Project Management Skills For Success - Learning Tree: Fill & Download for Free

Namaste,Thanks for the A2A, I have written some blogs over similar topics, likeThe Krishna Advantage - 6 Management Lessons from Krishna's life(it involves major parts of Mahabharat)andRhythm Divine: The Shiva Sigma- Leadership Lessons from ShivaI, However came across this very wonderful post, which describes exactly the answer to your very question. Would like to share the same here as wellRamayana, Mahabharata and Project ManagementThe controversy over the ban on the Bhagvad Gita by Russia was ludicrous and uncalled for. Terming the “Bhagvad Gita” as violent was another misnomer. Violence has been raising its ugly head in the globe in the form of numerous terrorist attacks. The alleged violence in the Bhagvad Gita was nothing but a strategy intended to root out evil and signal the triumph of good.Epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagvad Gita are as precious to the Hindus as the Bible is to the Christians. It is a great relief that the ban has been revoked. This controversy has provided rich fodder to the media to fill in the pages; however it is also interesting to note that our epics teach us valuable lessons in management. A management book that extols the virtues of Chanakya’s philosophy has proved to be a best seller. This shows that age old concepts are as relevant today as they were centuries ago. Notwithstanding the negative publicity surrounding the Bhagvad Gita, Indians have to be really proud of their rich cultural heritage and the great epics.Delhi Metro chief Mr Sreedaran swears by the Bhagvad Gita. He says that there are so many lessons to be learnt and imbibed from it. Many individuals have immensely benefitted from the holy book of the Hindus and the Vishnu Sahasranama (the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu).Interestingly, if you observe carefully, the Ramayana and Mahabharata are epics that teach us something about project management. Today there is lot of frenzy about project management coaching and education. Degrees in Project Management are being widely advertised and touted as the next best thing. There was no Internet during those times, no computers, no coaching institutes; no textbooks, no MS office projects ... yet the teams then accomplished their mission successfully.In simple terms, project management can be defined as the philosophy that uses logic and plain common sense to achieve the desired objectives after overcoming the obstacles. Project management has evolved as a discipline by itself and provides tools to manage projects effectively.Does the Ramayana portray anything that is different? Lord Ram assumes SPA (Single point accountability) for achieving his mission to kill the demon Ravana and win back his beloved consort Seeta. Look at the number of people who helped Lord Ram achieve his mission.The Ramayana essentially highlights that team work is important for achieving the project objective. The team struggles at all times to win against all odds. They use out-of-box thinking to build bridges to Lanka. Lord Hanuman can be called as an expert in risk management. He takes great risks to support the mission. All the team members including the monkey brigade pledge their loyalty to Lord Ram. They have unflinching faith in their project leader.When one team member suffers (Lakshman – Lord Ram’s brother), the entire team rallies around Lakshman to resuscitate him back to life. In a bold move, Lord Hanuman carries the “sanjeevani hill” to the camp when he is unable to identify the correct herb that can cure Lakshman. When Hanuman tells Lord Ram that he will lift Seeta from Lanka, Lord Ram politely reminds him that he has to follow the ethical route to win back his beloved. Look at the splendid manner in which Lord Ram kills the evil Vali, the Vanara King to help Sugreeva, another Vanara king. The strategy employed by Lord Ram is a winning strategy. By helping Sugreeva, Ram ensured that he had all the human resources to fight the war against Lanka.What a great leader Lord Ram is! Compassionate, kind and flexible and strict when the situation demands it. A project manager needs to display such skills to win over his team. Look at the beauty of delegation in the execution of the plan. Lord Ram always chooses his trusted lieutenant Lord Hanuman to accomplish the most challenging tasks because he knows that Lord Hanuman is the right man for the job! Lord Hanuman is intrepid, fearless and physically strong. So, Lord Ram decides the correct tasks that can be allocated to him.Despite the challenges, risks, insecurities, Lord Ram coaxes the team to think positive and adopt a winning stance. Did someone say power of positive visualization? The team members carry on their tasks enthusiastically but do not fail to sound off Lord Ram when there is a challenge that can disrupt their mission. Decisions on complex matters are taken through a consensus. Lord Ram understands the importance of each team member. This strengthens the team as their energy is buoyed by the fact that their leader has immense faith in them and they should not disappoint him.Single-minded pursuit of the goal is reflected at all times in the activities of the team so much so that the demon king Ravana’s brother Kumbhakarna also pleads with him to avoid war. But who can overrule destiny? Ravana’s fall was pre ordained.Motivation and energising of the team, coaching, conflict management, communication strategies, overcoming bottlenecks, risk management, planning and scheduling, execution strategies, allocation of the appropriate resource for a particular task , decision making, out-of-box thinking to solve problems... the Ramayana scores on every point that a modern project management model would advocate.Every successful project deserves celebration and rewarding of the team behind the splendid effort. Lord Ram is extremely particular that all the team members are rewarded for their effort .Look at the reward that he gives to Lord Hanuman. He gives Hanuman place in his heart, but that is not necessary at all. Why? As Lord Ram and Seeta are already in Hanuman’s heart, there is not much that Lord Ram can do.Lord Hanuman’s immense devotion to Lord Ram notwithstanding, is it also not clear that Lord Ram made the best use of Lord Hanuman’s skills and competence? A project manager has to make the most of his team member’s capabilities by effective delegation.Coming to the Mahabharata, we can safely say that this great epic has actually taught us about strategy, team work, conflict management, emotional intelligence, planning and execution. Lord Krishna who is at the helm of the affairs is truly a SPA (single point accountable) person. He is dependable, confident, and cherubic and inspires confidence in the Pandavas even when the chips are down for them. Look at the astute planning. Look at the flawless execution. Look at the fantastic delegation of responsibilities. Isn’t this inspiring?Ponder at the brilliant manner in which Lord Krishna prepared the project feasibility study. Look at the manner in which he did not succumb to emotions and advised Arjuna (one of the Pandavas) to be focussed on the mission at hand and not get swayed by emotions. Every mistake that the Pandavas make actually enriches them as Lord Krishna beseeches them to learn from each experience.Ramayana, Mahabharata are the epics which are actually treasure troves of invaluable information regarding managing a project successfully. Can I dare to interpret the reason why Lord Krishna chose to drive Arjuna’s chariot? Arjuna was a great warrior but he was also emotional. He needed that kind of intensive coaching from Janardana (other name of Lord Krishna). As Lord Krishna knew that the (physically) strongest member of the team was also the (mentally) weakest, he rallied around his protégé.As a child, Arjuna’s prowess in archery was astounding. Master Dronacharya pointed towards the parrot toy on the tree and asked his students to shoot their arrow at the parrot’s eye. As the students came one by one, he asked each of his students, ‘What do you see?’ It was only Arjuna who gave the correct answer as “I cannot see anything but the parrot’s eye”.Arjuna was extremely focussed and a brilliant student of Dronacharya. This incident gives us crucial insights into the capabilities of Arjuna even at such a young age. He personifies diligence, dedication and sincerity. These qualities enable him to grow up as a great warrior and fight the war against his cousins.To sum it upProject management has become a discipline by itself today. This is a good sign. India stands tall bearing the unique status of being a forerunner for encouraging all the modern management fundas and principles that are in vogue today. India is a land of unity in diversity embellished by the rich cultural heritage. Our great epics can teach us invaluable lessons if we try to study and analyse them carefully. The time is right and ripe for Indians to be proud of their history and legacy.- See more at: Ramayana, Mahabharata and Project Management

To get a job in Canada, you must do 5 things:Creating a resumé that’s consistently gets shortlistedCreate a LinkedIn profile that gets found by recruitersBuild a network that will get you referrals to jobsStand out in your online job applicationAcing the job interviewI’ll break down each section for you. At the end, if you even apply 1 thing from this answer you should see a significant difference in your job search in Canada.Canada’s hiring practices are competitive and conservative, especially for newcomers to Canada. But as a newcomer myself, I can confidently tell you that finding the right job early, will reward you big time in the near future. It’s the only reason I was able to afford a home in Canada during these difficult times with the housing market at an all-time high…So let’s get to it!The biggest complaint job seekers have is that they apply for jobs online and don’t hear back.The second biggest complaint is they are getting interviews, but they are not converting to job offers, and they don’t get any feedback as to why.Anyone of the above 5 things could be the root cause.So let’s start at the beginning - your resumé.#1 CREATE A RESUMÉ THAT CONSISTENTLY GETS SHORTLISTEDIn this day and age, machines and artificial intelligence is part of the job application process.It’s important to remember that your resumé has to pass the initial screening of an applicant tracking system (“ATS”) that is programmed to match keywords from the job description to your resumé.Only once your resumé is ranked high, will it get to a recruiter’s eyes.The recruiter is only aware of what is on the job description. So if something is on your resumé that’s not on the job description, it’s going to be alien to her, and a distraction to vital content that is relevant.The other point you have to remember, is that you resumé is scanned for 7.4 seconds (according to research by The Ladders) before a recruiter decides if this resumé is worth a detailed read.So not only does your resumé’s content need to be relevant, that relevant info needs to light up like a Christmas tree the moment that page is opened.You can download a template of such a resumé at the bottom of this answer.Your target job titlePut the job title of the job description right under your name at the top. That’s your headline.Not only will the ATS rank your resumé higher, the recruiter will immediately observe that this is a resumé that is relevant to the role she is trying to fill.It does not matter if your current/last job matches that title. The purpose of the headline is to establish what job you are applying for.Your actual job titles that you had goes in the work history section.Your Professional SummaryThe very first line of your resumé should indicate the years of experience you have, your job function, your industry (optional) and key soft skills that provides context to an achievement or accomplishment.Ditch any tired overused business jargon like “Result oriented” or “Passionate”. Readers have grown tired of these phrases that provide no proof or context.An example would be “Project Management professional with 7+ years experience in the construction industry, responsible for managing the completely life-cycle of projects from tender to close-out, giving high attention to detail with project management documentation that fosters positive collaboration and communications with project stakeholders, resulting in < 5% project budget variances.”And just like that, within 7 seconds of seeing your target job title and professional summary, I already have 50% of the info I need to make that call. Now I’m ready to read the rest of your resumé.You’d be surprised - for many resumé’s I have read, I’ve spent 5 minutes reading it and I still don’t know what type of job the person is looking for or what they do.Work ExperienceThe biggest mistake I see job seekers making here is listing out their responsibilities like a task list.The second biggest mistake is using this section as a dumping ground from a brainstorming session of their past responsibilities and skills.If there is one thing you should take away from this answer, it’s this:NEVER start a job search without researching the job market.A job search is a marketing project.Your resumé is a marketing document.You cannot - I repeat - absolutely cannot, assume that your past roles and responsibilities is exactly what your future employer is looking for.Review 5–7 job description for research purposes. Check what are the most common responsibility, skills and qualifications required.Only then, create a resumé that speaks to that research.Every company does things differently. Times change. Roles evolve. If you have not been job searching for a long time, it’s likely the market needs something different from your job title.Once you done that research, don’t just like your responsibilities like a task list. This may be the norm in some countries.But in Canada, you need to stand out from your competition by explaining what you did (the task) how you did it differently, and proof you did it well.Be specific, provide context, and quantify wherever possible.For example, instead of stating:“Created project management plans and made sure they remained up to date.”You could restate it to:“Created project management plans using MS project and advanced excel formulas to track project scope, budget and timelines. Documents were cleanly formatted and consistently communicated to all project stakeholders via SharePoint, creating a culture of continuous feedback that reduced project scope to < 10% while maintaining budget variance of < 5%”This resumé would rank well for a job description where project management plans, MS Office and SharePoint were important keywords.EducationDon’t go overboard with your education. State it before your work experience if you’re a new grad or need to fill an employment gap.In most case for mid-level roles and higher, education goes last in a Canadian resumé.State your major, the college name and that’s it. Exclude the year if you graduated over 5 years ago, else you will be dating yourself and opening yourself up to age discrimination.Volunteer ExperienceDefinitely a plus point. Large enterprise organizations value volunteer work in Canada, as community outreach is a value they pride themselves on.Again, it goes to the end of your resumé, unless it also serves to fill an employment gap.#2 CREATE A LINKEDIN PROFILE THAT GETS FOUND BY RECRUITERSAccording to a study by Jobvite, 87% of recruiters check out a candidates LinkedIn profile.So if you’ve been neglecting it, make sure you spruce it up - it could be the tie-breaker for the recruiter between calling you for the interview vs someone else.Recruiters search LinkedIn for talent. And once again, keywords play an important role.When they search, they enter criteria such as industry and location, but they will also enter keywords from the job description to further filter their search.Another reason why that research I mentioned earlier is so vital.Profile PictureAccording to a LinkedIn source, having a profile picture increases the likelihood of your profile being read by 14 times.It also helps establish trust and likability with the recruiter. Considering that in a Canadian resumé, you cannot include personal details like your photograph (along with your date of birth and gender), a picture is still worth a thousand words.So make sure you get a good (ideally professional) headshot of yourself. It’s worth the time and money to get a good photo done.HeadlineBe sure to update the headline from the default. LinkedIn auto inserts your last job title and company here if you leave it blank.Big mistake.Your headline is highly important in LinkedIn’s search software for ranking high for recruiter searches.So pack it with relevant skills and keywords from your search.Work HistoryYou could take the easy way out and just copy paste your resumé here.But smart job seekers are using their work history to tell a story.You see in many cases, a recruiter has seen your resumé already, and has moved on to your LinkedIn profile to learn more.So give her more! Elaborate on the problems you solved, how you solved them, the challenges you faced, and the difference you made in the organization.Your resumé is for stating facts and being direct and to the point.Your LinkedIn profile is for story-telling.#BUILDING A NETWORK THAT WILL GET YOU REFERRALS TO JOBSThis is the single biggest activity in your job search strategy that will end your job search sooner than later.It is said that 80% of the job market is hidden. That doesn’t mean the job is not advertised, as regulatory requirements in Canada require them to be so.It means that the hiring manager has already ear-marked the position to someone in advance. In other words - the “preferred candidate”.Why did they choose this preferred candidate? Because the candidate took an active effort to stay in touch with the hiring manager.That’s what networking is about. Staying in touch.And so many people fail at networking in Canada. Because they think it’s transactional.The first stage of networking in Canada is nurturing. i.e. Giving unconditionally until your contact is ready to give back.It’s like planting a tree. You plant the seed. You provide food and water without expecting that tree to bear fruit. Then eventually, with enough nourishment, that tree will bear fruit for you on its own.Networking is exactly the same. You can’t expect a new contact to have a job for in their back pocket the moment you connect with them.But eventually they will. The question is, when that time comes, will they remember you and trust you enough to put their reputation on the line to give you that referral.This is why many job seekers fail at networking. They treat every contact as a transaction.They send a LinkedIn message - “Hi I’d like to connect. I’m looking for a job in Canada. Let me know if you hear of anything.”No!I will not let you know if I heard of anything. Why should I? What do I owe you?If you truly want to build a network, start by nurturing a network.Your Canadian networking planTarget 10–15 companies you want to work for.Go to LinkedIn and do a filtered people search. Filter by the company name, location, and keywords from the job title. For example, if you are in supply chain, enter “Supply Chain” in the job title.Find senior managers, directors, and VPs. Yes, go as high up as them. Because these are the people with the power, authority and who control the budget to hire you.Send them a customize LinkedIn invite (or Inmail if you’ve invested in Premier).Set calendar reminders to stay in touch with them every two weeks.What is “Staying in touch”It’s not “Hi”, “How are you”, “Thanks for connecting”, “Hope you’re doing well”.Don’t be a lazy networker.Staying in touch means offering value to your network. Learn about their company, learn about the industry, and share information with them.If you live in their community, share community news. VPs and directors are usually volunteering their time by being on board of directors of non-profit organizations.Learn about what they do, and offer your support.THAT is networking!Is it hard? Yes!Does it take up more time? Yes!Will it end your job search sooner and put more money in your pocket? Hell yes!#4 STAND OUT WITH YOUR ONLINE JOB APPLICATIONThere are over ~200 applicants for every job. How are you standing out?Here’s what you should be doing:Customizing your resumé for every job application. Use http://jobscan.co to scan your resumé to make sure it scores high with the ATS. No job seeker to be looking for work without this vital tool.Create a cover letter that starts with a hook - something captivates the reader. Provide an example of a common problem in your industry, and how you’ve solved that problem in the past. End with a call to action with your contact details, expressing your excitement and why you want to work for this company.Contact the hiring manager directly. Use the filtered LinkedIn search I explained earlier, and discover who the hiring manager might be. At times, job descriptions give you the exact job title the position will be reporting to.Most people don’t go through this much effort for an application.They are happy submitting a generic resumé, clicking submit, and relying on hope.Stop hoping. Take control of your application by going after the jobs you apply for. This is how I got three job offers in three weeks from landing in Canada.I just didn’t rely on those machines and recruiters to filter my resumé. I made sure the hiring manager - the one decision-maker for every job - knew my name!#5 ACING THE JOB INTERVIEWThe job does not go to the most qualified candidate. It goes to the most prepared.When preparing for your job interview, you need to prepare the following areas:Tell me about yourselfThis is the first question you will be asked, and you need to practice this a million times until it comes naturally to you.I’ve conducted countless interviews in Canada, and most candidates bore me to death with their answer.The answer should be no longer than 60 seconds. The manager doesn’t want you to parrot back what’s already on the resumé.Start with your years in the industry as an opening line, and from there move on to the two biggest skills you believe you possess.Then, tell a story about how you’ve used those skills, ideally in a specific project. Be sure that, in the story, you are emphasizing on the “I” instead of “We”.Most people are thinking of a team project, so they use the word “We”. But remember, the hiring manager is not hiring your former team. She is hiring you! So be sure your story focuses on how you specifically contributed to that project with the skills you mentioned.And finally, wind up with why you are interested in this position.60 seconds - no more!Practice this introduction by recording yourself on your phone - I highly recommend it if you are serious about getting that job.The core questionsInterviews in Canada are conducted using behavioural interview questions. This is very different from other parts of the world.These types of questions typically start with “Tell me about a time when…” or “How would handle this situation…”You must prepare to answer them in advance. Managers can immediately tell when someone is winging it.How to prepare?Look at each responsibility in the job description, and think about a time when you had to use that responsibility.Organize your story in the S.T.A.R. format.What is the S.ituation you were put in, what was the T.ask you were assigned, what A.ction did you take, and what the R.esult you achieved.For example, the tough question could be “Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with your boss, how did you handle it?”(Yes, these are the types of questions you could be asked in Canadian interview)A good answer for a call center team leader (for example) is this:“We had a situation once where the manager asked us to reduce the hold time between calls to 0 seconds so we could reduce our call wait times. I knew this would be a problem as our agents used this time to complete the ticket data entry. I voiced my concern and tasked myself to check with the team first. It turns out I was right. The team stated that if they did not get this time, the ticket quality would suffer. I reached by to the manager and explained the situation and provided examples as well. He understood and retracted his suggestion, much to the relief of the other team leads.”Not only is this a great answer, you’ve also shown you’ve taken ownership, and been a true leader for supporting your employees and peers.Note the cultural difference here. In other parts of the world, this answer may not be acceptable. In hierarchal cultures, you follow the bosses command without question. Canada’s culture is more egalitarian. Everyone’s opinion matters, and (good) management expect you to speak up and challenge them where required.Closing the interviewYou will be asked at the end if you have any questions for the interviewer.The wrong answer is “No”.You must prepare questions in the advance. Good questions could be:Questions about the team/company cultureWhat are the first projects you will be handlingQuestions about the department’s goals and objectivesQuestions about the biggest challenges the manager is facing.Do NOT ask questions about pay and benefits. That comes after the job offer.It’s all up to youWhether you’re a newcomer to Canada, a new graduate or a seasons Canadian professional, these basic tips go a long way in giving you the career you deserve.I know it’s a lot to take in. But take it one step at a time.Start by downloading this Canadian resumé template that I’ve created. I’ve personally used this, and so have my students with resounding success in Canada.Click here to download the template.To your success in Canada.

I suggest you look into these 7 things and see how much of each you know - and the practice the ones that seem unfamiliar to you. These were the 7 most common things I saw when I interviewed at big companies (Facebook, Intel, Square, eBay, etc) for data science related positions.Basic Programming Languages: You should know a statistical programming language, like R or Python (along with Numpy and Pandas Libraries), and a database querying language like SQLStatistics: You should be able to explain phrases like null hypothesis, P-value, maximum likelihood estimators and confidence intervals. Statistics is important to crunch data and to pick out the most important figures out of a huge dataset. This is critical in the decision-making process and to design experiments.Machine Learning: You should be able to explain K-nearest neighbors, random forests, and ensemble methods. These techniques typically are implemented in R or Python. These algorithms show to employers that you have exposure to how data science can be used in more practical manners.Data Wrangling: You should be able to clean up data. This basically means understanding that "California" and "CA" are the same thing - a negative number cannot exist in a dataset that describes population. It is all about identifying corrupt (or impure) data and and correcting/deleting them.Data Visualization: Data scientist is useless on his or her own. They need to communicate their findings to Product Managers in order to make sure those data are manifesting into real applications. Thus, familiarity with data visualization tools like ggplot is very important (so you can SHOW data, not just talk about them)Software Engineering: You should know algorithms and data structures, as they are often necessary in creating efficient algorithms for machine learning. Know the use cases and run time of these data structures: Queues, Arrays, Lists, Stacks, Trees, etc.Product Management: This one is definitely debatable, but those who understand the product are the ones who will know what metrics are the most important. There are tons of numbers one can A/B test, so product-oriented data scientist will pick the right metrics to experiment with. Know what these terms mean: Usability Testing, Wireframing, Retention and Conversion Rates, Traffic Analysis, Customer Feedback, Internal Logs, A/B Testing.In each field, I mentioned few buzzwords you should know about. There are tons of websites you could use, so I recommend using these 7 branches as a roadmap to guide yourself.Welcome to Data Science!