Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
The First Big Career Transition
It is the first taste of discretionary power one experiences very early in career. It is the first taste of responsibility for the success of others beyond one’s own self. It is the first opportunity to help and coach others to scale up and reach the desired goals. The leader’s role is to help the team achieve synergy not just remain the sum total of everyone’s results. To do that, the person managing a team must juggle three perspectives:
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 13
I wrote about the experience of spending a day with Gulzar Saab watching him record that translation. It was a fanboy moment for me
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 12
Layoffs are are a major reason for mental health issues. You can use the headline offered by LinkedIn to stand out in the job market. And what should you never say in the headline? When someone wants to know why you were laid off, how should you answer the question by using a statistic? And is there an Insurance Policy that covers you against a layoff?
Online learning - is it better
What if content creators was left to a team of instructional designers, academics, storytellers, animators, video and audio creators. They could create short form and long form content that is engaging and interactive. If the content has already been created and can be used by the teacher, it is infinitely better than listening to someone standing before a camera and droning on.
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 11
The New Education Policy was unveiled in India. Harvard, Princeton, Oxford etc are all moving classes online. Is that the end of college? What about Social Learning - does that work? Can writers earn enough to pursue writing as a full time career? Because there is a new world of careers brewing it is a terrific time to be alive. So let’s dive in …
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 9
We are in the age when being able to understand emotions is going to be the common factor that successful people have. It used to be, that being sharp in analytical thinking used to be the basis of successful careers. But now problems have become so complex that the age of the lone genius is gone. It is the age of experience makers
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 8
Do goldfish have greater memories and attention spans more than humans? Hint: Goldfish, human attention spans and Netflix are connected. I remembered a quote that a teacher of mine shared when I was entering college. I shared it on LinkedIn and it unleashed a fish market! This week you will learn about Zoom etiquette with me.
‘With Me’ videos are the hot new trend
A recent big trend on YouTube are the “With Me” videos where people film themselves going about ordinary tasks like cooking, studying, cleaning, or exercising. More and more viewers are tuning into “with me” videos for company, in-depth information, even motivation.
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 5
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 5 explores why FDA is recommending a videogame as a cure. What could be driving this decision. There is a a great sketch about the fear of making mistakes. Yes, there is a term for it. You can know that here and a big question - is it a curse to be a genius? Or worse still the parent of a genius? Read this compelling story
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 4
Imagine that a business you built over ten years is going to go public in 2020. Then comes a pandemic that makes people wary of health and safety. That was Airbnb. They had to lay off 25% of the people. The way it was done is a model for many others to follow. They tried their level best to help people find other career options by engaging an outsourcing firm. Finding another job seems really hard for most people. You must read the shocking statistics for layoffs in India here
Abhijit's Sketchnotes No 3
The most fascinating story of the week is clearly how Steve Jobs got 219 patents AFTER he died. How did that even happen? Jobs got 620 patents in his life time. And then there is a story about how trust between colleagues takes a beating when you do not meet in person. Yes Zoom does not cut it. It is efficient but does not build trust.
Airbnb Cofounder's Letter: The Better Way to Deliver Bad News to Employees
With all the layoffs happening worldwide, employers must help employees find their next opportunity. Appointing an outplacement firm to help with career transition and job placement. An outplacement firm can help with resume writing, confidence-building, interview coaching and smoothens the transition. Outplacements are the way to go. Airbnb tied up with a top notch outplacement firm RiseSmart .
Abhijit's Sketchnotes: No 2
How do you learn a skill which is not yet being taught in a college & has no standard curriculum? Would you like to have job where you are highly satisfied? Of course yes… but you may be paying a price for that. Why 5GB of data storage would have been a disaster. All these in this week’s newsletter.
Abhijit's Sketchnotes - The First Issue
Tesla creates a “digital twin” of every car they sell. Data from the real car is sent to the digital twin in the Tesla office. It lets Tesla update the software in a car remotely even as it is being driven. Singapore city has a digital twin to help plan its services. Should humans have digital twins? Celebs are creating their own digital twins. Should you? But first, do you really want passionate people when you hire? And if you are a passionate person, can you monetise your uniqueness?
A Question to HR: Are You Learning The New Language?
This is the first time in the world of work when the leader is as uncertain about the future as the employee. This democratisation of information or lack of it is creating a new contract between the employer and the employee. When leaders admit they are vulnerable, they are building trust. Being able to say, ‘I don’t know’ is a new phrase the leader has to get used to. It takes a courageous and self-assured leader to admit that it is their judgment and not precedence they are relying on.
Building a Culture of Continuous Learning
Encouraging the use of Informal Learning is the secret sauce of building a culture of continuous learning. Formal learning is the equivalent of taking a conducted tour while visiting at new city. Informal learning is all about exploring the city at your own pace. While formal learning is efficient, the effectiveness of informal learning is far higher.
Organizing a conference? Read this
This may be a good time to rethink the conference. Here are a few easy fixes:1. The audience approves the speakers: Get the speakers to do a short 1-minute video of the topic they wish to speak about. Share the names of the speakers and their topic on the conference website. Let the people vote for the topic and the speaker. Those who are paying have a right to decide which speaker is worth their time.
Learning ecosystems - how to build these
You probably use one or more of these open source learning systems: TED talks, General Assembly, EdX, Big Think ... and then you have many formats of content - videos, podcasts, blogs, websites, newsletters. I use a number of whitepapers and reports published by various organizations. Your employer probably has their own LMS to share content. Having great content does not ensure learning.