28th : Why do Project Work ?

As I saunter through the unavoidable rigors of the JNTU academic schedule, I come across a summer vacation (spoiler ?) in the name of mini project. Some around me are having heated, closed group discussions while others seem clueless.

All great projects begin in the same way :)

The bottomline to all these endeavors is that , as a student, I must take the initial steps towards becoming a professional. Slowly but surely, the student in me must realise that very soon, I have to address the concerns of real people in the real world. For this it is not difficult to understand that I need to have real skills. Skills that are measurable and quantifiable.

1. What is the market expecting from me ?
2. What qualities in me will increase my demand or make me employable ?
3. What is the industry looking for in an Engineering graduate ?

I suddenly realise that there is an urgent need to package myself into a marketable product. I am a product which must sell in the competition ! Needless to say, one look around me will be enough to convince me how each one is trying to sell himself to the world.

Where do I begin ?

Check whether I can put theory into practise.

Begin somewhere.

When I look at the above two words, what fascinates me is the importance of the first word.

When I reframe ...

Begin there, Begin here, Begin tomorrow, Begin anywhere.....

BEGIN I must. Because, if I dont begin , what am I doing ?

Once I begin, I should not stop. I must begin an earnest quest for knowledge in my area of interest (like many professionals do). I must make plans, I must understand constraints, I must impose restrictions on my degrees of freedom, I must measure progress against set goals, I must provide ways and means of praising and penalising myself for hits and misses. I must learn how to control myself and in the process , control the progress and quality of the project. I realise that without quality, selling myself would be difficult.

I must also learn to appreciate my strengths and weaknesses. I must test the limits of my strength and must learn to conquer my weaknesses through planned steps. I must have the wisdom to take help only when needed so that the project is not affected because of the weakness.

So, I understand that a project , for that matter, ANY PROJECT, takes me to a higher plane. I seek an objective, I travel through the path, I reach the destination overcoming the obstacles through sound judgement, I survive , I become stronger, I learn about myself more than anything else.

For this , I have to BEGIN somewhere and take a stance - that of hitting the road, the dusty path that has all the challenges laid out in front of me.

I must explore the hitherto less used skills of reading, writing, listening, observing, thinking, exploring and analysing WITH A PURPOSE.

Of course , I can also take a chartered flight to reach the destination.

The choice is mine.

I have selected my domain as Embedded Systems. Have you ?

Tomorrow, I will blog the progress made on this.

Keep in touch, take care when going out in the Sun.

"Begin - to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished" - Ausonius

Have a nice day