“12 hours at office for 5 days (alternate Saturday working), 2 hours (approx) of travelling and finally no energy left... how do the IT professionals upgrades themselves?”

1. “12 hours at office for 5 days (alternate Saturday working), 2 hours (approx) of
travelling and finally no energy left... how do the IT professionals upgrades
themselves?”
The question was kicked off by Aninda in Facebook’s ‚Kolkata IT Professionals‛ group
to initiate a very engaging discussion in Facebook that lead to almost 40 comments.
Experts from the industry shared ideas that may help each one of us gain knowledge
and groom ourselves for a better tomorrow.
‚I use Twitter to collect links to great resources and check these out in about 1 hour
every day. Pass on to my team members for detailed study if I think I have stumbled on
a useful resource‛, said Arun Agarwal offering a very effective input to make use of
social media platforms to the fullest.
Agreeing with him Shabbir Akhtar added, ‚I love Google Reader as it helps me a lot
with this... All the major sources that I follow, along with feeds from Google News on
specific topics are added to my Google Reader... It gives me the latest updates of what
matters to me the most, through the day‛.
Rajeev Pareek cited he uses web in a very effective method, which if others follow may
help in a large way. ‚I spend good time on surfing wiki, forums and other web
resources to enhance my skills‛.

2. Seniors from the industry like Hari Balasubramanian and Indranil Das Gupta urged
people to choose their career on what they love doing that most. This, they stated, will
increase productivity by large. ‚It is all in the mind. A passionate pro will find
relaxation in catching up and upgrading his/her own skills. The moment you do not
enjoy your work, you start feeling tired quickly and you keep running every day to be
in the same place. The secret is in understanding what gives you more energy as you
perform /work‛, said Hari. To which Indranil added, ‚I go by Confucius’s saying –
‘Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life’‛. He also
urged technical folks to ‚pack in a lot of tech podcasts and reading during commutes
and travel‛.
Joy Mukherjee, another very experienced person from the industry called web his
‚treasure Island‛. Spending a couple of hours surfing the net is a regular habit he has
grown over the years. ‚I learn from different links shared in Social Media Sites, Blogs
that I follow, and obviously by chatting with some knowledgeable friends of same
trade‛, he said.
A very important thing that all professionals should learn is time management. While
Kamanashish Roy raised this very vital point Aninda agreed to the core and added,
‚Yes time management is the key‛. Sohini Ghosh Banerjee concurred by saying,
‚Passion and time management are the secret which gives me the energy to perform. If
I'm passionate for my work I'll find relaxation while upgrading my skill‛.
With Smart phones like iPhone or Nexus and other devices like Kindle and iPad easily
available in the market at affordable prices Arjun Ghosh shared his main sources of
information gathering are, ‚sites like Twitter/ Digg etc which gives me my updates‛. He
also added that one can go on reading while traveling through such devices.
Siddharth Jhunjhunwala drew the attention towards something that most of us
overlook in this very busy schedule. ‚I would say start with Physical Fitness or sports.
It's the backbone to rejuvenation and thus can positively spark creativity‛.
This very enlightening discussion gave us some useful tips and key points on how the
IT professionals upgrade themselves:
 Usage of social media platforms like facebook and twitter
 Subscribing to emails
 Adding RSS feeds
 Getting updates through tools like smart phones and other devices
 Physical fitness

3.  Passion towards your work domain
 Time management
Post Submitted by: Sumana Chakraborty, Creative Writer & Blogger
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