November - Melancholy Moods

Followed by the resume revamp there was an application which I had made on an open internal requirement within my present organisation. I was really interested in the role and this was exactly something to which I wanted to progress in my career. Well, I had invested quite a bit of my time and effort for the application and was very happy when I was successful at the application level. The internal application process is quite complex where you need to clearly describe your competence against the desirable and essential competencies with relevant evidence in the projects. This one had a list of 20+ on which I had spent considerable time on drafting my application. When I had passed the stage of application progress, I had a serious thought on this and did a quality preparation for the interview as I knew progressing from an analyst role to a manager role is not that easy within any organisation.

You expect certain type of ‘usual’ questions in any interviews. For example, ‘tell me about yourself; tell me about your present job’. But in this case the interview style was quite different on very high application level questions. The interview lasted for more than an hour and by the time I was out of the room, I realised I was sweating and drained out. Is that nerves??? May be…But then, I am sure I didn’t have a confidence problem. Also, I had done my home work for the preparation too. Each of the questions made me think and think, speak up and almost give alternate options for all answers. It was mentioned during the start that there are no right/wrong answers or tricky questions. It was just to know how you suit to the proper project management role. However, after the interview I was very happy that I got a chance to experience such a drilling down interview and expected a very good feedback even if I was rejected. But then, yesterday afternoon while I was on a middle of my ‘Presentation Skills’ training from Bray Leino I was offered this role…WOOHOO!!! Was excited …wanted to share the good news with SreeRaj; who was busy so left a voice mail. He was pleased and gave me a call back later. Then, spoke to Mums/Dads and was then settled for a bit. May be that I was so excited I couldn’t think straight during the training course. I had accepted the offer later on in the evening. Now, it’s left with my present and future line managers to negotiate start date, hand over contracts and the likes.

Talking about the course on Bray Leino Presentation Skills: There were times in my life when I used to run away from stages, presentations and talking in public. But then this has changed over the time. But then can’t really say that I have always delivered effective and impressive presentations. This may be due to a variety of reasons, say the strength of content, organisation and plan of presentation, style and of course knowledge of audience too. But then there were times when I was specifically recognised for my presentation skills during my previous jobs and MBA course.

The training with Bray Leino was more or less an eye opener. You have numerous things to improve on and it works on a CI theory – Continuous Improvement. It was more or less proved to you through your presentations. My presentation to the training group on the first day bagged me a good mix of positive and negative feedback. No, you should say ‘can improve on’ rather than negative. The feedback touched out on all aspects ranging from the theme of your presentation to the timbre of your voice. You analyse yourself after the presentation and you realise from the group feedback that you weren’t that awful as you thought. The basic principle is the horizontal plan and then PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I think the same logic applies to report writing as well.

One of the interesting sessions was on the tapping therapy, emotional freedom techniques and much more. I am not entirely sure on the extent to which you can rely on them, but then may be it works as its all about nerves and your brain. The emphasis all the way was on confidence. I have realised how my confidence levels have gone high over the years. I can handle people and even crowds, talk talk and talk. But then there is always this element of confidence which I seem to be missing occasionally – especially when you think, ‘Oh, I am going to look stupid!, What would they think of me?’ ‘Am I saying the right thing?’…But then, no one expects you to be perfect. As long as I am not in a debate I have taught myself to handle these situations – whether it is work related or not. In a debate, I often feel it is always the ego in you make you work which is sometimes good.

I am vaulting from topics after topics for no reason. May be that’s the Friday effect. The weekend is not planned at all. Halloween night today, and this is not making a big difference with us. I completely forgot about Halloween and realised it when I got a free crème egg along with Yorkshire metro today morning. It is too cold to go out and do something actually; the weekend doesn’t seem to be any better too. But I am expecting some kids from the neighbourhood for chocolates. And the cooking bit tonight as SreeRaj is back home after 3 days in Birmingham and is complaining on the food he had to have for the past 2-3 days. So, that’s it for the week. Had an eventful week! - Interview, Good news on a friend who is blessed with a baby, a bit of sad news on a friend who is returning to India finishing contract in UK, Interview Results and so much more I am pleased that I found out the result of the interview otherwise I would have at least thought about it during the weekend. It’s start now- November, it is said that melancholy moods are associated with this month. Quite suits for this winter (supposedly autumn)!