The coolest and best work culture ever at CollegeTips.in!!!!!

Imagine that you are sitting on your sofa and find yourself looking through various sites to find an internship. Suddenly, you come across an internship with an interesting description- The coolest work culture. You open it, and what you read next is an eye-opener.

The name of the company hiring — CollegeTips.in. Your brain with its cognitive power takes you back to the time when you were in college. Oh, the happy spaces, the daily run to the canteens, and the friendships. Nostalgic right?

Please come back!

You go through the requirements and find yourself bewildered and confused, thinking — What do they want from us?

This was what I was asked for while applying -

How proper and appropriate is this? Let me tell you something about CollegeTips.in. I found this amazing platform from Internshala, and I am so grateful to the platform and to myself for finding it at the right moment.

After a bit of research, I found that I am connected with an institution that has provided internships to more than 25000 students all over India and that too during the COVID issues. What would thrill you, even more, is that all these students belonged to all three streams — Science, Commerce, and Humanities (or Arts as Indians call it). Also, since the interns belong to every state in the country, you meet the bright minds of India as a whole.

Visit the image given above again. Look at the responsibilities. You’ll see that it includes every task — from Content creation to Marketing. CollegeTips.in has always striven to brush and build every skill in an individual. Loved it? There’s more.

This platform is the one and only one in India which offers internships to school students. They put enough trust in each one of them that they would complete the tasks while also completing the school work.

Trust me when I say that this place is one hell-space to meet new people, learn more, keep growing and do whatnot.

There is one little yet very important aspect of CollegeTips.in — The company extends to you their own application form, and they contact you directly (even if you apply through Internshala).

You might be thinking if I am being paid to write this. I wish, but no. This is coming straight from my heart. There are some reasons though -

• They never interview you. Weird. But, they mean it when they say everyone is unique, and give a chance to everyone to work alongside.

• You will find people like you here. So everyone is welcome — introverts, extroverts, ambiverts, literally everyone.
• They love to PARTAAAAYYYYY!!!! (noice, right?)
• You can create and make anything. You love to talk, make a video on that. Anything. They will help you with that.
• Yeah, this was for the last — The workplace is super YAY!!!!!

There is another very interesting (sorry, this wouldn’t stop) fact about the company — the founder Mr. Vipin Tripathi is and will be the coolest person you’d ever meet. I assure you this.

You would never have to look beyond any of this when you’d witness the best for you.

It is not easy sending out resumes for a major portion of the day and getting replies to nothing. It is not easy to go to an interview far away from home and get answers like “We will let you know”. For 98% of the time, that line indirectly means — GTFO. It is not easy to make up your mind to attend another interview when the last 99 were disastrous.

I have broken down and cried to myself. People have advised me to keep a brave face and face everything like the queen you are but haven’t a queen broken down when she feels her respect and value is up for an auction.

3 months ago, I was sitting on my parents’ sofa, and holding up my phone, just randomly scrolling through my Instagram feed. Truecaller notified me of a call. I never pick up calls from unknown numbers, unless I have applied for a job anytime near, or probably my gut asks me to. The lady on the other side of the call verified the number they called and then proceeded with telling me the location of the interview.

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach (yeah, it is a feeling).

I readied myself for the interview and proudly told my parents that I would ace this. The next day, I reached the appropriate destination 30 minutes ahead of the schedule.

The man who interviewed me was a former officer of the Indian Army, and he asked me relevant questions. Surprisingly the interview only occurred for 5 minutes. He said and I quote “We will call you back tomorrow.”, and probably the ‘tomorrow’ hasn’t yet arrived.

I was disheartened. It was a job I wished for. I wanted to teach the students there. I knew of the rejection, and I couldn't help but cry on the way home.

I could not show my parents that I was weak with such a small rejection. But, I grieved about it for a long time, and am grieving till now.

That rejection made me who I am today. Even after feeling so dejected, I pick myself up and work till the very end.

It’s not easy, but the journey to today was worth it.

But, not at the cost of your mental health.

I had been recruited into a company a few months back where my working title was Proofreader. This was how they addressed me, while I addressed myself as an intern. An intern who wasn’t yelled at, supported by colleagues, and gained few friends.

Anyways, that wasn’t what happened.

I sure wasn’t been yelled at, but every time the Editor-in-chief called my name, it felt like she was going to humiliate me in front of everyone. I had colleagues, but no one addressed the difficulties I was going through (witnessing first-hand), and I had gained a few friends who discontinued after a month.

It was my dream to work at a publishing company. To work with books. To edit them. To write for them.

A step ahead in my dream — this company — ruined my mental health for me.

Never in my life did I face a life-threatening situation ever. I had regular panic attacks in the office washroom, got diagnosed with depression, and spent many nights crying myself to sleep.

This affected my personal life — fights with my dear ones, isolating from them, and constant rage attacks.

I lost here. The company won. My dream job lost me.

A few weeks in, my dream turned into the monotonous days of working only for the money.

I left the place after 3 months.

I took a month’s break. Applied again. Got two job offers, accepted one.

I love my job.

My mind’s out for a stroll today.

Not starting this in a way that you imagine what I was doing until now. I was doing nothing, to be honest. Just completed some office assignments, and had lunch.

I was reading Kishly’s post on how her inspiration took a rain check. Even mine did.

Today, it is all about planning out a way to get home while it rains. It is winter and it is raining. My throat is sore and I have been clearing it since morning.

A plain sheet on the notebook is open, the pen is still there, the Bluetooth headphones are blasting off with music, and my mind is still empty of ideas.

It takes the strength of an elephant to not write anything. There are 7 posts in my drafts since morning. While I start writing, just as I reach the middle, I lose interest and start afresh.

Probably would gather some useful topics for tomorrow!

Toodles!

Why is this blog titled ‘NO’? The answer is simple — this is the word that we often are hesitant to say out loud.

The hesitance has two main reasons to it —

Not knowing how to explain abstinence.

Not wanting to hurt the other person.

These may sound absurd but believe me, there are many who are bullied by these emotions. While I am a hardworking employee at the company, my rights to say are sometimes reserved. But, I do tackle this in many ways —

1. Cook up a story to say NO. Story speaks volumes.
2. Get a person alongside (probably the person who works with you) who knows your problem.
3. Say NO straightaway. Just as the work is assigned to you, say no, if you think that you cannot handle the workload.
4. Make a casual statement like — I wish there were two of me — they get to know that the burden is too much to bear.

Saying ‘no’ more often makes your place in the area, and you come out strong. It’s often a normal issue to feel bad after saying the word, but have faith, this would make you feel great.

Honestly, I still am feeling bad for saying no a few weeks back, but today it’s another episode, and another ‘no’ is on the way.

‘Yes or No’ do not need elaboration unless asked. But when asked, do not use these.

Absolute words are a nuance to the interview. It is human tendency to exaggerate while answering a particular question that requires a yes or no. When the interviewer asks whether you can complete work under a deadline, the simple answer should be yes (if no, then no). You should not answer with “yes, I ‘always’ complete work before the given deadline”. This is because, first, a yes or a no is a complete answer in itself.

As Google answers us “an absolute word is an inclusive, all-encompassing, an end-in-themselves, non-modifiable word.”.

I read a small article by a Leadership trainer Mark Murphy, who says that these words need to be NOT used because they come out as vague and portray you as “clueless and delusional”. Why?

Let me give you an example — You are an interviewer and ask the candidate to tell about their experience while working on a project. There are two candidates who answered this way —

Candidate 1: I was always in charge of the leadership and have never shown my team otherwise. I believe that none of the members should be left behind while working on something.

Candidate 2: I was appointed as a leader in one of the projects, and it was very beneficial to me because it improved my management skills. I encouraged my team to brainstorm ideas and write them down so that no one is left behind.

Both the answers say the same, but the 1st one is the most answered and seems like a bluff. The second one seems a bit more professional and says a lot about the candidate as to how they would be helpful for any future projects at the company. You need to be situation-specific when you answer.

Here is a list of the words that shouldn’t be used while answering —

Always, Never, Impossible, None, All, and Every

When you google answers for some interview questions, you for 9 out of 10 times, get an answer full of words like these. Avoid these, and make sure that you answer some real-time experiences.

Again, calm down, and try attaching words to your experiences and explain them to the interviewer.

Ending with a quote by Joel Osteen, “Our words have creative power. With our power, we can speak blessings over our future.”.

The silver lining of our life is that we look for optimism (positivity to be humble). This is because we think that negative thoughts negate the flow of life. Do you think so too?

The past year has gone past with the folks thinking about positive things while not getting tested positive. India has seen the peak of COVID, followed by an innumerable number of deaths, where the long lines for oxygen cylinders preceded it.

But, we did see the tiniest ray of hope for revival when lockdown restrictions were lifted and companies went back to hiring to work from the office. Well, this got over in two ticks. Omicron has raised its head and we do not know the possible end of it.

A new thing that could benefit you at your workplace is staying positive in your mask, because, you could make faces to your manager while they think that you are smiling! Tricks! You’d feel no less than Superman who puts on glasses to become Clark Kent.

For you, you carry the whole office on your shoulders. So, ultimately the degree of positivity would be as high as possible.

Know that you lived through the price hikes, the protests, and still emerged, well okayish! (cause, victorious would be wrong here)

2021 is to end today at 12 midnight. Make sure you sleep well.
Thank you.

Ciao.

While we were in our graduation course, a professor used to speak a phrase — “A child will always learn not to touch a burning candle, once he/she touches the flame.”. This has stayed with me since then, and it is solely because I can relate to it.

No one including our parents prepares us to feel that committing mistakes is OKAY. It’s not that you would be pushed to hell.

Mistakes happen often, and you’d experience the sweetness of mistakes in your office premises. These are a few tips that I follow while I work —

1. Leave room for mistakes. You are not Liam Payne, you cannot be perfect (Directioners know).
2. Apologize if your mistake is pointed out. A brief and polite apology would do.
3. Create a new framework for the work you were doing.
4. It can be a wrong email, forgetting to Cc someone, not working according to the rules, etc., but IT IS OKAY. There is always room for correction.
5. Probably find a new workstation. Distractions might exist where you worked earlier.

All of these have worked for me. If you have any other suggestions as to how you’d cope up, do comment.

This is all for today. Ciao.

A little simple task to complete before going for an interview is taking long and deep breaths.

When I say that you just have to take up deep breaths and you’d ace the interview, I keep my confidence in the interviewers. Why? I have seen people perspiring furiously when in an interview room, and even more, shivering once they face the interviewer (not me!).

Simple solution folks. Breathe. How? I call it calming my nerves. It is a hack to do when you find yourself struggling to find words. The company hires you for your confidence in yourself, how you portray your attitude during the interview.

When you answer the question posed, they observe the pauses, breaths, and assertiveness. The cross-questioning method used to confuse the candidates is done to see whether you see yourself as the best candidate for the job.

Here are some tips that I followed while on the interview —

1. Fake it till you make it — You gotta know that they look for confidence in you, and if you lack there, please FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, do not show it on your face.
2. Look the interviewer in the eye while making your point — Make and keep your point.
3. Point out your achievement in a manner that they ask about that — Answering what you have researched about is a cakewalk.
4. Smile throughout! (confidence, peeps!)

Even if you do not get the job, make sure you leave an impression on the interviewer. Apart from these tips, also do schedule a fun activity for later that day, so that you keep yourself up and about for that event.

Hope this helps.

Have a sip of water, my dear.

Ciao.

Well, first of all, what are deadlines? They are craftily made time restrictions which when crossed without any result, gets us bippity-boppity-boop’d out to the team leader’s office. These let us take control of our work, and let us decide how to complete it within the time frame.

Some creative questions of the same background, that we might hear in our school, college, and work-life are — ‘How do you prioritize tasks?’ and ‘Why is it important to manage your time well?’. All of these just carves the same answer from all — ‘I map out my tasks, according to time and cruciality, and them complete them.’

When these deadlines are applied in the real workplace, we get sweaty and often find ourselves flabbergasted at the end of the line. Procrastinators deal with this problem easily, because they map out the last-minute additions while planning, so even if they start working at the brink of sunset, they’d be able to perfect the work before dawn. So, deadlines motivate them.

There are some particular aspects as to how the last line of the last paragraph works. Deadlines set intrinsically, are always worthy of being followed. Set intrinsically, they tend to be not followed and forgotten. A person time and again inclines towards completing the work in an hour from submission because psychologically, they determine that no other work can be done now, they’d have to complete their work now.

Motivation through deadlines can be explained with Val Kilmer’s quote — “Without deadlines and restrictions, I just tend to become preoccupied with other things.”