From My Diary: Participating HR Summit 2016 Career Capsule

June 5, 2016

This Saturday, I got to attend HR Summit 2016, a programme targeted for the Nepalese MBA Graduates, Employees, Employers, Entrepreneur and Job Seeker for their personal, professional, career and skills development along with self-actualization and self-realization.

Organized by RSTCA, a Management Consulting, Financial Advisory, Property and Assets Management and Entrepreneur Development organization in association with HR Society Nepal, an organization established in 2013 to empower HR fraternity by empowering knowledge and sharing with people, the programme sought to impart various management knowledge to the students that will surely change their career ahead.

The entire programme had been centralized to help students with self-realization and the career counseling. I am grateful for the organizers since I got to know many things from the various sessions in the programme.

People from different walks of life, including entrepreneurs, investors, HR managers, consultants, Social Activists and others had lively discussions with the participants in the programme.

Attended by passionate and cheering youths studying at undergraduate and Graduate Business Schools in town, the programme sought to enhance their capabilities, build strength and explore new opportunities in the Nepalese Market. This programme also provided them with a platform to have interaction with HR personalities and build a strong bond among them.

I take this opportunity to summarize the programme and what unfolded from these awe inspiring sessions.

As the first presenter in the programme, Mr. Yubaraj Adhikari, Psychologist from The University of Liverpool, stated that there are still many things to do with the research on the career success in Nepal. For the students here, their career deciders are either their parents or society. “With your skill, qualification and experience, you can get hired, but your attitude, interest, open mindedness, cultural fitness and emotional intelligence can help you be successful in that respective field,” said he. For career success, we need to connect, explore, communicate, reflect and apply. One can change past behavior and learn more through feedback which he termed as Persevere. For career success, Goal Setting is very important as it drives you toward your future and one needs to have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Time bound) goal. He also discussed about the Johari Window, a technique to help intra and interrelationship in an individual and its four components i.e. open self, hidden self, blind self and unknown self. He concluded his presentation saying that coexistence, mutual support and collective growth are possible through caring and sharing.

Similarly, Mr. Rupesh Shrestha, Director of Whitehouse Graduate School of Management taking the floor for the next session, made the students to think about whether if we are planning to fail or failing to plan. He appreciated the initiative taken by the HR Society of Nepal in organizing such an event targeted for students for the first time in Nepal. He brought into notice some programmes like ‘Empowering Friday’ conducted by students of King’s College and explained how effective it was for teacher’s facilitation. He talked about Blue Ocean and White Ocean strategy. “There are two kinds of people. ‘Group A’ works 100% to earn a salary while ‘group B’ work just 50% to earn the same amount of salary. The competition is among Group B but the group A will take hold wherever they go because they are extraordinary,” he said, explaining about the type of employees that are present every organization. He added that 4Cs are required for career success viz. Consciousness, Compassion, Communication and Community. “Vision, skills backed up by will and communication, soft skills and hard skills drive us for career success,” he remarked.

Chief Guest of the program, Mr. Kumar Joshi, also president at HR Society of Nepal, gave light to the contemporary job market situation in Nepal. He also mentioned that career planning happens throughout one’s life. “You are the best person to judge yourself and find the things that matters you thence preparing for great things that are going to happen in your life,” he said. He mentioned that every company has certain hiring parameters which need to be considered while preparing to take that opportunity and explained why it is essential to have mentors to have career success. He further pointed out some components required for career Success:

1. Knowledge
2. Skills
3. Areas for one’s improvement
4. Driving hard based on your experience
5. Mentoring concept: find who can help you, search for supporter
6. Investing time to structure information properly on one’s Bio-data/ CV/Resume.

“There is an intense competition in the job market, but early preparation will lead to the ultimate success,” said Mr. Ayushman Ghimire. The Senior Dermatologist, Actor and Mr. Nepal 2011 winner, sharing his experiences among the participants, mentioned that continuous learning is like an adaptation and leads to ultimate success. Career planning is when one knows his Value, learning about self, linking minor and major goals and research career options. He encouraged business students to start their own businesses instead of seeking jobs in different organizations saying that if he can become an entrepreneur, though being a doctor by profession, why can’t they (business students)?

Emphasizing the role of awareness, Anil B. Gajmer, Guest of Honor of HR Summit 2016 from My Investment Group started his session mentioning that every decision depends on the people themselves. “The three things required for one’s career Success are Information, Knowledge and Wisdom,” he stated. His session was the most energizing among all. “There are no formula and there are no secrets. And, if you can dream it, you can do it,” he declared. He warned the participants that whatever we learn are worthless if we do not apply these into practice and asked the students to focus on the practical part more and apply it in a business environment.

Mr. Dipesh Khatri, a Social Activist from Nyano Sansar proceeded next in the programme sharing how his passion to work for more than just for himself turned out to be a profession for him. “Nyano Sansar was able to connect me with the hardship of the rural life,” he stated. It is currently helping remote residences with the lights, blankets and warm clothes.

Nikita Khetan, Business Development Officer at Pranic Healing Centre emphasized the growing importance of the meditation in dealing with people in a healthy way. “Only a peaceful and dedicated mind can stay focused,” she mentioned. She also talked about the importance of allocating time for self-healing.

As the next presenter, Pravina Manandhar, HR Consultant from Sagar Group, talked about the process of job interview and the role of the resume in the selection for a candidate for the job interview. Sharing her experience as an HR Manager, she mentioned how people write their Resume unconsciously and how this unawareness about the contents in their own resume makes the recruiter to lose their impression when they are called for an interview. “Most Resumes are not updated or not in good format as they are merely copied from Google,” she shared. She further said that an Interviewee needs to have consistency in their talk in the series of interview conducted by the recruiter. And once they are recruited, they need to have adaptability to the work and great energy for learning will vitalize them.

A representative from Kantipur Job, a recruiting Company in Nepal, gave tips to the participants to get selected for the post they are interested to work for. “You might be interested in Finance or HR or Marketing. Whatever it is, you need to know all the fundamentals of the respective fields so that you can have good command in the field you will be working,” he reiterated.

Krity Agrawal, Managing Director of Kribani Job, a job recruitment firm, talked about the importance of Resume and the process of interview on selecting a candidate for the particular position. She complained that most of the Candidates go for a job interview without carrying their academic documents or CV and most people don’t even know at which position they are applying for. She mentioned the importance of being open to learning, time management and use of Social Media among others.

Finally, Kanchan Thakur concluded the program summarizing the outputs and achievements of the programme. “HR Summit 2016 is for Human Capacity Development, to inform the newcomer to the industry about the hiring process, their Career Road Map, Road to being a CEO and many others. Edging gap of job availability and skill match are the main agendas of the program,” She mentioned. She concluded the programme, making the participants to have a dive on the question “is there any Career Capsule?”

Attending these different sessions that lasted for the whole day, I was delighted to know so many things that are very important in our career ahead. I came to know the necessity to have consistency in our work and the vision as mentioned by various speakers. Everyone has a talent and it requires our passion and continuous dedication for that talent to make us renowned and build a personality. Knowledge keeps us growing when we share it. Let’s identify our goals and keep moving!

Photos Courtesy: Saswot Raj Sharma

By Mamata Pathak

The writer is currently an undergraduate student of Business Administration at King’s College.

She maintains her blogs at www.mamtawrites.wordpress.com