How To Guide - To Find Internship In India

Recently I was receiving lots of requests regarding how to find internships in India and aboard. Over the years, I have seen these findings in India which prompt me to write this article about finding the internship. In terms of internships out of India, will write about it some other time. Let me know if this ever helped you or not.

Getting any internship is kind of knocking the right door at a right time. So to do that you should know how to knock, which door to knock and when to knock the door. Confused? To simplify this let me explain what I meant to say here.

How To Knock - Most of the battle of getting an internship will be won, if you know how to apply for the internships i.e. How to Knock. Apart from a resume to showcase your knowledge and grades there are few skills needed to make this thing to reality.

The most important thing which is needed here is the network. The network of peoples whom you know directly or indirectly, who are working in various companies, those who works in relevant fields of yours, where you are looking for your internship. So chalk down the list of such peoples and ask for this internship favor directly. The chances are some will have something relevant for you or they will provide some different sources which will be relevant to the internship you are looking out for. 

The networking can be from peoples in your batch, senior batch, college professors, neighbors, relatives, other than college friends, any friend of friends, internet friends, acquaintances etc. I am sure if you chalk down that list it will be at least 50-100 peoples and from that if 5-10 really helped you out then chances are you may get at least 1-2 internships and that's what you need.

Now if you don't have any network, although that will be an excuse but if that's true or you are too shy to approach anyone then don't worry, there is solution to this kind of problems too. There are many websites which provide information about internships across India, so you should register to those websites and apply to those organizations. Some of these websites are http://internshala.com/ and http://www.letsintern.com/.  There are many Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts which are been created for this purpose to help peoples with no direct networks. Find them and get involved to know the information relevant to your desired internships. Keep checking on the official website of the organizations, many of them list the intern requirements there but most of them got quickly filled by internal reference within the organization so having someone who can approach the right person internally is also needed.

Even if you have tried through networking approach, I will recommend you to try this online approach too and this will increase your probability of getting internships.

Which Door to Knock - If you have planned and executed the first point properly you will be already aware by this time, which companies are actually accepting interns. This means first step will also give you answer which door to knock.

It will be better to categorize all the organizations at your end in respect of easy to get in, to the toughest one to get the internships based on the skill-sets and resources you have. Usually getting internship at small startups may be the toughest as they may need someone who are ready to work from first day of internship with no or minimum training, although at the same time if you can fit to that requirement with your technical skills then it will be easiest to crack. Similarly getting the internship to a big organization may be tough if you do not have right reference internally but if you have then it may be a cake walk for you.

Keep your eyes and ear open about internship recruitment's nearby to your place you are currently in. There may be many which don't list out there requirements but if you approach them you will surprise to find yourself getting an internship very easily. Apart from many small startups there may be big or midsize training institutes like NIIT, Aptech etc. in nearby community who may need peoples but don't advertise their need and will be happy to give you internship, if you approach them at right time.

Even if you have approached all organizations nearby your community, still don't loose heart if some or many don't accept your requests. Also there is no point in getting dejected by approaching every organization when truth is only some accepts the internships, that's why you need to keep your eyes and ears open through your sources about all the requirements nearby.

When to Knock The Door - This is applicable only for an internship. Some organization accepts only for summer internships, some for winter, some for both and some at any specific month of the year. When an organization going to accept for an internship will be the key for your preparation and also knowing the right opportunity in advance. In this case too the work you do at first step may give you some idea about various organizations. Which is important to set your own expectations.

The above steps will help you in getting the internship but there is no end of the world if you don't receive any internship and your friend or someone else does. You can utilize that time of internship for self-improvement and prepare yourself for the bigger challenge of on or off campus recruitment.

What should you prepare at your end for the internship? Before or after you get that.

• Groom Yourself Properly - No bathing, No shaving, No brushing your teeth and No sleep with sore red eyes and you can still attend your lectures and college but not applicable once you join an organization, even as an intern. So change yourself accordingly.
• Communication Skills - Some company may communicate internally in their local languages, but that does not mean you should assume that's how all organization works. So enhance your communication skills as much you can, it will be always helpful.
• Technical Skills - There is no guarantee you are going to get the work on the technical skills you have, but able to answer some of the basic questions on the skills you projected in your resume will always helpful.
• Semester Grades - If you have good grades it will always show that you as sincere about your study and course you are in. This does impact positively on the people's at the other side of the table. Although this may not be the must have for every organization and internships but it always be nice to have.
•  Aptitude Skills - If you have good skills on this then it will help you not only in internships but also in future recruitment's. If you can polish this skills whenever you have time, it will not cause you any harm.
• Organizational Process - This will applicable once you got the internship or been called for any interview for the internship. Learn the process the organization follows. Knowing how things work in that organization or any organization will always give you the right edge over others.

Hopefully, these steps will help you not only getting the internship you are eyeing for but also in succeeding beyond that.  

Extremely Short Stories - Part II

This is the continuation of the series Extremely Short Stories - Part I where most of the stories are N word challenges. Where N stands for the number of words. This time it will be N line or sentences stories. The stories of one, two, three and four lines are mentioned below.


Stories In One Line
Their path crossed and eyes met and they can’t take out the eyes from each other, probably this is a love at first sight while they unaware of a bomb ticking nearby, to explode.

Every day while going to the office I find a woman begging with her child in the sad face, today I found her begging alone with tears in her eyes.

He is the best spy of the country, turned out to be the double agent who sold his own country secrets to the enemies.

His car’s tire stuck in snow for quite some time now, being frustrated with no help around he started crying, and a creature monitoring all of this via binocular started smiling.



Stories In Two Lines
Dear Diary,
Today my bad luck crossed its limit, I wonder what I should do to end this miserable life?
“Come to me”, the diary wrote back with a smiley.

I aimed through the riffle’s eyepiece with determination, she whispered in my ears “This is your last chance to prove, don’t forget we were always partner in crime, and you owe me this one because I saved you last time”.
I pulled the trigger and target destroyed, my sister jumped with ecstasy and hugged me tightly as I am able to win that soft toy for her as she was asking for it since we came to this fair.

Stories In Three Lines
He took me in his arms and looked at me with a mysterious smile and kissed me.
Grabbed my arms with his mouth, bite it hard and then dislocate it, and dropped me mercilessly.
While lying on the floor helplessly I saw him come towards me again and this time he grabbed another toy lying next to me and bite it the same way earlier to soothe his growing milk teeth.

Stories In Four Lines
In my sleep, I heard a loud noise of breaking something and I thought someone must have intruded in my house.
I woke up hurriedly and realize I am lying at a different place and the thought strikes me “Ohh No, Not again” I should not have sleep walk and intrude someone else house.
Suddenly the lights of that room turned on and I tried my best to hide and found few peoples are robbing someone’s valuables and then I can able to see that someone’s face, he looks exactly like me.
One of those people find some notes from my duplicate’s pocket and read one loudly “This person has Alzheimer’s if found please take him to ...Blah Blah place” and then another one said “It means he will not remember why we killed him up at the first place” and all of them laughed hysterically.

I know he doesn’t love me so I begged not to, but he dragged me forcefully and fasten me tightly against that machine.
I prayed to the god to save me this time when it dragged me high slowly, then he raised both his hand and turned towards me and said “now be ready to die”.
I tried to run and stop this machine but can’t and I know this machine is going to kill me and before that it shook me like hell, turned me upside down and at last in full speed take me towards the thick Iron pole and before it can hit to that pole a whole lot of light flashes in front of me and I closed my eyes as much as I can.
Now I am at the moment where it seems whole world stopped in front of me, the blood is running fast through my veins and then I opened my eyes gradually and realize this ride on this machine named “Roller Coaster” was not bad at all.

In the fight for life and death at local Arena, he glanced the whole stadium but can’t locate her she always appeared to cheer him up, his only supporter but today she is missing.
He received massive blows on his head and ears from that deadly opponent; lying on the floor dejected and lost ability to hear anything he knows that only last few of his breaths left and this fight will finally end up in a moment.
He then heard a clear voice, this time a male voice and he was able to recognize that voice, it’s his inner voice asking him not to die, not to quit, asking him to fight and kill the opponent as he had strangled his wife to death else she would have been in this arena to cheer him up.
With a heavy heart he listened to that voice and a tear came out of his eyes, then his heart stopped for that moment and he closed his eyes, in another moment he opened his eyes with full determination.

Note: Many of these stories were part of my answers to N line stories at Quora and some are original specific for this website.


©Tapas Majumdar, Not for reproduction without Author's permission.

Will India able to Win 2015 ICC World Cup, in Cricket?

When I wrote last time about India in the world cup, it was 2007 and India failed miserably in league matches and went back home. This time they are brilliant and defending their title of 2011. Will India become third-time world champions in Cricket? Let’s analyze.

India already won all the six league matches and ready to take their first knockout match tomorrow with Bangladesh. To win this world cup, India need to make 9 victories in a row, there is no escape from that now. So will they able to hold their champions title of 2011 in 2015 too?

With a great team comes great results and only India and New Zealand had shown their true potentials. The game will be turned when knockout stage (Quarterfinal, semifinal and final) will start. The team which will perform on that particular day will move to the next stage. It’s as simple as that.

The only thing that can stop India in this 2015 world cup will be "The Law of Average". In Cricket, every team or player got catch up with this one and there is no escape. If that shows up in Knockout stage then all hard work will be gone.

India had already won 6 matches in a row. This is the case before the start of aforementioned knockout stage. Then it will be 3 knockout matches and if statistics to be believed in last one year (2014-15), India had won seven matches in a row, only once. Remember, this is the closest team combination which is playing in this world cup too.

If you compare it from 2011 to 2015, till date (Last four year including, world cup) then India have won 7 matches in a row four times and only once eight matches in a row. The eight matches in a row, winning streak is shown below.

 We cannot consider four years statistic for this case as the team India had changed a lot since then, still this will do contribute as Law of average for India.

You can check the whole four years statistics here.
India Team records | ESPN Cricinfo

so as a personal conclusion, India needs to better their continuous winning streaks this time to win the world cup. I believe they will very easily make to Semifinals and may be finals too but winning will be dependent on that day performance and also on many other factors, including this one. 

Remember 2003 team world cup winning streaks? And how they performed in final. Whole team performed poorly and looked out of place, was that Law of Average, for that Indian team? Remember India's lost to South Africa in 2011 world cup, which actually did the magic to Law of Averages. You can agree or disagree regarding the theory of "The Law Of Averages" but you can't ignore it in Cricket.

©Tapas Majumdar

How To Guide - To Tell Stupidest Being Late Reasons

You have an early morning class or a meeting to catch up. You reach to class or office late, what will be your reasons. Above all what will be your reasons which will sound stupid or bull shit but may be true. There will be many popular ones. Like Heavy Traffic, Alarm didn't went off and Tire got flat are universal tried and tested reasons for coming late. There will be many more genuine and stupid reasons too but when a boss or teacher do not want to hear anything then hardly any of them works. 

When in any case coming late will be punishable offense, Then why not try some crazy and stupid ones but with some creativity involved in it. Mentioned below are the one in categories. These are the reasons that can be used for coming late for class. You can apply them for work too with slight and necessary modifications. Although Disclaimer would be, try them at your own risk.

Superhero Reasons

• Was saving the world from <aliens> last night, didn't realized I worked overtime.
• I was on time, but just before entering the class I realized I forgot to remove my superhero underwear which I wear over my pant. To unlock that I need to go back to the secured location and do that. Its a time consuming process unlike any other normal underwear.
• It's too much Air Traffic and the city is filled with bad constructions too. No safety guaranteed, if my web will stick to any of the buildings fine or I will fall down. With all this, I can no longer fly like a Spider-man. So I traveled by road this time, hence late.

Vampire Reasons

• I always come on time at night classes. I just got shifted to the day classes, due to the count of students had significantly gone down of that class. I work whole night and then coming on time to a morning class is not my cup of blood...oops...Tea.
• Was at dentist office to sharpen my tooth and accidentally checked on him, about how good he did that job. It took time to cleared that mess at his office.

Celebrity Reasons

• Sorry I am late, as I got stuck into signing autographs and satisfying paparazzi's at college gate.
• I forgot to change my watch back to <Indian Standard Time> after returning from <Hollywood>, last weekend.
• My <chauffeur> didn't got up early.
• Traffic got stuck because of me.

Stupid Reasons For Early Morning Classes

• I was sleepwalking from hostel and entered a different class than this one. Just realized that mistake and came to rectify.
• It took really good amount of time to untangle the knot of my Pajama. You will not allow someone in class with Pajama on, so it was kind of necessity for this day.
• My Alarm started at correct time but doesn't goes off, when I hit the snooze button. It took me extra hour to fix the alarm to go off completely.
• I had a nice dream tonight that you died, so no class today. It took time within sleep to find the difference between dream and reality, hence late. 

Things written inside <> can be replaced by anything else of your choice.

©Tapas Majumdar

Extremely Short Stories - Part I

Stories In Two Sentences

Dear Diary,

Today is a very important day of my life, Last year same day I lost my legs in an accident when I was on my way for final selection of players to represent my country in Olympics track and field events. All hope is not lost yet, they said with some good practice soon I will able to represent my country in Paralympics, it’s just till then I have to bear the cost of all my treatments.

Mom!!! When will Dad come back, now I have become a good boy too? His mom said “Very Soon” and that moment glanced to the hanging picture frame of her deceased husband and wonder what lie she will tell next.


Stories In 18 Words

They died for their love, to meet in heaven. Unfortunately, their Karma took one of them to hell.

They agreed for the duel, and died. She, once loved by both and now conquered by none, smiled.

Stories In 15 Words

Today, I met him. My friend, who my Parents said was imaginary in my childhood.

I heard about the man who killed me yesterday, his soul is reaching hell tonight.

Stories In 8 Words

What will you have, Tea or Coffee? 

"Blood".

They struggled hard to become the strangers, forever.

What you expect from life? 

Nothing, Just Love.

Stories In 7 Words

The End is The New Beginning, Recursively.

Daily Status Of Vikramaditya: Carrying Betal...Again
(Inspired from Vikram Betal Indian Mythological Stories)

I lost inside the jungle, named city.

All these stories I had originally wrote in my Quora answers for respective question categories.

©Tapas Majumdar, Not for reproduction without Author's permission.

10 Best Bollywood Movies Of 2014

2014 is now over and it’s time to judge the best movies of that year. So who will going to judge that, it will be yours truly? Hence, my choice of best movies of 2014 from all the movies released last year will be:

Ranking	The Chosen One	Show Me....Details	Phata Poster
1.	Haider	I assume this will be voted unanimously among best movie of this year. The closest competitors may be Queen or PK.
2.	Queen	A movie that redefined storytelling and also a welcome change from hero dominated industry and this is the core reason to place it above the third choice.
3.	PK	This nanga punga dost delivered magic, with all the controversies and release issues will place it as third best movie of the year. I know it’s a hard choice between second and third place.
4.	2 States	A movie from bestselling novel with all ingredients that Bollywood movies are famous for.
5.	Highway	The story of Veera and Mahabir was very well written and directed. A must watch for this year.
6.	Mary Kom	A biopic which becomes the first Hindi film to be to be screened on the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival, do worth a mention here including the review or acceptance it received after its release. Even choreographers in Gujarat had incorporated "Mary Kom" punching-style in Garba for Navaratri this year.
7.	Ek Villain	It’s high in this order because of the song, music, melody, dialogues and performances. Whereas the script and story is also not that bad and probably one of the highest earned movie among most of the movies in this list.
8.	Finding Fanny	A movie with cast as Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur can't go much wrong and it did received many critical acclaims to be in this list.
9.	Bhoothnath Returns	Story of Bhoothnath played by Amitabh Bachchan at his age of 70+ years do need a mention in this list along with the child artist Parth who naturally fit into his character. This is definitely a must watch movie for children and adult alike.
10.	Khoobsurat	This is a Disney product and they did what they do the best, to churn out a happy go lucky movie. You can't do much and only enjoy this movie with your "Maa Ka Phone Aaya". You know what I mean.

Mentioned below are the ones which missed the mark, eventually there are place for only 10. Here the respective roles are played by unknown or not so known actors and people still liked those movies. It’s definitely the victory of cinema as a whole. Included them as they were the underdog releases of this year and still performed best to their potential. Also the movie Youngistan can be remembered for last performance by the legend Farooq Sheikh. 

Some of the money minting machine at box office, like Bang Bang, Kick and Happy New Year which also released last year would have found a place in this list too but I tried to find a genuine list in terms of Quality not Quantity.

Let me know if you agreed to this list or not.

©Tapas Majumdar

New Year's Impossible Resolutions

I never made any resolutions, so thought why not this year. It’s another new year and good time for making new resolutions. Keeping up with the pace of this year old traditions, I thought of listing down top five resolutions this year. Only difference, they will be impossible to achieve.

I know many of you may think even if I make a simple resolution like waking up early in the morning every day whole year and probability of failing is very high and can also be listed under impossible resolutions but I believe in thinking something more impossible.

In positive note, many of you think there is nothing is impossible, I believe the same “Nothing Is Impossible ….Theoretically” hence are my resolutions below. To all those who believe this as ridiculous idea, let me tell you, if you raise your aim by throwing stones toward Moon there are very good chances you will hit your neighbor’s bare head. So let me know what will be your impossible resolutions for this year. Some foods for thoughts are mentioned below.

1.       To Be an Astronaut – Why to throw stone to moon when you can actually land up in moon. You can extend your resolution to become an astronaut and find yourself landed in one of the lesser travelled stars too. If you think this is not possible in one year time frame then didn’t I tell you earlier “everything is possible”? As this falls under impossible resolutions to achieve so please note this resolution will not consider accomplished if you are an Astronaut by profession. Also if you are in any other profession but do daily conference with your team members or client in conference rooms named “Astronaut”, “Moon”, “Star” or “Sun” etc.

 

2.       Exercise Daily – I can guarantee this resolution is the most popular resolution the day new year starts. It’s the reason due to which Fitness Center memberships are highest in the month of January than in any month of the year. There will be various variety of this resolution at your end like exercise weekly or exercise at least 3 days a week etc. Many of you may able to achieve those resolutions or struggle hard to achieve that too. Which so ever category you fall the impossible resolution will be to exercise at least 1 hour daily i.e. 365 Days of the year, no matter what. You can do exercise of any kind and also more than the allocated time every day but the extra time will not get credited to any other day. To ease this up, if in any given day this year you encountered Tsunami and did swimming to survive yourself (Swimming is an exercise) or got caught in landslide and climbing back to the land (Mountain Climbing is an exercise) will also fall under that particular day exercise. If you did this kind of surviving activity more than an hour on that particular day, you still have to invest an hour in exercise very next day.

3.       To Laugh Every Day – Impossible, if you add 1 hour every day to it. The first resolution was imaginary, second one was practical and this one is emotional.  I think this is the easiest resolution to achieve in any year but most tough to accomplish. If you are part of laughter member club and you think this is too easy for you to achieve, then you can introduce complexity to this resolution by laughing every day at particular time outside your laughter member club time. E.g. Laugh every day at 1.00 PM. Please note this resolution may have its own drawbacks either choose a legitimate time or apply intelligently. Like if you heard that your friend fell from bed and broke his leg can tickle your funny bones but it doesn’t looks well if you visit him after his accident at 1.00 PM and started laughing in front of him, to achieve this resolution. Worst if you are attending a funeral and your time to laughter starts now.

4.       Travel to new places – Yes, this is also a popular resolution for most of the peoples but how about every day. Yes, each day you will travel to new place which you have never visited before. Which means commuting to office, to your mom’s place or to your girlfriend(s) place will not count unless they had changed their location in 2015. If you are giving interviews and you have to visit different companies at different unique locations everyday then congratulations, this is actually covers the intricacies of this resolution. Although, I will feel pity on you if you have to continue your job search for 365 days, just to achieve this resolution.  

5.       Daily Dosage of Love Making– Yes this is also kind of impossible now a days. If not for you then first thing first, Hats off to you. You definitely need to share recipe of success to many peoples who love to be like you. So especially for people like you and to make this one impossible, you need to do it in different unique position every day. Warning: Kamasutra has only 65 positions and you need to invent 300 new ones to cover 365 Days of the year, so kind of theoretically impossible. To those who find doing it every day itself is challenging will suggest to do it with a reliable partner(s) only, no animals should be harmed in this resolution. Yes, you can do it with clothes on, lights on or can even use Red or Green light in place of boring white or yellow home or street lights. If you are trying to achieve this resolution with Green or Red lights on then don’t blame me for this suggestion, in case you find a hard on, the moment you approach a traffic signal. I know, every country use green and red lights for traffic signal so no escape based on location.

Do let me know if you actually tried any of them, as you can find none of them are impossible to start it’s just the continuity and ending, you know.

©Tapas Majumdar

How To Guide - Of Taking Decisions

Till the completion of my school life my parents took all decisions for me. That’s include which cloth should I wear to which shoes looks good with that dress. This decision making process goes deep down at many levels which even includes finding good friends for me. It’s not like I was complaining about any of this but was enjoying a worry and decision free life.

I need to move out of home for the first time after school for graduation, again that decision was also taken by my parents too. During graduation I was in company of some known friends from school but my day to day decision making was really pathetic. It gone down to such a lowest level that even if I have to choose a dress I need to toss a coin. So after tossing a coin if head comes up, I will wear blue shirt else white one. Someday another set of toss needed if I have checked and plane blue shirts with me, to actually arrive on final conclusions. I got addicted to this kind of decision making to such an extent that it became an obsession about every decision during that phase of my life. This obsession changed when one fine day I couldn’t locate any coin while taking a decision or making a choice. That few hours of desperation had taught me how to take decisions and confidence of taking my own decisions. Some of the biggest decisions I took that day was “Do I go to college today or not”, “Which Shirt and Pant combination I should wear today”, “Should I take bath and shave, or shave and bath or only bath no shave or neither bath nor shave, before going to college”, “Should I go by public transport to college or use my bicycle” etc. So you can find not only about the decisions I use to take by the help of coins but also what kind of decisions I think are the biggest decisions of life at that time.

I am sure many of you go through this kind of phase in life, when you are so used to the other person’s decision making that when chance comes to take your own decision, you don’t know what to do next. The easiest choice is to toss a coin and decide, probably because that’s what peoples in movies do.

I no longer use coins to decide about trivial decisions of life, even in major decisions I took I don’t need a coin. Before I tell the process I followed you need to understand that, we all need to take decisions every day and someday we may involve in taking some major life changing decisions too. Decisions either big or small is part and parcel of every phase of life. No one in this world can escape this decision making process and most of the time we do take correct decisions as per circumstances and sometime we take the decisions and only come to know when the result of that decision comes to picture. What so ever is the case, there is no escape for anyone in terms of decision making. So how to take decisions. So what are the steps I took so that I became now a decision maker? Steps are simple and mentioned below.

Know Your Limitations – There are chances you will be aware of your limitations. The limitation of not able to take any firm decision or any decision at all. So know your limitations first. Then try to eliminate those limitations one after another. It’s better to go bottom up rather than top down. Collectively all your limitations become problem. So add up all your limitations you will come up the major problem. Finding solution to the major problem is easy rather than finding solution to individual limitations. If you are comfortable enough then go top down approach, i.e. breaking down your problems in smaller limitations and attack each limitations either one after other or at one go. Which so ever approach you choose the result should always be same.

In my case too, I was aware of my limitations about decision taking inabilities about personal choices, but when the decision making was involved with group of peoples I was not that bad. I analysed the problem and found out I was spending too much of time in thinking and deciding on trivial things. So I stopped choosing one among those petty things, rather I choose the first option available. If I go to college wearing light or checked or dark blue shirt nothing will happen unless it’s not washed, not pressed or not torn off. So among all the shirt I have to choose if choose the first one visible in front of me (irrespective of the color, type etc.) will help in deciding something which I was struggling earlier. I started following this pattern for buying, picking and wearing dress materials for some time. This gave me the confidence that I can choose or decide something. Gradually when my decision making capabilities improved I started applying thinking and knowledge to those decisions too. So gradually based on the confidence level of decision making you will recognize the options, it will no longer choosing only the first options. It all start with the approach you choose to eliminate that limitation which may turned out as problem.

Spend time on Big Decisions Only – When I stopped thinking much to the trivial decision making it made my life easy compare to it was earlier because I can focus on more important things in life. As mentioned earlier we need to take decisions almost every moment starting from what time to wake up to the time you want to sleep. If you are struggling hard in those small decisions you will lose lots of time making decisions for those things which are absolutely unnecessary. Yes, spend time deciding trival things but not more than 30 seconds. I think the time mentioned is more than enough to decide when to wake up or when to sleep or what to wear or what to eat. Your brain should process all these petty decisions quickly and automatically like the way you decide about crossing a road where there is no paediatrician signals. Your brain automatically process by seeing a car or bike based on its speed and distance that should we cross the road now or not. I assume we all have crossed roads, so we all have quick decision making abilities. It’s just that, we do not apply that thinking in our daily routines.

The small decisions should be automatic and would be decided without spending much of your time. How small? I assume you have the answers now. The only time you need to spend thinking for decisions should be on the big decisions. How big? The decisions which can change the course of your life or lifestyle. Decisions like which career to choose, which college or company to join, which house or car to buy, do I need to change the location for living etc. Take some time to come to the conclusion of these kind of decisions unless off course you are in armed forces where major life changing decisions are taken in split seconds, this actually beyond scope of this article. To start with, among big decisions take the easiest decisions first. If you have to decide between a Right and Wrong choices, choosing the right one is the easiest thing unless, personally you want to choose the wrong one. We will discuss more on this at next point.

Practice hard for hard choices in life– It’s easy to choose between best and worst options in life. If you have to choose one of the option between, two best choices or two worst choices then deciding that one choice may not be that easy.

Take a scenario where you have to decide between more than one excellent job offers or decision to choose between staying your old company who are ready to pay everything or more, than your would be new company. You got admission in two of the best colleges but both are far from your location or not getting the stream you like. These are some real life scenarios which many of us had faced someday or the other. How to make a choice or choices here?

As it’s a big decision so you need to spend time to analyse the situation. Do not rush into your decisions. Ask for time or take some time to analyse all these choices or if time is a constraint run these quick check in your mind before revealing your decision.

•  First, chalk down both pros and cons of all the choices you have. Think in respect of lifestyle changes, role changes etc. and also how the selecting an option going to impact your immediate family or dependents. It’s like finding all the points about all the choices you have. Once you have pros and cons of all the choices, you will find making decision is no longer that difficult, what it seems earlier.
• If you still find this decision difficult, ask someone who has been in that situations before or has more knowledge or experience to guide you or help you in foreseeing the result of your decision. This person can be your mentor, boss, colleague, friend, spouse or parent. Listen to everyone but do what you think best for you. If needed, add there points to the pros and cons list but never make your decision based on their decisions or their point of view on the same choices. This will help you to extend your list of pros and cons for each choices. The more information you have about the choices, the more easily you will able take the decision.
• Do prepare to change your mind quickly and frequently based on facts and informations. If you have one day to choose between one of the choices say A, B and C. After the analysis over the day you will find B is the best suited option for you. Now just before declaring your choice as B, you find that C is the best option among these three, then do a quick scan to all the pros and cons about A, B and C, if your mind convince C is the best option select the option C rather than B which you had finalized originally. Similarly new development took off which was beyond your control and A seems strongest possible option and you are in a situation where you can still change your options then go for A. Decisions should be based on facts and information's only and information do change over time or may not come at proper time during your decision making process. So never be firm on your decisions unless you have all the necessary information to take that decision.
•  Last but not least, Trust your instinct. I am not sure but every person do has this beast within, which is named as instinct. Unleash that beast. Somewhere somehow, your heart mind or body knows if you are taking a right or wrong decisions. Do give some brownie points to this instinct too while taking a hard decision.

Do Not Forget the Risk – Every major decisions you will take have certain amount of Risk. While finding pros and cons, do find the Risk or Worst possible scenario about each choices too. While making your final choice do keep that in mind. Although the way corporates took Risk are entirely different than the way any person took risk. No two person may have same Risk taking capabilities. If your appetite of taking risk is high then less analysis of the hard choices can give you the conclusion but if it’s low then you need to go through each and every aspect of the choices you have, as I mentioned earlier. 

Own your decision – I do take my own decisions but all the decisions I took did not turned out to be successful ones. I do worked out some worst possible scenarios while taking decisions, but life took me by surprise and landed me to a situation which I never predicted and turned out to be worse than the worst possible scenario, I predicted. You cannot predict everything and be prepare to fail, if things won’t worked out as expected. Own the success so also the failures came out of the decisions you took. Just analyse the failure and record it as lesson learnt and move on. Do not repent about the decisions you made. Surely this will enhance your knowledge and experience to make it right next time.

Do believe in your ability and think what so ever the decisions you took is right irrespective or its outcome. Be confident about taking decisions small or big and at the end of the day you will find every decision you took was perfect or close to perfect. In short decision making is all about confidence within. Ratan Tata, said well about this confidence.

Let me know if these steps do help you in taking decisions or not. Do you take decisions differently than the way mentioned here, do let me know that too.

©Tapas Majumdar