Making of an Engineer

Key Note address by Naganagouda SJ at the Inaugural ceremony of AVISKAR-2006 Project exhibition by AMCE Students at Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot, Karnataka on 1-Dec-2006

Respected Principal, HOD’s Teachers and my beloved student friends of BEC, Bagalkot, members of the press & media. It gives me an immense pleasure to be amongst you today, as I stand before you to address this august gathering on the occasion of AVISHKAR’2006 a technology project exhibition event. I have a mixed feeling as I speak to you because I am novice in technology and I may not appreciate technology better than anyone of you here. I can see some of you as the future technology evangelists who will shoulder the responsibility of building a better world in the years to come. I will make a sincere effort to relate myself with your thought processes and try to speak few words.

In the current knowledge economy where people with Knowledge, Skills & Abilities are the key drivers of industrial growth. The race for supremacy in technological development is at its best and war for top talent is the buzz word in the industry today as many corporations are facing severe talent crunch.

Let me talk about the role of innovation in technology development which is very relevant to what we will witness today, we as a company laid lot of emphasis on Innovation in whatever we do right from our inception. I feel all of you need to think out of the box and be willing to explore self with technology by means of taking risk wherever possible.
Let me explain to you some of the key characteristics of innovators are:

Personality Traits
As students we have a tendency to have inward focus on curriculum which is primarily driven by the semester system of learning. I am of the opinion that some where we are loosing focus of the big picture of creating intellectual engineers. We are merely becoming just engineers with a degree. Today as we are discussing about Aviskar I request each of you to develop some key skills which will help you to think differently and work better.
• Out of Box Thinking
• Never say die Attitude & Hard work
• Commitment & Ownership
• Risk taking ability to explore the unknown
Technology Appreciation traits
In Today’s world Technology has reached a stage in our life where it’s difficult to detach ourselves from its existence. So much so that today that we have started to relate our selves with more of technology than our name for example if you happen to meet any Software engineer in Bangalore if you ask anyone “who are you?”, instant answer will be I am a Java/.Net engineer. While this is good to be passionate about technology, but we should not forget that Technology is a means to solve the problem and its ever changing. So we should develop skills to appreciate different technologies at different times in our life. I would like to list some of the key competencies which we need to cultivate while at college so that we are better equipped to face the technological complexities offer by the industry.
• Product Mentality
• Problems = Opportunity
• Domain Knowledge
• Analytical Ability
• Continuous Learning
• Think Quality.. think innovation..
Innovation does not revolve around people who think alike, In fact Diversity is one key element of innovation, as a team, as a college, as an enterprise we need to encourage diversity so that ignited minds can think in many different ways to bring innovative ideas and convert them as products/services etc. Another key element is to create a sense of inclusion where you make the other person always wanted and continuously encourage in the right direction so that it infuses a strong sense of involvement which will result in innovative ideas.

I see competition everywhere right from admitting an infant into a kinder Garden school, to secure a seat in a busy City bus, sneaking through jammed traffic, getting a BE/Medical seat, CAT entrance rush, most importantly placements etc. etc. You may be wondering why I am quoting these examples, there is one common in all these examples i.e human is involved. So what I mean to say is we are the cause for every action & consequences that are haunting all of us today.

My question to all of you is, are we creating a world full of thinkers, innovators or a chaotic bunch of ordinary people. I think each one of us have to find answers and only we can think of a better answer and we only can build a better world.

I am sure all of you have the divine potential to create innovative solutions which will make all of us proud one day and more importantly your parents, your alma mater and at large our country.

All the very best and good luck..

SWOT – A tool for Self Assessment

SWOT is basically raising the level of self understanding and self appreciation of knowledge, skills & abilities that one possesses. It is understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses when planning for individual’s career. SWOT is a key tool in the career planning for individuals.

A SWOT analysis focuses on the internal and external environments, examining strengths and weaknesses in the internal environment and opportunities and threats in the external environment. SWOT Analysis is a powerful technique for identifying Strengths and Weaknesses, and for examining the Opportunities and Threats you face. It helps you develop your career in a way that takes best advantage of your talent, knowledge, Skills, Abilities & opportunities.
Why SWOT Tool:
It’s a very powerful tool to know what we don’t know & provides a way to develop skills/competencies for the required role.
When one gets into MindTree, this enables the Practice/COE champion to understand the individuals overall abilities & developmental areas and accordingly one can prepare a Plan of Action.
A tool to help a person deal with problems and issues that affect his/her career growth.
A technique that allows for a greater understanding of one’s abilities and areas of weakness and for being honest and objective about these.
Knowing what you are trying to achieve & enables you to enhance the overall personality traits.
A detailed understanding of a situation and the problems inherent in it along with knowledge of the resources available to deal with it
What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that with a little thought, it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well placed to take advantage of and also to understand your weaknesses which you can manage /Eliminate threats which would otherwise catch you unaware anytime.

I N T E R N A L
YourStrengths
YourWeaknesses
E X T E R N A L
Opportunitiesin Your Career Field
Threatsin Your Career Field

One needs to evaluate all the time as to what he/she should learn & develop on the job so that they can enhance overall competencies and become a true professional. We believe SWOT is a great technique to adopt so that this can help individual to plan for their overall development and in the process enhance overall competencies and become highly competent professionals.