Most academic institutions including top B-schools, engineering and other technical education institutes focus on their campus recruitment. In the race they tend to forget that it is not the degree but the learning; not the employment but the employability which are the key pillars of real life perspective that the students could get through the learnings during their tenure in academia.
The data on campus recruitment are published every now and then but the emphasis on how to improve the employability is seldom available. The academia despite knowing very well the importance of ‘Campus to Corporate’ gets handicapped when it comes to improve the pace of learning to enhance employability. A recent book titled ‘Campus to Corporate’ authored by management consultant and founder director of Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM) Pune offers insights and road map on ‘how to deliver’ instead of only ‘what to deliver’. The book is published by SAGE, one of the leading global publishers of high quality academic books and well researched journals.
Authored by Prof Gangadhar Joshi, vastly experienced professional in the field of management consulting, education and training, the ‘Campus to Corporate’ is divided into five broad sections. The first section details on ‘Putting things in perspective’. The second section elaborates on ‘Personal Effectiveness Enhancement’, where the author identifies ‘7Cs model for Professional Excellence, Personality development, Building Positive Mindset, Values and Ethics, Innovation & Creativity, Work life balance, Time Management, Managing stress’ as the key areas.
The third section is all about ‘Being effective in the Organization’. This section offers 50 new rules of work, professional etiquettes and mannerisms, building relationships, communication skills, working in teams, managing conflicts, effective negotiation skills, creative problem solving, power and politics in organizations, and above all managing your boss!
Dispersing the clouds on the conception ‘Boss is always right’ at page 130 in this section, author makes it clear that your boss is not averse to your diverse opinion but what is important is to avoid arguing with boss in public. Any discussion with boss should be supported by facts. The author advises further “Remember the golden rule; ‘if you are arguing with your boss with facts and figures, you could be right; if you are arguing with your boss on feelings, the boss is always right’.”
Section four deals with Technology skills and Certifications. This part emphasizes on the need for technology skills in this fast changing world. It further elaborates the Basic and Higher level information Technology (IT) skills, enterprise resource planning knowledge, Professional memberships and certifications.
The fifth and final section should be a good reference for academic institutions. It elaborates on Excelling through Placement Process and details various tools on success in placements like Writing a perfect CV, Success in Written Aptitude Test, Success in Group Discussions, Going through Interview process, pre and post interview follow up.
One of the key highlights of the book is author’s sharing in detail of his understanding and learning about the issues of employability enhancement. According to the author, “The biggest lesson is that it is important for the institutes to go beyond just the completion of the syllabi and convince companies that the students they are having on board are exactly what they are looking for in terms and of knowledge, skills and attitude.”
The book goes deep on employability aspect and shares insight as author specifies “Employability is not the same as just getting a job after graduation; it implies something about the capacity of the graduates to function in a job and be able to move between jobs and thus remaining employable for the lifetime.” This well researched aspect is discussed with real life perspective in accordance with industry expectations and how to achieve it throughout the book.
Endorsing the book, Dr S B Mujumdar, Founder of Symbiosis and Chancellor of Symbiosis International University says “The book is focused on global employability. It provides an integrated understanding of the employability issues and a practical approach focused on acquiring skills to achieve sustainable employability… this book will be of great help to the graduating students as well as the institutions to enhance their employability performance.”
Endorsing the book, Pradeep Bhargava, Director Cummins India, says, “Campus to Corporate is not about a placement event, but about the evolution and culmination of a whole journey. Would commend whole heartedly.”
The book has key tips, vocabulary bank, samples in its last section to help you prepare your perfect CV, expected topics and tips to enhance your skills and get through the GD and WAT process. There are different types of interviews and sample questions and answers to ace the Personal Interview round well placed in the last section of the book.
Last but not the least, Campus to Corporate is an important book for the students to learn how to remain employable throughout as well as for the B-schools to understand how to enhance learning with a focus on employability instead of focusing merely on campus placement process.
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