PPD Life

Personal Progress Development (PPD)

Why we need PPD? Is it worth learning these things? At first I also wondered why we have a subject like this in the middle of such a busy schedule of lectures. We may go to different fields, we may do different jobs but there is one important thing. We all should have good soft skills and qualities where ever we go and where ever we work. From a subject like PPD we gain such things to our lives. They are invaluable.

We started PPD sessions at 1 year and it is 2 years time period up to now. We gathered lots of things which we can not learn from any other subject or from any other place.

As Software Engineers we always sit in front of a laptop and code. But there are so many things that we cannot gather from other academic subjects but essential in our lives. PPD showed us the path to learn those.

It was really helpful for us to come out of laptops and other stressful subject matters and relax our minds. We engaged in different activities which brought us fun, soothed our minds as well us added new experiences.

From the first day onward miss. Sarasi encouraged us to speak in English. Most of the students were shy to speak in front of the students. But in the PPD sessions we all had to speak in front of others which helped us to have confidence and improve english.

And also we did different team activities. It helped us to learn how we should behave as a team member, what are the qualities that we have to improve as a leader, how we plan things, how we should deal with the time etc. Managing things is a very special thing. We learnt to think and have quick reactions when we need, manage resources, make our mind to have innovative ideas.

 

Miss. Sarasi arranged some sessions which we were able to meet the personalities in the industry where we learnt lots of new things. She taught us how to make CVs also. It is the first step in our carrier ladder.

Apart to all these things we got lot of fun during this 2 year. We laugh together, we walked together, we shared things. It made us to one family where we all became brothers and sisters. Unlike other session we had lots of memories to take back with relax minds.

When I looked back at PPD sessions I really have lots of memories which are great as well as very important to my life. We will become Software Engineers one day and we will need almost all these things that we learnt from PPD sessions on that day. I am really happy to be a part of this session which is one of the sessions that I actively participated. Each and every person who goes through my blog posts can see what we learnt so far and I believe you also can added lots of things to your life also. I pay my sincere gratitude to miss. Sarasi Senadheera who guided us so far and tried her best to make our lives a success. It is invaluable what she rendered us. So I believe you enjoyed all the blog posts here.

 Have a nice day.

CV writing

Have you ever thought how important a CV is when you apply for a job position?
When applying you always worry about the interviews. But the CV where we give the first impression on us also plays a major role in selecting for a job.

Our CV is the first chance we get to make a good impression on a potential employer. A top quality CV will considerably boost out chance of getting face to face interview. So it is worth spending time and effort on the content and presentation. It will make all the differences= in obtaining the position we want. We must therefore highlight our skills,expertise and value.

It should be in our own format. We should not copy from someone else format. It should be concise and accurate. We should provide with true details. We should tailor it specifically to he job we are applying for and include the skills,qualifications and experience which are most suited to the job.

It is good to make the CV using word processing SW
Highlight the headings - different font size
Keep the email as a hyperlink
Do not mix font styles
Document should be able to copy and paste
Maintain the years in one line

CV should consist with many information.

• Photograph - should be a professional photograph with good dress. (Not with fancy dresses or a selfie) Head and shoulders. At the top right corner.
• Personal Details - Name and address, a phone number, and your email address.
• Personal Profile - A statement about our self, summarizing the skills and carrier interests
• Skills - Soft skills and technical skills
• Educational Qualifications - Write in chronological order a brief list of school and university qualifications, such as O/Ls , A/Ls , etc., together with the grades we obtained. Then list any further qualifications we have obtained, together with the names of the awarding bodies. 
• Projects
• Work Experiences - Start with current or last employer and work backwards. We should include the dates of employment,  job title,  responsibilities, duties and achievements.
• Volunteering, Conferences, Extra curricular activities, Training - Recent activities first.
• References - There is no need to write the details of your referees on your CV. Simply state that they are available on request, but make sure that you know who your referees are and that you have asked their permission to use them.

Trust Walk

As we live with other people or in other words we live in a society with different kinds of people. TRUST is something very important when we live with those people. We should not trust people blindly but with good understanding.

In last ppd session we were asked to find a partner (not a life partner .. hikz). Then we were instructed to cover the eyes of the partner. The other person had to give instructions to the blind person about the obstacles, paths, where to turn etc. So there the one person played the role of a listener and one played the role of an instructor. The instructor should navigate the listener to the final destination. This activity had two rounds where the listener of the first round became the instructor in the second round and vice versa.

When we proceed the path we had to go over  stair cases where we had to instruct the blind person with the no. of steps and where to stop. There were white board markers on the path and if somebody put the leg on it, he or she might definitely fall. That is why we were instructed to listen the instructor well. At the first round we had to go along the path and tap a brick. While in the second round we had to tap on two concrete blocks and the brick. In the first round all most all the students walked and tap the brick with the correct instructions. But at the second round some students forgot what to do. Some forgot to tap on the brick after tapping he concrete blocks. 

Looking nice Saveen.....

When we trust someone we should not trust him or her blindly. Even though we can not see anything we have a brain to think and analyse. We can choose what we should do and what should not. We can instruct the other person when he or she does a wrong thing. In this occasion also some instructors forgot to tap the brick after tapping the concrete brick. If blind one communicated with the instructor well they won't do such a mistake. Miss Sarasi never prohibited the communication between the instructor and the blind person.

When someone keeps his or her trust on us, we have a responsibility of protecting it. Trust is like a glass. When it is broken we can't fully make it in to what it was. Some times some people keeps their life on another persons hand trusting him. In this activity also the blind one keeps trust on the instructor. If one step was taken in a wrong way sometimes the blind one may fall. So we should e a good instructor to the others. Protect the trust that someone lay on us.

Blind person also should give the maximum support. If he does what he wants to do, it is really disturbing for the instructor. We should be a good listener and trust the partner. Help hi or her to do their task. Correct their path when they deviate. 

These things are really important when we live in the society. When we work we have to trust so many people and follow their paths. Be wise. Trust the people. But do not blindly trust... 

Self Reflection

Have you ever wondered who you are? Just do one thing.
"CLOSE YOUR EYES, SIMPLY CLOSE THE DOORS OF YOUR MIND TO THE FUTURE AND TO THE PAST. FORGET EVERY THING AND JUST THINK ABOUT YOUR SELF. WHO ARE YOU?"

Take a little break from your stressful life and do this. Think about your self and you will find great deal of things that you never recognized so far. With the competitive world we use to run and run and run so on. We never take a moment to think about our selves.

In last PPD session we we asked to take a photo of our self. Selfies... Yeh, how many selfies we take in a week. But we never deeply look in to it. We were asked to look at our selves for 5 minutes. Then she questioned, "what you see ?"
Most of the friends said "nothing". But I recognized one thing. I could not believe it. I had a big pimple on my nose. Oh god how ugly i am. Should do something for that. Any how that is my way.

Yeh some replied with some special things that they recognized and some were blank. Miss. Sarasi asked another question whether we think or care about what others think about our selves. Almost all said yes. Yes we should care but to a some extend. We can get the ideas, advises from others. Some point out our faults. Yes we have to care. But do not depend on those thing all the times or do not make those as an obstacle to our dreams. Take the good reviews and throw away the bad. Accept all the things with a smile but we should be intelligent enough to classify good and bad.

It is really important how we live in the society. We are not alone here. We are surrounded by lots of faces. Always we have something to learn from them. May be a bad experience may be a good one. But we should be able to face those. Once we have a deep understanding about our selves we can climb to the top.

Once a week take some minutes and spend time to think. Go in front of a mirror. It is not a big deal. You can do it while you are in the bathroom. No one can see us and no one to disturb. Think about how you should behave and how you faced the new experiences you had throughout that week. Identify the things that you should improve.

Try to be the best person in every thing you do. Keep a smile on your face. Be a person whom the others wish to be. Whom the others wish to see every day, wish to have the companionship.
Be a recognizable character. Improve the qualities. Associate everybody. Do not leave as you did not exit. Make a space for you. BE A LEGACY  which anyone can't beat easily.

Find the Expert Level

"The day I missed "
In last PPD session Miss.Sarasi has instructed the class to engage in a new activity which has been very interesting. Unfortunately I was unable to attend.

On that day Miss. Sarasi has divided the class in to 4 groups and has asked to pick 3 areas that the group members are specialized in. Then come up with an innovative product which can be implemented with those specialized 3 areas.

When we work it is really difficult to find people with same ideas, same talents etc. We should have the ability to manage the abilities according to the need. It is really essential when we become professionals and perform as a team.

Our teams have come up with many ideas and presented it.

Team 1
       Areas: Handmade things, Bike riding, Reading
       Product: Eye glass cover

Team 2
      Areas: Taekwondo, Painting, Gaming
      Product: Taekwondo video game

Team 3
      Areas: Gaming, Chess, Painting
      Product: Chess video game

Team 4
       Areas: Cricket, Painting, Gamimg
       Product: Cricket video game

This activity can guide us to practice think beyond the box and make new products.

     

Technical Writing - Visit to WSO2

Technical Writing - Visit to WSO2

What does it come to your mind when you first hear a word like "Technical writing"? 

Yes, someone surrounded by papers and pens. In my experience also I had the same picture. But believe me guys it is different.

On the 12th  of September us, the 2nd year batch of software engineering degree program visited WSO2 company which is one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. It is kind of a dream  that most of the software engineers has to work in WSO2. It was a good experience to start our new semester.

At the entrance we were given a very nice note book and a pen. What I first notice at there was they were well prepared and has organized every thing before hand. We went there at 8.30 am because we wanted to give them a good impression on Software Engineering students in Kelaniya University as it was our first workshop at WSO2. 

In the first session they gave us an introduction about what the technical writing is. It is kind of a very interesting job. Though it calls as technical writing, a technical writer has do writing only about 5% from their total job. All other things deal with requirement gathering, study about the product etc. There are lots of job positions associated with the technical writing.

 A user manual should be in a very simple manner with clear and correct language which should help the user to understand the product and product functionalities. To attract a customer it is really important to have a good user manual. A technical writer has to think in user perspective and compose the document. A technical writer should posses a good writing skills with clean and clear language and with the ability to quickly learn and deals with new technologies. It is really challenging thing to learn about new technologies, new products etc. 

 

We learnt about some grammar parts in English which we ignore most of the times. It is really important use the correct words at correct places. A single full stop can change a meaning of a sentence upside down. 

Most of the times workshops get boring with the time. But the technical writing crew at WSO2 did some games associated with the workshop which everyone actively and happily participated. The winners were given very attractive gifts like t-shirts and chocolates. And also they provided us with refreshments.

This workshop showed me some new areas which I should improve in myself. It is okay, we can write in English, can deals with subject verb object. But it it hard to become a professional in writing. We have to read a lot. We have to write a lot. Blogging will help us to improve our language. 

As under graduates it is essential to learn about the industry. By having workshops in companies, industry visits it makes us to adapt to the professional background. Those places were really clean and all the works were done on time. The WSO2 crew was really friendly which showed the ares that we need to improve to become a professional.

Lets learn new technologies in IT field.

Lets learn new technologies in IT field.

World is changing day by day, new technologies come to the industry. As software engineer it is essential us to know about these things. We should always get updated by new trends.

Last week we had a session conducted by WSO2 which is one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. Madam Sarasi introduced mr. Srinath Perera who rendered us vast knowledge about new trends and technologies in the industry.

The speaker categorize the technology in to two groups as current technologies and emerging technologies.

Current technologies are

APIs
Analytics and AI
IoT
Bots

API - API stands for Application Programming Interface
   API is like a waiter in a restaurant. It acts as a mediator between the server and the client. It takes orders or requests.

Analytics and AI - Artificial Intelligence
   This enables computer driven decisions.

IoT - Internet of Things
   System of interrelated computer devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals and people that are provided with the unique identifiers.

Bots - Conversational Agents
  Automatically generate messages.

Facing an Interview

 Facing an Interview

In our last ppd session we had a nice experience. In there, we all faced to a small interview which was conducted by our own friends.

 We were asked to follow what we learnt from interview ppd sessions. We walked with confidence, kept a smile on our face, answered what our friends asked. At that moment we really thought about job positions about our strengths, weaknesses . So from that we realize what are the things that we want to improve as well as to do to show our strengths in an interview. In some occasions we forgot to keep eye contacts. Sometimes forgot to rearrange the chair when we got up. Forgot to say thank you. 

Most of us made simple mistakes during our interviews. May be it is because we have very little experience. In some cases, that was the first time in an interview. 

Experience gives us many things to learn and realize. So it is very much important to practice the procedure of an interview with a friend until you are confident.

                              Cakes....yummyyyy, A birthday? No

Can You cut a cake in to 8 pieces only with three cuts.

Miss. Sarasi has grouped our friends and has given a small piece of cake. Then she has asked above task. Only 1 minute has been given to do that. All the groups have imaginary  tried it in different ways. But only one group has won the task.

The way that has to do it is vertically cut the cake into 4 pieces using 2 cuts and one horizontal cut.

 We should think before dong somethings. In some cases we can have a trial. But some occasions we have to try at once. We must think creatively.

You got a call from a company? Asked for an interview? You feel like loosing? Come.. I will show you the path..

You got a call from a company? Asked for an interview? You feel like loosing?
Come.. I will show you the path..

Facing an interview is not just something which we can do like delivering a speech. We cannot just go and come out answering the questions they ask. There are many things that we should consider before attending to an interview.

1. Do a little research about the company.
We should knpw about their mission and what they do. On going projects, which countries they deals with, company history etc. It makes the interviewers to think that you have given attention for their company. Make them impressed with such details.

2. It is a benefit if we can know some etails bout the interviewers. It is a kind of difficult task to find who are the interviewers but if we can find their names we can use linked and other proffessional accouts to find about their details like their job poition, common things we have, specialized fields, their favours etc. Do not want to much focuss about the personal things but some details.

3. All the interviewers ask three or four common uestions other than technical questions like our streangth weaknesses etc. We are the once that know ourselves veey well. So be confident about your streangth and tell them little about it. It is good and worth if we can choose streangths that are more related to this job position.

4. It make a good expression about you if you can ask two questions. It shows your interest on the job.  You can ask about the job details, about work etc. But never ask about the salary.

5. We all are humans. It is somewhat difficult for us to do something for the first time. So to face an interview with the confidence you can practice it with a friend. Shaking hand shows confidence and personality of you. Don’t just touch the hand but hold it tight and shake. You can tell your friend to ask some questions also. Imagine that you are in the interview room and behave like that. Practice each and every step until it feel as a usual thing.

6. Before going to an interview take time to think about yourself and about the job you are applying. Think why you are applying. Reasons for you to think that why you fix for this job position. Try to match your skills with the job position and company work. For an example in some job positions you should have the skills to work with a team, high patience, communication ability.

7. Prepare everything before you go. Make your folder in order.  It should be neat. Keep important things like your CV in the front. Order certificates according to the years. Don’t take much time to find documents when the interviewers asked. It shows your unpreparedness.

8. Be punctual. Don’t be too early or too late. Be there before 10 minutes. If it happened to go there much early, then don’t stay in the vicinity. Just stay somewhere else away from the interview room and come at the correct time. If you sweat a much keep tissues with you.

9. Always keep a smile in your face. Dress properly and professionally. It plays a major role in first expression about you.  Walk with confidence. Keep eye contact. Don’t show or tell much personal things or bad mouth during an interview. .Finally don’t just stand and leave, thank the interviewers with a smile and keep the chair back.

Story writing- Back to the board

Story writing- Back to the board

We were divided into 3 groups and asked to sit facing back to the white board. In each group one of the team members was given a white board marker. Our task was to write a story with a good ending. Each student can write one word at a time. There were four rounds and we were not allowed to talk with the team members. And had to make it quick. So each one had to run to the white board and write a word. We ran to the white board, just read the story and suddenly wrote what we got to our mind.

It was so difficult to predict what the other wanted to say. Even miss Sarasi changed the order of the team members in the last round. At last we got very complicated unbalanced stories which they were funny to read. But no any organization.

 What I realized was it is easy when we develop small sentences. So that we can make a meaningful story. It is really hard to do a group activity without discussing to each other. Different people think in different ways. So it is not easy to work on another one’s plan without discussing or without knowing about the plan. Communication is something very important when we live in the society and work with lots of people.Sometimes we may get half done projects to finish or else we may have to leave with a half done project to another's hand. So what shall we do to make it convenient for others? We should communicate. As software engineers we can leave comments in our codes so that anyone can carryout the work. There should be a method or a common way we declare variables in a project. We have to listen to other’s ideas and choose the best one. Team work is efficient and joyful when we have mutual understanding. 

Back to childhood with paper planes

Back to childhood with paper planes

Hi guys, after a long time. Missed my articles? Ha ha ha. Any way I am back with some wonderful experiences to share with you.

What we did in our childhood when we got a piece of paper? Specially in school? If it is a rainy day probably you would make a paper boat sail it in water like a captain. But if it is not, I am sure you made a plane, became the best pilot and make it fly around the class room. Sometimes you may have written messages on it to your friends. Isn’t it amazing guys? Our childhood with those lovely memories. I missed those days. But in last PPD lesson we went back to our childhood.

Miss Sarasi divided us in to two groups and gave 6 Colored A4 sheets for each group. Our team go the color blue while the other group got yellow. Our target was to make maximum number of planes within the given time and fly them over a boundary line. It may seem as a very easy task. Even we had 8 members in the team. Yes, we also thought this as an easy task.  But was not easy as we all thought. She gave us 10 minutes to think about any strategy or something which will help us to fly all the airplanes. Then our group made 36 planes while the other group made 29. Then miss Sarasi marked two boundaries which was about 4 feet. Two members from each group came and had to make maximum number of planes to fly over the boundary line. At last 19 air crafts from yellow groups and 24 planes from our group (blue team) landed safely over the boundary

First I thought we will be able to make all the planes fly over the boundary. It is very important to think about a strategy before doing something. As a team we have to take each one’s idea and select the best option. I think our team wisely used the time that was given to talk and come up with a good idea. We took some other papers and made planes with different sizes. So that we were able to select a good size which matches with the weight. Air plane should have a considerable weight as well as wings also should not be too small. So by taking these in to our consideration we agreed to make 6 planes from each paper. We finished making planes within the time while yellow group had many papers left. They had planes from different sizes and most of them were too small. They tried the trial with the same papers that miss Sarasi gave to make planes. And also miss Sarasi said they were busy with their own works and did not share the work and did.

It is not the winning that we seek from these activities, we learn different things that helps us to improve our soft qualities. Hope you also learn those things and add them to your life.

                                 COME...LETS RUN THROUGH THE MEMORIES

This is the end of the year 2017.  Our very first year in the university. When I look back the first thing which gets in to my mind is the day that I came here. All the things were new. After starting the academic semester I met the software engineering friends. We talked with some friends but not with all. I was very shy to talk.

We started PPD sessions also in the first semester. At the first day we had to come in front of the class and introduce ourselves for about 4 minutes. On that day we got to know about every body. From that day onward we did various activities. You can get to know about most of those activities when you go through my blog FLY OVER THE HORIZON.

As software engineers we do coding sitting with a laptop. We have lots of subjects to handle in the university. Apart to that we have to find extra things like new technologies , new computer languages etc. We do not have time to have a fun or to relax our minds.

PPD session gave us lots of things that we cannot learn from books. Most of the students were shy to speak in front of people. Some had weak English. From the first day Miss Sarasi asked us to speak in English. So that we all were able to improve our language as well as talking ability. We had to explain some activities in the class.

We did lots of team activities. There we had to achieve goals in a limited time time. Through those we learnt lots of things. We had to work with different kind of people with different ideas. We had to respect their ideas while selecting the best. Sometimes we had to be a team leader and lead the team to a success.As a team leader we had listen to everyone ideas This helped us even to develop our personality as well our thinking ability. We had to think in a creative way to o some activities. Different groups think differently. So we able to get to know new ideas also.

And also we get lots of fun.We laugh together.We walk together. We share things.So unlike other academic sessions at the end of each session we are mentally relaxed.

At the end of the semester we went for a out bound training at Trincomalee naval base. It was really funny and able to find gems within us. We spent unforgettable 2 days there.

PPD session was something very important which helped us to improve our selves. When I looked back I am very happy to being a part of it. But do not think this as the end. You will have more. Hikz. Happy new year. FLY OVER THE HORIZON.