SC approves online counselling for PG medical seats

SC approves online counselling for PG medical seats

In a major relief to thousands of medical students, the Supreme Court today approved the Centre's proposal for their online counselling for admissions to post graduate medical courses against all India quota in government colleges, except those in Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.

The move would benefit an estimated 25,000 students vying

for 5,245 post graduate medical and 168 Master of Dental

Surgery seats in the present 2012-13 academic year.

A bench of justices Deepak Verma and K S Radhakrishnan

passed the order after hearing senior counsel Ashok Bhan who

urged the court to grant permission for conducting the online

counselling from May 1, 2012.

The competitive examination for All India quota (50 per

cent) seats in government colleges is conducted by the All

India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. For

15 per cent All India seats of undergraduate (MBBS and BDS

courses), the examination is conducted by the Central Board of

Secondary Education (CBSE).

Bhan told the court that the government had taken all

steps for publicising the online counselling through the print

and electronic media besides the official websites.

According to the Centre, the proposed online counselling

will not make it imperative for the students to rush to Delhi,

Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkota and they can opt their choice

through the internet even while sitting at their homes.

This would enable the students save time, efforts and

money which they otherwise had to utilise earlier for visiting

the four metros where it is conducted every year.

The counsel said the National Informatic Centre had

developed the software for the counselling programme.

The Centre had sought similar permission for conducting

online counselling for the undergraduate medical courses on

which the court did not pass any order today.

The Centre told the apex court that the identification of

seats will be done by arranging them in alphabetical order,

besides state-wise and college-wise order.

It said the seats are proposed to be reserved for various

categories like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other

Backward Classes and Physically Handicapped categories in the

Central government institutions as per the rules.

The government further said presently there are only two

rounds of counselling with participation of lesser number of

students on the basis of a 1:4 ratio for post graduate courses

and 1:2 for the under graduate courses.

It added by introducing the online method with three

rounds of counselling, it expects to ensure "better

utilisation of all-India quota PG and UG seats and minimum

wastage of All India quota."

Handling Tricky Interview Questions

Interview questions may vary but in essence they are all trying to establish the following:

• Your skills and experience to do the job
• Your enthusiasm and interest for the job
• Whether you will fit in

If you have thought through convincing answers to the above, ideally illustrated with real-life examples, then you should be able to answer most of the questions that arise.

This section looks at some of the typical questions which arise and how to handle them.

Tell me about yourself?

This question or something similar usually starts every interview. This is your opportunity to make a great impression right at the start of the interview and it needs to be well-prepared and confidently delivered. Your answer should:

• Focus on the areas of most relevance to the job in question
• Include some impressive achievements e.g. an award, contracts you won
• Convey your enthusiasm for the job
• Avoid personal or irrelevant information e.g. your children, un-related jobs

Your answer should be about 3-5 minutes long delivered in a clear, punchy, confident manner e.g.

“I’m a Marketing Director with over 20 years experience running successful marketing campaigns predominantly in the technology sector. Last year our key campaign grabbed an additional 15% of market share worth £25 million and we launched 2 new products which are on track to generate over £60 million over the next 5 years. I’m interested in this role because I know your products and think they have great potential.”

What do you know about our organisation?

You should be able to answer the following:

• Company facts e.g. size of company, turnover, main locations
• Key products and services, target customers, key accounts
• Competitors
• Market trends and challenges

What are your key skills/strengths/ or why should we hire you?

Focus on what you know they are looking for, even if it has been a smaller part of what you have been doing to date. Your answer should include:

• Technical knowledge e.g. supply chain processes
• Sector experience e.g. retail
• Job-related skills e.g. project management
• Management skills e.g. people and financial management
• Interpersonal skills e.g. handling conflict
• Personal qualities e.g. work ethic

What are your weaknesses?

Interviewers love this question because the majority of candidates are completely honest in confessing their worst failings. Avoid this trap by preparing in advance at least two to three answers just in case the interviewer decides to really push you on this.

• Choose something that doesn’t matter for the job e.g. languages for a UK firm

• Identify a “weakness” that is a positive e.g. “I like to make things happen and get frustrated if too long is spent sitting around discussing it without action”

• Choose a weakness that you have improved e.g. “I used to worry about presentations but I went on a course and it helped me enormously”

• Where there is an obvious gap in what they are looking for, use this question as an opportunity to show how you intend to bridge that gap e.g.

“I’m aware that I don’t have direct experience of this type of product so I’ve talked to your sales team and some of your competitors to find out more. I’ve researched market trends and discussed this with some key people within the sector who’ve given me their personal view. As a result I feel confident that I can get up to speed in this role very quickly”.

Why did you leave your last job?

Your answer should be positive and upbeat e.g. needed a new challenge, career progression etc. Never criticise a previous employer as it will make the interviewer query your loyalty and effectiveness as an employee. It may also resurface some negative emotions which can very easily throw you off-balance in a high-pressure interview situation.

If the circumstances were difficult, then keep your answer short and find a way to talk about the situation in a depersonalised way e.g. “The company needed to downsize which meant a number of redundancies including my own role”.

Why do you want this job?

Your answer should reinforce why you are such a good fit for the job and then convey your enthusiasm for the role e.g.
.
• good match between your skills and their requirements
• interested in the product/market/sector
• company’s excellent reputation, exciting challenge etc

Do not say (even if it’s true) that you just need a job, or you want it because it’s local. They want to hear that you have a genuine interest in working in that particular job.

Describe a problem situation and how you solved it?

The interviewer is looking for a real-life example to understand more about how you tackle problems, in particular your thinking style, your ability to act under pressure and your communication skills e.g. dealing with a difficult customer.

Tell me about an achievement of which you are proud?

This should ideally be work-related e.g. stream-lining work processes that helped improve the efficiency of the department. However, if there is something from your personal life which is either impressive or shows relevant skills for the job then mention these e.g. running a marathon or fund-raising

What are your career goals/career plan?

Show how this role is a good fit in terms of your longer term aspirations e.g. “I want to have a successful management career and this role gives me the great opportunity to head up a department that has many immediate as well as longer-term challenges” .

Do not talk about career aspirations which could cause the interviewer to doubt your commitment to the role e.g. “I want to start my own business” or “I see this as a stepping stone to working in Finance, which is where I really want to work”.

What are your salary expectations?

If the salary is not on the job advertisement, then try to find out before the interview what kind of salary range they are looking to offer. Also research the salaries of comparative jobs so you have a bench-mark.

If possible, try to avoid a salary negotiation at the interview to give yourself more room for manoeuvre once you’ve been offered the job e.g.

• “money is important but not only factor … “
• “would depend on the whole package, bonuses, benefits, pay reviews etc”
• “could range from X to Y depending on the rest of the package”

Are there any questions you would like to ask us?

Good questions to ask could include:

• What do you think the major challenges for the post-holder are?
• How will success be judged in this role?
• What are the key things you are looking for?
• What is it like to work here?

Summary

• Fully research the job and company
• Prepare answers in advance
• Avoid negative criticism of yourself or others
• Use real-life examples to illustrate your point
• Show your enthusiasm for the job

studying a language

How studying a language for business can help your career

In any line of business, effective communication is essential. You need to be able to converse confidently in the language of your clients and customers – even if this isn’t your native tongue. If you have hit the language barrier within your business, you may well require professional training to rectify this shortfall.

It is simply unrealistic to assume that clients and customers will always speak English well enough to make up for your poor language skills in their own language, so it is imperative that businesses take a proactive approach and get the training they need to bridge this gap. Learning a language in later life can prove to be a major challenge, particularly for anybody who has never previously studied a foreign language before, but think of it more as ‘another’ language, not a ‘foreign’ language, and remind yourself that you already have one language under your belt!

To provide a clear example, let’s imagine your business has expanded operations into the Russian market. If some of your client-facing management and staff aren’t fluent, or nearly fluent in Russian, this will lead to real problems, particularly if your client is short of English-speaking employees. The costs of translators and professional interpreters will soon add up. A lack of language proficiency often proves a cause of real frustration leading to misunderstandings and strained relationships, not to mention tensions arising from a poor grasp of important cross-cultural issues. It is a well-known fact that projects overrun where poor language skills are in evidence.

This kind of situation arises with surprising regularity, particularly with the increasing globalisation of many modern industries. Any business that is looking to grow and establish itself in new markets needs to expand and invest in the language skills of its employees. With multilingual communication playing such a key role in the international marketplace, it has never been more important to ensure that language skills match business aspirations.

As a direct consequence, language courses specifically designed for businesses are becoming increasingly popular, as well as the number of companies who provide them. Professional language teachers with a background in business can help employees learn a language from scratch and help other employees improve their existing language skills, and very often the training will be conducted in-company thereby removing the need for the employee to travel.

Even if you rarely need to put these newfound language competencies into practice, there will always be a place for them. Customers and clients need clear communication from a company, particularly in their own language. If you can provide this, you will gain a huge advantage over those of your competitors that have not invested in language training. This can help to sway contracts when tendering for work or simply be the difference in securing a sale in a retail environment, both of which are vitally important to continued and successful expansion.

Knowing your marketplace and the overseas markets you are likely to target is obviously a starting point. You would then be well advised to conduct a language audit of your business to establish which of your employees already speak these target languages, and to what level. Of course, recruiting fluent speakers of those languages that will make a real difference to your business is an option, but it is not always possible, so many companies today invest in language training courses for their existing employees. Choose a provider using highly experienced teachers with proven business experience and you can’t go wrong.

Whatever business you’re in, it’s worth carefully considering the potential benefits of language training. It will be a valuable attribute, highly appreciated by your clients, adding value to your service and goodwill to your client relationships.

In the words of Peter Drucker, the famous management guru: “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance!” Is it time to make breaking the language barrier a top priority for your business?