Organizing College Festivals Gives You Soft Skills

By Author: AndrewLouis
Total Articles: 12
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Students must grab every opportunity to participate in various campus activities in college as such participation is a sure way of learning about working in groups and honing organizational skills. These will help you learn vital managerial skills that books cannot teach. Participating in various college activities and festivals is an excellent way for students to build their CV and show that they are capable of handling responsibility.

Take the case of Neeraj Kookada, a student of Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. who was involved in TechFest as media and marketing Manager. Techfest has come to be recognized as Asia’s largest science and technology festival. To be a success, the event has to be organized using a systematic method. By being one of the organizers Neeraj got tremendous exposure to “interpersonal skills, team spirit, multi-tasking, time management and delegating” and the festival is an opportunity to “gain lifetime friends and have a blast”. He has a very clear idea as to how he can utilize this experience in job interviews and search. It is this ability to relate one’s immediate experiences ...
... to long-term goals that is crucial for success.

But the primary purpose of going to college is to complete a degree with good grades, and common sense would dictate that the lesser the distractions the better it is for gaining good grades. So there are many students whose sole objective is to leave college with an impressive academic record. You can call them totally focused and dedicated. But are they missing something in life and in developing their personality in ways that will make them a complete person. But everybody is not alike and ready to experiment with their life. To each his/her own.

Even those who are seriously into academic routine, an extracurricular activity need not necessarily be one that takes them away from their bookish pursuits. Find ways of applying your classroom knowledge in other areas and make a hobby out of it. Do stuff that are not mandatory in your program. If you are a computer science student, then during the college fest you could create a website for the festival. If you are a commerce student you could volunteer to look into the budgeting of the festival. Political science students could organize the college elections. Besides learning application of your knowledge in real-life situations you also learn to work as a team, a skill that will certainly stand you in good stead wherever you work in the years ahead. Prahlad Chabbria, founder of International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT) Pune advises, “Career-related extracurricular activities are extremely important and can help you secure that job you’d love to bag. It will help you polish your CV. Lots of recruiters out there look for young, fresh minds, if on top of that you can exhibit a decent level of acquaintance with the subject matter in question, there is no doubt you will be the preferred choice of the recruiter.”

But not all your extracurricular activities need to be related to the core subjects of your academic program. Ideally you should step away from the routine learning. In fact, it is highly recommended that you pick activities not related to your degree. Choose to play roles in a college festival that don’t match your degree, that challenge you out of your comfort zone, and enable you to acquire a different skill set. So if you are doing marketing, offer to coordinate the logistics of an event. Or if you are doing Psychology, pick a marketing role such that you could play with your professional views and see if they can be utilized in a marketing or branding situation. For an Accounts or History graduate, learning people skills and team skills in your spare time could be of prime importance.

For most employers, it’s not just participating that counts but taking a leadership position or measurable role that makes the difference. So if you did not win the elections to be the president or secretary then become part of the organizing team. Even conduct something in your building society and learn something from that. Learning opportunities are everywhere; you just need to think creatively.

Having a blast at a college festival as an organizer and enjoying yourself now has everything to do with personal development.