I was invited for a talk at Chennai Business School . Ram and I put our heads together and decided that we will have this session 'interactive' ( previous experience(s) of students getting bored listening to me :P ). We wanted to make it useful for students ( near term - Job hunt , since they are graduating in a month ) and for us ( we have this big aim of getting people/students around us think about starting up ). So we called this one ' Workshop on Shopping for work' - Shopping being required for both the job hunt and all of entrepreneurship. (Thanks to NEN / Vishnu for this opportunity & tips to interact with students )
I've pasted my speaker notes below - Examples i used in the class for each step is missing.
Made students 'write' on a piece of paper on how they would go about Steps 3 and 5 . We discussed TWO case studies for Steps 3 and ONE for step 5, with students contributing all the answers with me 'moderating' the session with 'questions'. Tried to make the session more 'actionable / implementable'
Workshop on 'Shopping for Work'
- Ice-breaker ( write your dream jobs on paper and ‘rocket’ them to front )
- Pick a few of them at random and read them to the class. Find out why they are ‘dream jobs’. Go to the ‘root’ of all dream jobs. Clarity on what is a 'Dream job' - A job which you love doing and get paid for doing those.
- Shopping for work – Jobs – how to land that dream job ? ( Become an expert / learn/think : Read on internet / blog / learn from people - Share ideas : blogs/twitter/web/social media – take initiatives : Organise events in your dream area / Do projects etc – connect with people in the ‘dream area’ )
- Why starting up makes sense in this current economy ? Examples of start-ups formed during recession
- Startup workshop – How can one startup ?
- Do all of Step 3
- Why do company’s exist ? ( To solve people’s problems for which they will pay : So, go find people’s problems : get inquisitive : ask questions wherever you go / whoever you meet : Read on the web – blogs of entrepreneurs / experts etc )
- What is the most important ingredient in a startup ? (Team : How can you build team ? Where can you find people to form a team ? People complementing skills )
- How will you sustain – you have an idea / team .. ? ( Monies : 1st customer – how do you get . Raise money from pals , family etc )
Do what you love doing – you have the best chance of becoming the ‘best’ at it. Startups are magical – they are created with nothing but have the potential to become big thing. Startups need not be just companies, it can be a band or a sports team or a non-profit group and many more. Take initiatives , this is the time for it – you don’t have many responsibilities. Starting up right after school is the best time since cost of failure is low – after that, it becomes a lot harder due to responsibilities and cost of failures. So, go out there, the world is your playground. Experiment , create and have a lot of fun.
Would love to know your thoughts on how to make the session 'engaging' and yet provide useful 'content'.
2 comments:
Yes, the concept of a dream job needs to be explained here. For instance 'Private Equity and Investment Banking' is an automatic 'dream' most MBA folks have. One constraint is that freshers would find it difficult to fathom fields that appeal to them unless they do some time and build up work ex. It would give them a better idea of how much they like their perceived likes :-)
I agree networking is the best way to connect with opportunities and people.
Wow ! that was some solid advice :-)
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