Imagine this: you’ve got placed at your dream job. It’s your first week. You get there and things aren’t what you expected. Your manager is demanding and there is a kind of pressure to work that you have never experienced before.

Turns out you have graduated with all the technical knowledge required to excel at your job, but no one evaluated your street smartness. When we say, grow personally to grow professionally, it means developing your personality to navigate effortlessly through a workplace environment and the various personalities you will encounter.

This week, AVCOE walks you through a few things you should keep in mind once you step into the corporate world.

Corporate Social Skills
Patience and diplomacy are your keys to a healthy attitude and unproblematic presence at work. Apart from maintaining regular social niceties, it is important to accept that you will come across people of varying competencies, personalities and mannerisms. Some of which, you may personally find displeasing. In these cases, you have to train yourself to maintain professional etiquette and deal with the person’s behaviour with a pinch of salt. It is essential to understand the difference between being firm on your point and being rude or dismissive of somebody else’s point. It is important to learn to curb egos without bruising them. In a workplace, when it comes to opinion, learn to be diplomatic. Acknowledge and validate opinions, even when you disagree with them, before putting your take on the matter forward. For instance, the phrase, “That’s a great idea! We could also try…” is a great way of acknowledging both yours and others opinion.

Strong Presence vs. Loud Presence
Unknowingly, your personality may rub others the wrong way. Always remember to tone it down when interacting with your colleagues and maintain a neutral persona. Loud, attention-seeking personalities are often disliked and considered disruptive in an office environment. Focus on developing a strong presence instead. One that is heard and respected. This is where you let your work and technical knowledge speak for you. Having a strong opinion backed up with facts triumphs having a loud voice, anyday. Try taking up responsibilities outside of your job description if it fits your schedule. This way you help your company grow while tending to your personal growth and become an asset to your firm.

Think Before You Discuss
At work, it is essential to be friendly but rare to make real friends. We live in a competitive world which may intensify in corporations. You never know people’s true intentions. Make sure you balance your personality and professionalism effectively. Be cautious about what and how much you share with your colleagues as the information may be circulated. Everyone needs somebody to talk to. Work can get lonely without a buddy. Make a conscious effort to share solutions as opposed to problems. If there’s something you need to vent about, share its possible solution or positive outcome rather than choosing to complain or whine about the situation. This promotes a healthy attitude towards your work, coworkers and obstacles if they arise.

Once you keep these little things in mind, you will be able to foster a peaceful work environment for yourself and a healthy relationship with the people around you. AVCOE’s Training & Placement cell guides students in every aspect of their professional life. For more advice such as this and any help you need to begin your career and further its success, get in touch with your T&P officer.


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In response to the trend to abolish teaching of cursive in schools, about a year ago I posted an article on what I thought were the developmental benefits of handwriting (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-writing-hand-could-make-you-smarter). That post has generated over 230 comments.

Now there is evidence that handwriting of lecture notes, compared to typing on a laptop, improves learning by college students. Following up on prior studies that indicated relative ineffectiveness of taking notes by laptop, researchers Pam Meuller and Daniel Oppenheimer provide clear evidence that handwritten note-taking produces better learning in college students.

They reported three experiments that compared the efficacy of college students taking notes by handwriting or with a lap top. Those who used handwritten notes that they studied later scored significantly higher than students using laptops, including fleet typists who took vastly more copious notes. Handwriters took fewer notes overall with less verbatim recording. There are many possible explanations, beginning with the "less is more" idea in which too much information produces cognitive overload. Notably, when the typing students were told to avoid verbatim notes, they still did it. This suggests that there is something about typing that leads to mindless processing.  Handwritten notes involve more thought, re-framing, and re-organization, all of which promote better understanding and retention. The manual act of handwriting requires more engagement with the subject matter. Finally, handwritten notes capitalize on the use of drawings and of personalized spatial layout of the notes. Memorization involves not only what the information is, but where it is spatially located.

Added note: Readers interested in education are invited to join our Neuro-education group on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4883556&trk=my_groups-tile-grp)

Mueller, P. A., and Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science. 23 April. DOI: 10.1177/0956797614524581. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/22/0956797614524581