Category: Everything else

Why is work considered a bad thing?

What is it about ‘working’ that has a negative connotation?

Does it flow down from the times of the industrial revolution where it was associated with long hours in dank mills?

Work is fun especially when you are doing something you are passionate about..

I love working.. on all my little projects, stuff that is not-so-little as well(maybe not so much on the Electrical Engineering cores, but hey – we can’t have everything, can we??) .. so much so that I actually don’t like it too much when I feel I’m goofing off during week-days.. that’s what weekends are for, right?

Most of all, I love planning for a weekend during an intense week because the weekend is like the cherry atop the cake. And probably planning for vacations even more..

There’s a trip to Bintan coming up this Saturday and Sunday. And I’m loving the thought of long 16 hour days filled with things to do till Friday evening and a weekend of bliss..

Now, what’s wrong with that? :)

First things first.. Focusing on Quadrant 2

4 kinds of activities –

1) Not urgent, not important: Read jobless surfing, facebooking(unless its your profession :)) etc

2) Urgent, not important: Read urgent/annoying calls emails asking you to do something..

3) Urgent and Important: Read ‘crisiis’.. this is where we fire-fighters spend most of our time!

4) Important but not urgent: Quadrant 2 activities are where effective people focus. Read taking care of health, nurturing relationships and the like..

So, What first things are you focusing on???

I just remembered this as I just finished fighting a fire sitting with friends while they are having fun. Better prioritization => I wouldn’t have been anti-social

ES2007S Blog Post 3 – Application Letter

The position would be for JWT Singapore – a leading Marketing Communications/Advertising firm. Basic details are on http://www.jwt.com/careers.html.

Letter:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a fourth year Electrical Engineering student studying at the National University of Singapore applying for a full time position in the Accounts Management department at JWT Singapore.

While my course of study is Electrical Engineering, my experiences in university have been in the direction of my passions, in marketing, management and entrepreneurship. Over the past 3 years in university, I dedicated all my time to learn entrepreneurship via a start-up called Nineo.com that grew from an idea to Singapore’s largest student job portal with 25,000+ registered students. It was a great learning experience to market this idea with a very limited budget, yet making sure we met our yearly targets.

In addition, I was selected into an elite global venture management program called RealAcad (www.RealAcad.org) which took me to Stanford and Harvard, working with diverse teams, learning deep business concepts and starting multiple new ventures in the process, and graduated as a top performer. Additionally, I started my own university talk show in Jan 2008 on www.ExpressionHappens.com which is on its way to becoming a university student event management hub. On behalf of ExpressionHappens, I am now leading the organizing team of Sparkz, NUS’ first ever talent show inspired by Britain’s Got Talent and 60 seconds to fame scheduled to be conducted in March’2010.

Given my experiences in the past 3 years, I am confident I would be able to contribute meaningfully to the JWT Singapore team.
I am attaching my resume for your kind consideration. I assure you that, if chosen, I would discharge my responsibilities to the best of my ability.

Thanking you.
Best Regards,
Rohan Rajiv
Year 4
SIA-NOL Scholar
National University of Singapore
http://tr.im/rohanblog

Never say yes when you want to say a no..

I think it was an RJ with Radio City back home called Sulebha who said this a few times when Mom and I were driving around the city like we do pretty often late into the night.

I remember her silky voice very clearly – and the conviction with which she reiterated her belief of never saying yes when she felt the answer was no.. She said it avoided a whole lot of discomfort..

I agree.

There is a theory of the ‘one end of the stick’. This means that we have the choice to pick up only 1 end of the stick when we take a decision and we must accept the consequences(other end)whatever happens. This practically means that we only have a choice when we say yes.. and leaving midway would just be quitting..

That further re-iterates the point.. Say yes only when we mean it, never because we want to make someone else happy. After all, it’s us who would be stuck with the other end of the stick..

‘Never say yes when you want to say a no’ ..