Bangalore: Tathagat Varma - Sr. Director Business Operations at Yahoo and Visiting Faculty at St. Joseph's College of Business Administration. Last Sunday, we had annual alumni dinner of Bangalore chapter of my alma mater, JK Institute of Applied Physics and Technology. During this event, we also hosted final-year engineering students who were in town on an education tour. I was asked to make a presentation to them on a topic of my choice. Here is what I did - I put together ten things that I felt are the most important non-technical things that anyone graduating from campus to corporate should know - that no one will ever teach them! I am sharing them here. It's possible your Top Ten list might be different than mine, but feel free to share other things that might be helpful to the young engineers entering workforce in 2010: 1. Ethics * Most of us relate to ethics only when it comes to money. However, ethics is a critical issue in every walk of work and life. My favorite definition of ethics is - ethics is doing the right thing even when you know that if you were to do the wrong thing, no one would come to know. Ethics applies to each one of us in every possible small and big thing. * Invest in long-term gains, not short-term benefits 2. Respect * Two-way street: give respect to get respect * Disagreement is not disrespect. This is especially relevant in a hierarchical society like ours that values compliance, especially with what elders / seniors tell us. However, at workplace, we deal with a much more democratic environment, and hence we must learn to distinguish between the two. * Respect for all - including self-respect * Doesn't mean Sir / Ma'am anyone - respect is much beyond pleasantries, but also learn to respect with informality 3. Initiative * Five-level model of initiative * Take sensible Risks, make mistakes - learn from them and move on 4. Teamwork * Perhaps the most important change for new engineers - from an individual performance system in academics, the shift happens to a team-based performance where project success depends on team performance, and individual performance is often measured relative to other's performance * Best way to improve teamwork is to help without being asked or expected * Leave ego at home - problems are solved by democratic methods 5. Hard Work and perseverance * To make a century, you have to stay at the crease for many hours. Similarly, overnight success comes after 15 years of hard work. Malcolm Gladwell talks of 10,000 hours to success - no short cuts * Work comes first, company's brand and money comes much later - choose your employer for the kind of work you get and not the money. * Best job security: give more than what you are paid 6. Communication Skills * Learn to Listen * Learn to speak and make presentations with / without Powerpoint * Watch your language - develop a language that helps you win friends and allows your ideas to be shared effortlessly * Learn email etiquettes 7. Learn to learn * Make sure you are always learning new things - the rate at which technology advances, whatever you have learnt will be history in just a few years! * Read, Read, Read * Develop curiosity - Five Whys: better be branded a stupid than live in ignorance * Volunteer for anything that you can learn from 8. Network, Network, Network * LinkedIn, Twitter, Blog * Industry seminars, workshops, IEEE, ACM, etc. * Develop personal and professional relations with like-minded people 9. Self-management / Professionalism * Time management * Commitment management * Invest in improving yourself always - you are only as good as your last work! * Set your goals and follow them relentlessly 10. Work-life Balance * Develop hobbies as source of motivation, ideas from other walks of life, friends & refresh * Take vacations! Courtesy: Managewell.net