeks. Generally, my father would climb up and plug in the new metallic ones. There is some drilling and plugging and screwing involved. I had previously tried the drilling part and failed miserably since my hand won't keep steady when the electric driller hammers in a hole. This time my father's health cautioned him from the expedition. He was ready to experiment with me drilling the hole, with a promise that he will reinforce if there is any need.

You won't believe it, what the heck, even I didn't believe it. I could hold the heavy hand driller steadily and get the holes done right. My arms have got stronger.