Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Resume and Blog

Today morning received a mail from none less than ieee-career-alert@ieee.org, as a part of IEEE membership service, where the very first article is titled, 'How a Personal Blog Can Boost Your Career'. The article says, "What better way to introduce yourself to thousands of people than by giving them a window into how you think, how you write, whether you come up with good ideas, and how adept you are at marketing? That’s what a personal blog is, after all. “Some people have suggested that a personal blog will someday replace the resume,” says a Jobacle.com article. For a potential employer, your posts—as well as your ability to cultivate an audience—provide concrete examples of what you might contribute to their firm. Bloggers can also benefit from the built-in avenue for relationship building: the comment section." and provides this link to read on.

This brings us to a fundamental question -Why blog? It is not mere philosophy to have an answer like - I blog because I exist. Didn't we hear much before the era of blogging - I think, therefore I am. Once blogging becomes a resume building exercise, we may have - I blog what I do not think, rather what I want others to think of me.

This gives me an opportunity to ask myself what exactly is the purpose of my blog. I did not and do not want to force myself to set any specific target to be achieved by this blog. I wanted to share with people, specially the youth, what I feel if I have the luxury :-) of spending sometime on the keyboard. A person near twenty may feel curious about what is there around forty. If I look back at the very first post dated Sept. 05, 2007 (Link), I felt that day that everybody should hear what I had heard from Chiranjeev Maharaj (Swami Satyabodhananda of Ramakrishna Mission) and felt the urge of starting this blog. The post remembering my father (Link) had been the closest to my heart and brings tears whenever I get an opportunity to go through it.

Having been brought up in an environment where organization discipline is the key (Link) and working in private sector for more than six years where discipline is the final word, I believe that the organization hierarchy is to be respected and the solution to a problem lies within the organization framework. However, no two organizations are same and it is an ever-learning process. The organization itself may find itself at a cross road at some point of time in history, searching for an identity, somewhat confused in defining role of its hierarchy and the command structure. As an individual's character is tested in trying times, the organization which has a persona of its own, gets tested during this period. This is the time to take everybody into confidence, to stick together as a unit, to contribute in a constructive manner through no-superficial engagement and meaningful dialogue, to ignore small blips and not being sarcastic about it, to look at bigger picture rather than settling old scores, to help the organization to evolve in a smooth way for the betterment of all.

Extending the existential issue further, if the organization / institution is the body and I am a part / limb, then when organization dies, me too. I exist because the institution exists. I am not standing on void without any support from anybody. A part of me dies if my family is ruined. A part of me dies of my work place is ruined. A part of me dies if the society around, the country is ruined. Let us make blood flow through all veins. Let us be a part of the big churning - the pain that makes the butterfly coming out of a caterpillar when the evolution goes in the right direction. Let us do our bit to set the direction of the evolution right. I again quote Mahatma Gandhi to end this post even if I sound repetitive (the previous post on IIT JEE) , "Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?"

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