Campus to Corporate- Journey of Lifelong learnings

11-Feb-2021

Mr Manoj Sahni
Director Corporate Resource Centre and Head Industry Integration
Amity University Gurugram

Campus to corporate is a life-changing transformation, and while it is possible that you may go back to studying for a while, it marks the beginning of your adulthood. It is a life transition that is exciting because you get to work in your dream job, earn money and enjoy spending it as you wish! Yet, it also marks all the responsibilities and duties that come with a job. From the carefree world of campus to corporate routine; a lot of changes.

Amity University Gurgaon exhibits a unique system of ensuring smooth transition from academics to professional environment, which is a result of a well-structured interface with the industry & corporate world.This system opens an arena of opportunities for students in various sectors of corporate and industrial world. To enable the students to make the best of these opportunities, students are put through rigorous corporate programs which run concurrent to their academic programs along with close mentorship activities. These comprise industry/laboratory/corporate visits, field research work in specified areas, relevant domestic & international internship programs, interaction with industry/corporate leaders by way of guest lectures, seminars, HR Summits, Fintech, Hackathons, interdisciplinary events like Ami-fest and Sangathan etc.

Here are some tips for you that will make this easy.

  • Define Career Goals – If you woke up late in college life, you always had the chance to miss the first lecture and join the next one. But when you move from college to corporate life, you must be at the office in time every day. You need a reason and motivation to wake up each morning, and therefore you should have career goals. They will help you to realize why you are putting in the hard work and what you need out of your life and career.
  • Embrace Discomfort – The biggest thing you sacrifice when you move from campus to corporate is your comfort zone. You ruled your time, and what you did with it, now you need to adhere to work timings and calls from work at all times of the day. You need to miss on friend’s events, sleep in early to wake up for early morning presentations and a ton of other things. The key is to be mentally prepared and start doing small things to make your life disciplined and easy.
  • Be Respectful always – You were probably a prankster in college and very friendly with a large group of friends who you made fun of. Things are going to change once you move from college to corporate. You should always learn to ask what’s okay, even small things like what to address someone as. Don’t abuse in the workplace and be careful of what you say in WhatsApp Groups. Every move of yours will be reflective of you as a professional.
  • Develop Work Ethics – During college life you might have abused your influence and got way with getting your work done by your juniors or teammates. But in an office, you are the junior most person and the one with the responsibility of making a good impression. When you transition from college to corporate, you need to learn to develop good work ethics like being responsible, sticking to deadlines, doing honest work, ensuring transparency and taking up the blame when you have messed up.
  • Learn to manage stress – The biggest problem when moving from college to corporate is the stress that accompanies you. You will face the immense crunch of time, and therefore you need to learn to de-stress properly. One of the best first job tips we can give you is that you should maintain a hobby. The hobby gives you time to relax and get away from any stress. Manage to make time for family and friends and indulge in self-care.
  • Start Saving – The most exciting part of the life transition from college to corporate is money. The Salary Credit message at the beginning of every month means a whole lot of opportunities to have fun. But, be careful and learn how to save and invest the money. You may require money for emergencies, or to take care of your family, or even for your future studies. Learn to manage money well right from your first job itself.
  • Apply Technology Effectively The work culture in the corporate world has undergone a drastic change and we all know that. But what is the major driving force in such a change. Well, it is technology, and much emphasis is laid upon imbibing tech skills in students so that they are ready for the job market. Basically, whatever technical skills they had developed while completing their formal education, say- Information Literacy, Media literacy and Technology Literacy, it’s a time that they utilize them (based on situation and nature of task) in accomplishing a task. In the digital world, with the help of technology, it is possible to be quick at work, provided one knows the hacks to use technology as a tool to may be research, organize, evaluate and communicate information or use up digital technologies to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information to successfully function in a knowledge based economy. So, start making the best use of technology at work.
  • Open to Ideas & Experiences A fresher’s outlook to organization is vital to make progressions in your career. In this way, you will know the paths that you did not know and discover choices that help you grow up. Corporates prefer candidates who are open to moving places for work. So, it is important that one remains flexible to taking a step forward to accept opportunities of growth by moving places for work and give a boost to their career.
  • Observing things of the Corporate World Pay close and keen attention to the corporate culture as one needs to learn how things work within the organization. Remember, the corporate expects different things from different employee (be it fresher or an experienced person) unlike what the University expects from the students. In the University, a student is normally accustomed to have exams that follow a definite structure, syllabus and timetable. These exams are predictable to a large extent. However, in the corporate world, graduates will find, they will be tested in some form of an exam or another. They will be tested based on their contributions to the organization and value additions made to the organization. They will also be tested on whether they could keep up to the pace of developments in the industry or have managed to keep up good relations with their stakeholders and customers.

We are all equipped to welcome the year 2021 and will continue to build on the solid foundation of ethos, values and best practices formulated by Amity University Haryana’s Visionary leadership. Year 2020 has given us a renewed will to outperform ourselves in every sphere and to go far and beyond in achieving excellence.

Corporate Resource Center