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If you’ve been a part of the workforce for any period of time, you have at least some level of professional expertise. You’ve got a certain unique set of skills, knowledge, and experience that makes you an asset.
Are you a student or a working person? Have you done any projects/internships?
why keep all that wisdom to yourself? Why not send it out into the world to be free and lift others to new heights as well? And the best part? Sharing your expertise not only helps others in their professional endeavors, it also helps you.
Their stories
Ramananda Nandeibam
Test of Proficiency in Korean
I am Ramananda Nandeibam, co-founder of Mingsel Pvt Limited, an export-import company that mainly deals with Korean imported goods. I have been learning Korean for the last few years. My love for Korean food drew my interest towards learning their language. My first introduction to learning the Korean Language was in a private institution, “Miraque”.
In 2018, the Department of Foreign Language, M.U had opened a full-time Korean Foundation course for the first time and joining the course was a life changing experience for me. The course, also known as KF has two levels, KF-1 and KF-2 which is of one year each.
The KF course is an intensive BA course for graduate students. During the 2 years, I was able to experience many new things from organizing and managing events to interacting with Koreans and learning their work culture. After the completion of my course, I landed a spot for internship in KOTRA (Korean Trade and Investment Agency) and had worked there as a Marketing Management Assistant.
Where can you learn Korean in Manipur?
- Currently Manipur University offers full-time BA Korean Language course and will soon be opening its MA courses.
- If you want to learn it in your free time, you can enroll in King Sejong Institute Imphal which offers Certificate courses from Beginner to Advance levels.
What determines the level of non-native Korean proficiency?
TOPIK is an international standardized exam that measures Korean skills for non-native speakers. TOPIK stands for Test of Proficiency in Korean. It is operated by the National Institute for International Education (NIIED), under the Ministry of Education of Korea. It is a test designed to measure the ability of nonnatives for expression and comprehension in the Korean language. TOPIK test measures proficiency in reading, writing, and listening comprehension in the Korean language.
TOPIK I is of 200 marks and to pass level 1, you must get a score of 80 or above and to pass level 2, a score of 140 or above. TOPIK II is of 300 Marks and you have to get at least 120, 150, 190, and 230 to pass Level 3,4,5,6 respectively.
TOPIK score is the official record of proficiency in Korean and is valid for 2 years. It evaluates the future career prospects in Korean companies, or to get an education in Korea. It is a must for someone wanting to study or work in South Korea. In India, TOPIK exam is heldtwice a year (every 6 months) and in Korea, 6 times in a year.
During the registration window, anyone can register online through www.topik.go.kror offline through the Department of Foreign Language, Manipur University.
Scope of learning Korean as a foreign language.
- Learning Korean is a plus point for anyone seeking job or education in Korea. It opens the doorway for several career options as there is a strong bilateral economic relationship between India and South Korea.
- Even within India, according to a report by the Ministry of External Affairs, there are over 600 large and small Korean firms operating in the country. Fluency in the language increases the prospects of working in such companies.
Scholarships you can apply
- Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP): KGSP is an academic scholarship funded and managed by the National Institute for International Education (NIIED), a branch of the Ministry of Education in the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
- Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) : NIIED runs the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) which covers various types of support programs for academic exchanges between Republic of Korea (South Korea) and international countries.
Check www.topik.go.kr and Korean Cultural Centre India for TOPIK Exam/Registration Announcements and exam centres.Currently Delhi, Jharkhand, Manipur, Hyderabad, Chennai are the only exam centres in India.Check http://www.studyinkorea.go.kr for more scholarship details.
Chandrakala Angom
My Learnings from Microsoft
My childhood dream to work for a big multinational company came true when I got my job offer from Microsoft India during the college placement of my B Tech program in NIT Durgapur. Working in the Software Engineering function for the past 7+ years, I have had the opportunity to work in various technologies and develop several applications. However, my greatest learning lies beyond those lines of code that I’ve written. Here are three important skills which are applicable outside my work environment that working as a Software Engineer at Microsoft has taught me.
Planning and prioritization: Microsoft follows the agile process of software engineering which means the software development work is divided into smaller chunks and planned in iterations. It gives the flexibility to focus on the immediate need, fail faster and correct course as required. Proper planning and prioritization is the key to ensuring that the execution stays on track. At various levels, a decision is made on which tasks should take precedence over others and when to plan which one. In the Software Engineering process, this is typically done based on the business impact or the Return on Investment the work item would bring in.The same lens can be applied while working towards our personal goals. Planning and prioritizing the detailed steps can provide a great framework to align our efforts towards our goals be it the exam that you are studying for, the college application that you are working towards or the fitness goal you’ve set up for yourself.
Communication: Well, there isn’t a job where good communication isn’t important. While it is true that as a Software Engineer, my primary job is not to give presentations to other humans but to write instructions for the machine, having good communication skills has been critical to being an effective team member, especially as I progressed in my career. Being able to articulate a design or a point of view in a meeting, to be able to write effective emails, to be able to tailor the message (verbal or written) based on the audience – are important skills that are helpful not just in the corporate setting but also in all social settings.
Empathy: Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of another. And no it is not an innate quality, but very much a learnable skill. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. And this is not possible without having empathy for other fellow humans – customers or not. A lot of innovation at Microsoft springs out of understanding the unmet needs in our society and figuring out how to solve these problems using technology Empathy enables one to anticipate and understand the undeclared needs of the other party involved in both professional and personal settings and makes us more effective in our roles as a service provider, colleague or as a friend or family member.
I went into the corporate sector expecting it to be a dog eat-dog world. However, my experience at Microsoft has been of support, growth, and respect. And it gives me the utmost pleasure to be sharing these learnings with you.
Karisma Yumnam
PhD at State Washington University,USA
Hello Folks, I am Karisma Yumnam, graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Biological System Engineering with specialization in Agricultural Automation at the Washington State University, USA. My research primarily focusses on developing precise sensing and automation technologies in agricultural sector. The applicability of my research in Indian scenario is still limited. However, I am sure that in the coming decade, precision agriculture will boom in India. Currently, I am working on a frost mitigation project, which is exciting. The perk of my research area is that I get to talk directly with the growers (farmers), find out their needs and areas that I think would require a change. The interesting thing about American growers is that they are quite knowledgeable. That means I get to learn from them as well.
I did my Bachelor’s in Agricultural Engineering and did my master’s in Hydrology. I had the ambition to pursue my Ph.D. abroad. One more thing is that, in January 2021, I got to know about Precision Agricultural Technologies, watched some YouTube videos on it. I was very much amazed. My Master’s supervisor is one person that I will be grateful for the rest of my life. I expressed my desire to go abroad, and he helped me in all possible ways. He sent me all the available Ph.D. positions in Germany and introduced me to google groups where the professors seek for PhD students. Also, I was active on LinkedIn, connected professors that work in my research interests. I prepared a good CV and a cover later, applied to these positions. Usually, they specify all the documents that I need to send them. I got shortlisted for interviews.
For interviews, I had to prepare a presentation about what I did in my master’s research. In one case, the professor sent me two research papers and asked me to explain it. The interviews usually take 45 minutes to 1 hour. Well, I got rejected a lot. I was sad, depressed and sometimes lost hope. Then, I talked with my seniors and even the CEO of MitSna (Chirom Meiraba). After several rejections, finally I got exactly what I wanted. One professor agrees to hire me as his PhD student. After that, I appear for TOEFL exam, completed my application in the University Portal. Then after one months or so, I finally got the offer letter from the University. I was in Euphoria. Well, that’s the story about how I landed up for a fully funded PhD position in Washington State University.
. There are DAAD Ph.D. scholarships to pursue Ph.D. in Germany as well. The deadline is usually September or October.
Well, that was all I can type today!!! Lastly, I am grateful to MitSna for giving this opportunity.
Best Wishes and Cheers!!! Karisma Yumnam
Shougaijam Santosh
Fine Arts
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Hi! This is Santosh, an Imphal Art College student pursuing Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA third year in Painting). I would like to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences as a fine art student. Here at Imphal Art College, the admission process starts around July to August. A practical entrance test is conducted, and those selected go through an interview. To give a highlight of the course, there are four departments, namely Painting, Sculpture, Applied Art, and Graphics. The entire course is of four years. The first two are foundation courses. Then, we get specialized in the four honors from the 3rd year. As I mentioned before, I got in Painting, where we are learning and experimenting with Portraits, Composition, Still Life and Birds, and Animal study.
There is also great chemistry among us, the students, and the teachers. We appreciate each other and be critics of each other too. Every Saturday, we would sit together and commit ourselves to life study and sketches. That, I think, helps us in building a great environment. Me, Felix Chungkham, a senior and friend from the 4th year of Painting, has been a great help to me as we discuss oil colors, lines, and their applications. On top of that, I have been lucky to be a part of the Phoonga Illustration House, working alongside Rahul Guruaribam and Felix.
As everyone knows, Fine Arts as a career is not appreciated enough in our beloved state. I also had to convince and assure my family, who was worried about me. Fortunately, my family has always been supportive of what I love. While I was in school, some of the teachers would encourage me to opt for Literature or History and be this or that in the future. But I don’t know if I should call this stubbornness or determination. I never thought otherwise because I knew there would be no regret this way.
So, if anyone is suffering from a dilemma and not so sure about the future, I would like to say that what matters is not the result but the process and the dedication we offer. Thank you.
Hawaibam Thoibisana
Internship at National Human Rights Commission
The National Human Rights Commission Internship program is a program conducted to spread awareness among University students about the need for the protection and promotion of Human Rights. Students from any field can participate in this internship program, provided that they are interested in human rights.
The form for the internship will be available at nhrc.nic.in. For the time being, the internship mode is online owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the internship duration is 15 days. The internship is conducted twice a year, i.e., in summer and winter internship programs. Most of the students are from the law background as they were aware more of human rights and can relate to their course. They take six sessions a day.
The session is taken by the IAS officer, IPS officer, lawyer, NGO representatives, and other intellectuals from various fields, and it was a great experience, it improves one’s personality through interacting with educated people. One needs to be attentive, punctual, and have the patience to hold this program, else one will get exempted if one fails to show up for four sessions or if one turns off their video. During this 15-day of internship, one has to review a book relating to human rights and give a presentation for three minutes of the same, alongside a group research work and a 15 minutes presentation. Prizes are also awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd distinguished interns after completing the internship stipend of Rs. 2000.
Thank you
Karishma Yumnam
Clinical Psychology as a career
Hello all! We know how important a career is in one’s life. I went on to become a Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist, to be precise. Clinical Psychologist is an important field in today’s world as we can see there is an increase in mental health issues all around the globe. Psychologists are in demand, but the harsh truth/reality in India is that the Government doesn’t fully recognize their importance. It is a field that has enormous scope, but the number of professionals in India is less. If one wants to pursue a career in Psychology, then they can opt for Psychology Honours or choose a subject combination according to the University they decide to study in for Graduation. For example, Delhi University provides Psychology Honours, whereas Bangalore University or colleges in Bangalore offers a subject combination; one gets to choose three main subjects.
Then, in Masters, one can choose their specialisation. In India, commonly the area of specializations being offered in Psychology are Clinical Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Industrial Psychology, Educational Psychology, Social Psychology and also in few Universities – Forensic Psychology, Sports Psychology are also offered. Specifically for Clinical Psychology, if one wants to work in a clinical setting, then M.Phil is a must whereas for a school counselor or a career counselor, a master’s degree is enough and in order to become a college lecturer or a professor, one needs to complete their Ph.d. During Graduation and Masters it is mandatory to do internship as a part of the curriculum. Students have the options to choose where they want to do their internship for example they can work in hospitals or old age homes or industries or schools.
There are certain skills and characteristics one needs to develop in order to fully work as a Psychologist, such as being a good listener, developing empathy, being nonjudgemental and also maintaining eye contact. It was fun and had an amazing experience understanding the field of Psychology during my graduation and master’s. The department of Psychology held Psychology fest, which consisted of poster/collage making, debate, skit, ice-breaking activity, and so on based on topics related to Psychology
To pursue Ph.D. in Psychology, one can give the NET exam. Certain university allows students to pursue Ph.D. if they pass their entrance exams even if they haven’t passed their NET exam.
In conclusion, if you have an interest in Psychology you can pursue the subject. It’s a very interesting field where you study human behavior and develop an understanding of one’s personality, behavior and temperament.
Thank You.
Oinam Ningthemmani Singh
A career as Biology researcher(Virus vaccinology) in India
I, Oinam Ningthemmani Singh, currently a third-year research scholar is working in the field of vaccine development and want to share my journey to getting admission into Ph.D. and to be a researcher in virus vaccinology. Hoping this writeup will find useful to the biology student who want to make a career of biology researcher in India.
At the end of second year, a student is eligible to appear Junior research fellowship (JRF) exam conducted by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT-JRF) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR-JRF). Before completion of post graduate, I was able to clear the DBTJRF and CSIR-JRF with a lot of self-study and sacrifice of some sleep.
Getting admission into Ph.D. become less tough with JRF. Academic of scientific and innovative research (ACSIR) provides admission to Ph.D. program in 48 different CSIR sponsor institute in all field of science including physics, chemistry and Mathematics. The application usually releases during June-July. Only students having a fellowship are allow to apply into Ph.D. program. I took admission in Ph.D. at Institute of Microbial Technology-Chandigarh (IMTECH).
I was working on expressing protein in bacterial system, purification of protein using various techniques, characterization of protein structure and identification of protein binding small molecule using molecular docking.
Do what you love and love what you do! My passion for understanding the molecular mechanism of virus has pushed me to take up admission at Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI). The admission form is usually released by July-August. Student who has clear JRF are only eligible to apply into the Ph.D. program. The process of admission has one round of written test where 2/3 times the intact number are selected followed by another round of interview by all the faculties which usually lasted 30 min to 2 hours.
Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) is an institute sponsor by The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) at Faridabad, Haryana. The institute has 4 fields of research. “Infection and immunology” Department work with pathogenic diseases such as tuberculosis, Dengue virus, HIV, Hepatitis virus, Influenza virus, SARS-CoV2.
My Ph.D. work focus on developling an mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV2 and its various variants. I am exposed to various molecular technique of molecular biology such as cloning, cell culture, expression of protein in mammalian system and checking through western blot. I also worked with small animal such as Mice and Hamster. I have also gain experience in handling SARS-CoV2 virus and its variant in BSL3 facility.
Hoping that this piece of writing could be helpful to postgraduate students studying biology and its related fields and want to pursue a career of research. I would be happy to guide post graduate students in their dissertation and those who wish to make a career in virology and also who wishes to collaborate with our lab.
Thank you.
Oinam Ningthemmani Singh, Ph.D. Student
Email id: oinam@thsti.res.in
C/O: Dr. Milan Surjit
Vaccine And Infectious Disease Research Centre (VIDRC)
Translational Health Science and Technology Institute NCR
Biotech Science Cluster,3rd Milestone Faridabad – 121001
Sushma Potshangbam
M.ED. Opportunities and Challenges
I did Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) at Manipur University and this experience only solidified my desire of becoming a teacher. B. Ed. is an undergraduate professional course for training the Secondary and Higher Secondary teachers. There are a number of different subjects like Childhood and growing up, Contemporary India and Education, language across curriculum, etc. This course shows us what teaching and learning is and the processes involved in it, so that aspiring teachers realise that learning and teaching is not as easy as it seems and you get an opportunity to see teaching and learning as a process and the various factors involved in it. A teacher is required to adapt to the needs of the students, go down to their level and help them. Simply, we learn how to teach. The National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) mandates teachers to complete B.Ed. course.
After having completed B.Ed., I started pursuing Master of Education (M.Ed.) which mainly serves the purpose of educational research. M.Ed. is a graduate course which helps one become an academic expert and advance their teaching career.The course deals with the study of new methods of teaching and educational research. It focuses on different aspects of education including instruction, curriculum, counselling, leadership, and educational technology
The syllabus of M.Ed. lays emphasis on different pedagogy of learning techniques that help candidates develop the right technical finesse to become an educator. The course curriculum of M.Ed. not only includes theory but also a great amount of practical work. The opportunities one get here are varied as during the course one is exposed to a lot of theoretical as well as practical work. As a part of the practical, candidates are encouraged to prepare dissertations, join internships, pursue academic writing, and attend workshops and seminars.
This course also prepares educators by nurturing their professional skills. The course focuses not only on deepening the knowledge about education but also allows the educators to choose various specialized areas in teaching and develop research capabilities.
OPPORTUNITIES
Obtaining an M.Ed. degree is an excellent way to enrich and advance one’s teaching career. It establishes students as an expert teacher and increases job opportunities.Some of the benefits of acquiring a M.Ed. degree include:
Enhanced Value in the Job Market: Master is typically the basic requirement for teaching at the high school level, hence, it carry a lot of weight in the teaching job market. Having an M.Ed. course allows the candidate to expand beyond teaching the middle school level and allow them to teach the higher secondary students.
Build Up One’s Teaching Skills: M.Ed. degree focuses on how to be a teacher with primary emphasise on pedagogy, teaching methods, philosophy of education, and educational technology which definitely helps one improve their teaching skills.
Career Mobility: Teachers with advanced degrees get various job opportunities for holding institutions administrative positions and can become mentors to other teachers based upon specific graduate training.
Different Job Opportunities: A degree in Master of Education opens up ample career opportunities in the fields of teaching and education. After completing the M.Ed. course one can not only opt for to be a teacher or a Professor, but one can also go for counsellor position, headmaster/headmistress, curriculum designers, etc.
Increased Earning Potential: With the increased level of degrees the pay scale also increases, hence, pursuing an M.Ed. degree makes it easier for one to get a high paying job in the teaching arena.
Challenges: Strictly speaking with regard to Manipur, there are some challenges that cannot be left unsaid in relation to the M. Ed course. As of now, there are only 2 institutions which offer the M.Ed. course, namely D.M. College of Teacher Education and RK Sanatombi College of Education. The cost of the course is reasonable in the Government Institution but the total intake is 50 seats only. The other college has a yearly intake of 100 seats but the cost is quite high. This results in high competition among the candidates.
There is also the problem of lack of teachers which affect the entire experience of undergoing the program. This further narrows the opportunity for opting for different optional subjects as there are no teachers for it.
There is a lack of knowledge and information regarding job opportunities after pursuing M.Ed. Many think that the M.Ed. degree is to only provide training for B.Ed. educators and become a teacher in a school with an average income. In reality, M.Ed. qualified individuals/educators have the opportunity to become Head of institutions, and even an Advisory to the Ministry of Human Resources. The public more specifically even students pursuing the course are not aware of the varied job opportunities and career options which I mentioned above. The challenge lies in making the right people aware of this huge scope and impact M. Ed. has to offer.
Lack of funding is another major challenge. M.Ed. course with its special focus in the practical aspects of teaching need huge amount of funding to develop infrastructure which is sadly not a reality in the present state of Manipur.