Dear Hummingbird #5: The brouhaha around Industrial Training

“The only place where success comes before work is a dictionary.” ― Eric Barker

Question:

Dear Hummingbird,

How to get into industrial training?

- Lost in LA

My industrial training is very exciting and I love my work. But it takes a lot of mental energy the extra working hrs are effecting my studies. What to prioritise and how?

- Deep in Dilemma

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Answer : Life’s a great balancing act

Dear Deep in Dilemma and Lost in LA,

It’s funny and sad to know that people on the ends of a spectrum are the same - going through struggle. Let’s begin with you, Lost in LA.

Sometimes I feel surprised when people ask me ‘How’ questions, I thought Google stole that job from counselors years ago but I get what you mean, a personal touch is always better than a generic gyaan. So, I am gonna tell you exactly what I did.

Step 1: Go to LinkedIn.

Step 2: Type Industrial Training. Among the tabs below search bar, select ‘People’. You will have a list of all the people who are working as Industrial Trainees in various companies.

Step 3: Go to their profiles and start making an Excel with company name, job profile, person of contact and their email address (if you can stalk well).

Warning: Have patience because scrolling LinkedIn can drive you crazy.

Step 4: Shortlist some profiles/companies which interests you.

Step 5: Construct a standardized message to send to trainees working there to know more about those profiles, if there is any vacancy, if they can refer you? (you know the drill)

That’s it. That’s the way to your dream job. I feel like I am stating something obvious, but many a times people just need a little push and direction to tread further. So, here’s your cue. Don’t wait for companies to approach you, be proactive.

Here’s some food for thought for you though: Before going on this hedonistic treadmill, sit and make a Pro-Con list. Decide if you really want to do it, make what-if scenarios, there’s nothing more important than clearing the exams in the first shot.

Not because I care about ranks or numbers but because it’s a huge burden to carry on your shoulders for years, better to relieve yourself as soon as possible.

Talking about relieving yourself, I think that’s what you need Deep in Dilemma. A relief and a reset.

I totally get what you are feeling. This feeling of constantly rushing through things just to get done with them, just to do enough to not curse yourself to sleep for being a mediocre, for not pushing yourself blah blah blah

Stop this monologue! Nahhh ahhh stop it right now. This will not take you anywhere.

RESET. Now that you have experience on how work is like for you - an idea about the working hours (we can’t predict urgent work, so let it be), an idea about how much time you can dedicate in the morning or at night, an idea on when to sleep and wake up.

Make a schedule now. What to prioritize? CA Finals, at any cost.

Maintaining a good work-life balance, in our case work-study balance is not easy. You have to keep reconsidering all the time, reconsidering whether to take up that new project, whether to plan a short trip, whether to work from office or home etc.

If you don’t have a plan, you are reacting to whatever life throws at you. Instead you have to act proactively, just like Lost in LA. Here’s what I did:

Do some reverse planning. How many days you need for the last revision? For the second last? For the first read? Make a day wise schedule on which chapter you would study when and what reference material you are going to use.

The secret which people don’t talk about:They will tell you to start studying within 6 months of the beginning of the articleship but they won’t tell you that the real study only begins during the leave period.

Till then you just have to go through the course once, finish your classes and prepare yourself for the grind. Lucky are those who remember any sections or anything that they studied during their articleship but it doesn’t happen to a lot of us.

Evaluate how much time you have in the morning, how many hours of classes are left, dedicate time to solving questions probably at night and if your manager pushes you too hard to work till midnight everyday, probably take a step, have a one-on-one conversation and explain your situation. There’s no other way.

Take it one day at a time and reward yourself on the weekend. Keep buffer days in your schedule to take a break and unwind, to cover lags and catch up with friends.

Planning is liberating, it keeps you away from the frivolous. I will not undermine how strenuous it is to say no to work, but being on the other side I also know the worth of clearing CA and nothing is more rewarding than to get to the other side.

No one knows you better than yourself, take out some time this weekend to plan. Once it’s on paper you have won half the battle (okay fine 1/3). You got this!

If you’re stuck on a problem, don’t sit there and think about it; just start working on it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head. ― Mark Manson

Warmly,
Hummingbird

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Dear Hummingbird is a syndicated advice column by CA aspirants for CA aspirants.

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