Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute - VJTI Mumbai

Many times, I was made to feel bad because my GPA was below 7.5 . It's not like I didn't work hard. But I've always made silly mistakes in exams and paid for it by getting low grades. Should I think that my knowledge is less than anyone above 7.5? Some might say yes but I beg to differ.

GPA is important. Everyone should work hard to get maximum GPA but it's is not everything. Don't judge yourself on your grades.

GPA matters but it is a part of knowledge and skill set. A lot of skills come into picture along with GPA.

• Prioritize Communication skills

You may think that it's easy to speak in front of 100 people. But it's not as easy as it seems. I've seen a lot of people unable to speak about themselves for continous two minutes.

Students work really hard on their GPA and grades on expense of soft skills. People don't take soft skill seriously. This attitude can affect your future opportunities.

Soft skill is an asset which helps you throughout your life. May be some years later, your CGPA will be forgotten, but your soft skills can take you places. If you can sell yourself and your knowledge, you're good to go.

Participating in DLA events can be a good start for improving soft skills.

• Don't neglect Extra Curricular activities

Extra-curriculars should be pursued not only for improving your resume but for networking and experience.

I learnt to tackle various sets of people, be it professional or a committee member or a junior. Plus, it improved my networking skills.

Best thing I learnt was art of collaborating. Design and marketing team collaborating for better reach of their fest. Media team and sponsorship teams working together to target companies, professionals and media houses.

Everyone should work atleast in some committees. It's absolutely worth it.

• Learn coding

You want to learn coding eh? I don't think C+ and Java is of any use for Civil Engineering students. Civil students are not meant for coding. It's not their Forte.

I regret following this negation blindly without proper research.

Coding is an asset which can reduce your work many fold, be it any language you learn. It gives you edge over other competitors. And the main reason is that every industry is going Tech now. If you won't know how to code, you won't know about the building blocks of tech industry. Even construction industry is getting converted into a tech industry.

Don't let someone tell you that if you are from core, coding is useless for you. That person might be useless but not coding.

It doesn't matter which branch you belong to, learn coding. Always flow with the trend like the way you follow Meme trends on social media.

And last but not the least

• PLEASE STEP OUTSIDE OF HOSTEL

It's a typical behaviorial pattern of hostelites I've observed in these years that maximum students tend to be in their own bubble and very rarely interact to other students in colleges. Whatever might be the reason, they feel shy and intimidated.

I've heard a junior say that we feel inferior in front of localites because our soft skills are not as good as them. Please erase this thought from your mind. This is a myth which hostelites has acquired from their senior batches in the past and the chain is still continued. That's not true.

So my two cents is, if you feel your soft skills are not good, these four years are the best part to improve them. You can learn from your experienced batch mates.

Go interact with people, take part in competitions, work for any committee you prefer, study hard and smart and see the difference in your personality in next few years.

These are the best four years you can get, before you'll be thrown into professional world. Make sure you're ready for that.