99.99%, Mugging Up Prior to Exams – These aren’t the Trend Anymore, at Least for the Progressive Beings. Youth Inc Enlightens You on How Different Extracurricular Activities can AID You in Your Career Prospects and in Your Life
Overseas, participating in extracurricular activities earns you credits. India too is now placing significance on extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities aren’t anymore only for ‘loafers who dislike academics’. In fact, they are already in a neck and neck position with academics. Conventionally redundant statements like ‘I missed the first position by 0.11 per cent’, or emotions like crying for not getting a 100/100 in Maths are thankfully fading. Vomiting the mugged material on an exam sheet and eventually obtaining a distinction do not guarantee a job anymore. A strong backing of extracurricular participation and victory is a significant contributing factor to getting great jobs and opportunities.
This trend is definitely going to bloom in our society, eliminating horseblinkeredness and the rote learning culture.
From the Mouth of Research
Psychological research has shown that those who engage in extracurricular activities right from school are more likely to come up with innovative ideas at their workplace. The reason behind this is that the creative regions of their brain in the left hemisphere are nurtured and enhanced almost completely by the time they graduate, and hence bosses prefer looking at more activities embedded within the subtitles hobbies/extracurricular activities in CVs. Social research has shown that people engaging in debates, seminars, workshops and elocutions are given an edge when applying for PR jobs. Rejuvenation and refreshment are best obtained by extracurricular activities.
From the Mouth of Fortune Companies and Entrepreneurs
Several top companies and institutes say that they prefer employees who have pursued at least three different extracurricular activities during their school or college life . Academics is not anymore the sole criterion for acquiring employment. Qualities, skills and practical knowledge developed from different extracurricular activities are highly useful in a job nowadays. An overall approach is taken when choosing candidates for a job, placing immense significance on indulgence in hobbies.
Yogesh Chabria, author of the Happionaire series, investor, entrepreneur and developer, made all these titles possible due to his engagement in extracurricular activities since childhood. His love for sports and regular cycling sprees made him notice the booming sectors in India (like the burgeoning redevelopment of the country and the elevating need for cement). He began investing in these booming sectors and is today developing plush luxury housing with his associates at JRLE Sippy Housing.
He had an early start. During his school days, his love for reading comics and drinking lemonade imbibed in him entrepreneurial skills as he formed the Indian Lemonade Company and a comic book business venture when comics were as rare as dinosaur eggs. Several companies are nowadays not sticking to conventional methods in hiring employees. Dynamism is an extremely significant trait needed today. Extracurricular activities help one to develop this trait and move up the ladder towards success and overall growth.
How Different Extra-Curricular Activities Capitalise You with Skills
Performing Arts
Any performing art when displayed looks beautiful. However, behind the-scenes dedication, commitment and practice are essential. Dealing with pressure is a skill that becomes ingrained eternally in a performer. When an interviewer sees qualities of dedication, commitment, confidence, handling pressure, they are taken as beneficial skills for the company. Employers love having employees who can work under constant pressures and orders; and deliver rosy outputs. Such qualities aid in marketing, the hotel industry, and finance-related and PR jobs.
Creative Art
Any piece of creative art does bring a glow to the viewers’ eyes. The creativity in the art brings to fore the artist’s imaginative skills. Creative people attract eyeballs to their creative and visually appealing work. Many people do judge a book solely by its glossy and beautiful cover. If the product or the output – whatever it may be – looks good, it is bought. Also, the quality of being creative involves being able to think in unique, out-of-the box ways. It is an esteemed trait needed in many fields today – film making, script writing, photography, stand-up comedy, designing, commercial arts and even in marketing.
Sports Support
Any game or sport has rules and secret moves that make a team victorious. Be it an indoor sport like chess or an outdoor sport like cricket, learning the tricks of the sport, its conventional moves and rules, devising new moves and working as a team inculcate essentially indispensable skills. Such qualities aid in jobs that require intense brain work. Among stock market investors who minted money last year, 73 per cent of them played chess or golf almost daily. Also, many successful employees in tech jobs play Monopoly or football as a hobby. Team work tactics obtained from this extracurricular activity helps in jobs that look for people who work well in a team and can both avoid and resolve catfights as well as dogfights.
Leadership Experiences and Foreign Lingos
Students who have bagged roles of leadership in school or college such as ‘head of students’ council’ or ‘house captain’ are preferred by future bosses for the obvious reason that they can lead and manage other employees. Having learnt foreign languages in school gives such students an edge in embassy jobs and foreign tourism.
Sharath Jeevan , CEO of STIR Education says that “Underprivileged children face a significant disadvantage in accessing these extracurricular opportunities. We find promising ‘microinnovations’ in classrooms that improve outcomes for the disadvantaged children. We are finding that the best schools are nowadays providing extracurricular opportunities to enhance the future of many students. Many extend the school day to enable this; others bring extracurricular activities and services into the school through partnerships with NGOs and the local government services. Others bring in experienced volunteers from the corporate world, to provide these at no cost and create effective role models in the process.”
Freshers Take
Suresh Tulsiani who is currently pursuing tech-operating system analysis says, “Playing football and volleyball has taught me perseverance and simultaneously how not to lose one’s head under pressure. These qualities help me a lot in my tech-analysis.”
Menaka Lakhani who is currently working in the hotel industry says, “My passion and intense dedication towards singing, getting all the ‘ragas and tals’ perfect, has given me the quality of patience that helps a lot in the hotel industry.”
So guys and gals, add calories to your kitty. Start boosting your kitty with extracurricular activities and follow your hobbies and hearty passions; it will give you a mind-blowing edge at the interview table and aid you with skills that will be your besties in your job scenario.
Volume 2 Issue 4
