What I Achieved from PPD

Personal Progress Development

For the past two years in the university, Personal progress development sessions inspired us in a awesome way to identify ourselves, overcome challenges and improved our motivation and taught us to inspire and winning life challenges as well as industrial challenges when we goto the industry.

These sessions were helped me to develop strong mindset that could help me in different ways.

As most of the university students, also Myself I faced the problem of shyness when I talk in front of a bunch of people. That problem also solved because of these sessions.

Learning outcomes were also more helpful not only for the academics but the Industrial and personal life. 

It help us to think in different ways in different situations. 

PPD sessions were bring up to next level of personality for these two years.

It also help us to change the same boring vision of something that we looking at.

It was help to think realistically when we doing something.

It was helped to set our own milestones in specific, unique, measurable and realistic way.

In the PPD sessions we discussed lot of things. What should we do, and what we shouldn't. Pros and Cons, and live motivationally. 

All the activities add something new to my life. Each session was something new and fresh to learn.

As Software Engineering students, team work also more important to us. So the activities that we were guided by our loving Instructor Madam Sarasi, inspired us to work as team, but not the same team at all. As a team,  how to work with your team mates, how to respect other ideas, how to level up everyones ideas with other ideas by concentrating other ideas.

I believe that every each person has their identity. These PPD sessions were helped me to identify my own identity & improve it.

As a future employee Developing personal progress is just as important as each and every one of your employees interacting with your organization and representing your business externally. The self-image and the motivation of an individual play an important role when it comes to behaving, reacting and guiding others.

Thankful to our instructor, Ma'am Sarasi Senadhira for 4 semesters,

we had interesting, more joyful sessions, more advices, motivational speeches, and sometimes some masterful warnings and lovely time period with you. Sadly, with the end of this semester, we are ending up with our personal progress development.

And thank you again Madam Sarasi for your dedication,, enthusiasm and hard work. You are an inspiring guide to us.

Good luck to you on the next stage in your life. Without a doubt, you will continue to have success in all areas.

Trust Walk Activity

Madam Sarasi told us to Find a Blindfold and find a partner for this exercise.

Purpose:

This mission is designed to help you know how you feel when you trust someone else.

During the activity

We were able to analyze the role of the individual as publisher and receiver in the communication process.

Analysis of the influence of perception on effective interpersonal communication.

Demonstration and evaluation of the use and effect of verbal and non-verbal symbols in interpersonal communication.

Distinguish the various communication factors that improve or limit the effectiveness of communication in relational systems.

Use the appropriate listening styles and evaluate the importance of effectively listening to the contrast factors that contribute to the supportive and advocacy communication environment (eg, honesty, empathy, delivery) and involve support

Communication assesses the role of ethical standards in interpersonal communication and the implications of various relationship challenges

Stairs, where we stopped the curtain with the steps and where we stopped. There were white spots on the street, and if someone put a leg on them, they could fall. That's why they asked us to listen to the teacher. In the first round we had to follow the path and hit a rock. In the second round we had to hit two stones and concrete. In the first round, almost all the students wrote the piece with the correct instructions. But in the second round, some students forgot what to do. Some forgot to hit the stone after finding concrete blocks. 

Procedure was, 

1.This exercise is done in pairs.

Select a friend from the batch to be your partner for this exercise. It should not be someone you know very well.

One person will act as a guide for his/her partner, who is blindfolded and cannot see. 

2.     The guide’s task is to lead the “blind” follower around the environment, and stimulate as many of his/her senses as possible except sight (e.g. pressure, touch, heat, cold, wind, sun, running, walking, etc.). This exercise can be done indoors or outdoors, preferably both.

3.After about 15 minutes, change roles so that the guide is now blindfolded and repeat (not exactly) the exercise.

1. During the time you are being a guide, think about what you are doing or saying to communicate to your “blind” follower that you can be trusted, and when you could tell your partner trusted you.
2. During the time you are the “blind” follower, think about what your guide is doing or saying to develop trust with you (or, what the guide is doing or saying said that is making you feel less trusting of him/her

What we learned here was when we are working with the society, we have to work with many people, sometimes we have to trust people . But, as a person we have to be wise when handling them and trusting them. You may blind in different kind of ways rather than of blindfold. Listen to yourself, go through with your mind and work wisely will never fail yourself while trusting anybody

CV Writing

What is a CV?

A resume/CV is a document that summarizes your work experience, education, skills and achievements for a prospective employer. It is generally required as part of an application and is considered essential information for an employer to determine if a candidate is eligible for an initial interview.

Why is that important?

Your resume is the first opportunity to make a good impression on a potential employer. ... your resume should not be longer than two pages. Make sure that you tailor it to the job you are applying for and include the skills, qualifications, and experiences that are best suited to the job.

Things that Madam Sarasi guided us to include to our CV for create more effective Resume.

Madam Sarasi informed us to create our CV uniquely by applying true details,and what that suits for the job. Don't add any unnecessary details.
Also the format should be very formal and don't mix things up.

Personal Information

The essential personal details to include are your personal picture, full name and contact information .This is usually both your phone number and email address. 

Personal Profile

A statement by ourself that mentioning and summarizing the skills and carrier interests.

Technical Skills and Soft skills

As a software engineering undergraduate, Madam Sarasi told us that it would better if we include what king of programming technologies(Programming languages),technical skills, and other software knowledge  that we are improved.
Also in here, we should include what are the speaking languages that we improved.

Educational Qualifications

List your most recent educational experiences first. Include your qualifications, institutions you studied at, graduation dates and other specializations. Mention any special awards and other educational achievements.

Projects

Brief details about during your academic session, what were the projects that we involved.

Extra curricular activities

Volunteering, Conferences, Extracurricular Activities, Training workshops and conferences- Recent Activities First.

Working Experience 

List your most recent jobs including the title of your position, name and location of organisation, and dates of employment. In point form under each job, give a brief overview of your role, responsibilities and achievements, weaving in the skills required. Internships and volunteer work can also be mentioned here.

References

 It’s always a good idea to include two to three references at the bottom of your resume. A referee can be a former manager or tutor at university – just make sure you ask their permission before listing their name, position, company and contact details. Otherwise, you may wish to write “References available on request

So finally we got  a professional Resume thanks to Madam Sarasi. Always thankful to her to giving us this much of guidance 

SELF REFLECTION

What is self-reflection?

Self-reflection is like looking in a mirror and describing what you see. It's a way to judge youLirself to determine how you work and how you learn. In simple words, "thinking" means thinking about something. Reflecting and composing self-reflective writing is becoming an increasingly important component of any form of learning or learning.

Why is self-reflection important?

Starting by opening your front camera of your mobile phone, to look at it, actually think what you see, rather than of taking photographs for years. 

Ever see your self and think who you are. I don't think you did. Neither do I. 

So the Madam Sarasi told us that the importance of Self-reflection.


What I understood was,

The Importance of Self Reflection. ... Reasons it is beneficial to self-reflect: Self reflection helps to build emotional self-awareness. By taking the time to ask yourself the important questions, you gain a better understanding of your emotions, strengths, weaknesses and driving factors.

But going through all the session I had most weird opinion that I DON'T CARE WHAT THE SOCIETY THINKS. I Didn't changed my mind because actually I don't. But I don't live like a stupid. 

Whether at home or at work - reflection is an important part of learning. You would not want to use a recipe a second time if the court did not work the first time, right? You can customize the recipe or find a new one and hopefully better. If we learn, we could be in a routine that may not work properly. When you think about your own abilities, you can see the changes you may need to make.

Questions to think about:

Strengths - What are my strengths? For example, am I well organized? Can I remember things?

Weaknesses - What are my weaknesses? For example, am I slightly distracted? Do I need more practice with a certain ability?

Skills - What skills do I have and what am I good at?

Problems - What problems at work / at home can affect me? For example, responsibilities or distractions that can affect education or work.

Achievements - What did I achieve?

Happiness - Are there things I do not like or are disappointed with? What makes me happy?

Solutions - What can I do to improve these areas?

Self-reflection may seem difficult at first sight, selfish or embarrassing, but not natural. You'll find that the exercise makes it easier and the end result could be happier and more effective.

Expert? Find yourself

...Alone we can do little; Together we can do more...

On this day, Madam Sarasi divided our class in to four groups for a new activity. So each group was instructed to find 3 specific areas that you are experts yourself. By combining that expertized areas, each group must come up with innovative product idea. 

From the each six members of the each group had an expertized area. So the next challenge was to identify the specific areas to combine to find a proper product idea. So our team came-up with a idea  
for the product as Cricket video game by combining Playing cricket, Painting and Gaming.

Also othe teams came up with 

• Eye glass cover (Handmade things, Riding bikes, Reading)
• Taekwondo video game(Taekwondo, Painting and Gaming)
• Chess video game(Gaming, Playing chess and painting)

These ideas were bit difficult though. Mrs. Sarasi reported an amazing idea presented by seniors. They supplies curry chicken with a motorcycle for book readers. It's a combination of simple expert areas. Unbelievable no ....

She told us that we are experts in how we combine various incredible areas to build a product and how to release a suitable product that is useful in different areas.

This activity helped us to think beyond the box and make new ideas when you com up with team.

And we understood that the way to success for new innovative idea is to concerning everyone's ideas.

Everyone is matter.

Technical Writing - Workshop at WSO2

Technical writing is any written form of writing or writing technical communications used in technical and professional fields, such as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, aerospace, robotics, finance, medicine, consumer electronics, biotechnology, and forestry.

We had a great experience at WSO2 on September 12th. 2nd year Software Engineering students got this opportunity with the arrangement of Madam Sarasi. In the first session we were guided for the technical writing and what is the way of using it and how to use it.To improve the quality of writing, We must consider above most accurate, correct spelling, correct grammar and punctuation and simple language. 

Then the conducting crew arranged a game sessions to drive-out the boringness that we never get during the session, but that improve our interesting to the session. Winners were awarded with some great gifts.

Technical writing is a way of writing that deals with certain specific knowledge and especially in the sector of Information technology. This kind of writing is different from the usual creative writing since it follows very different guidelines and principles. The rules of technical writing are rarely ignored as compared to other types of writing which sometimes fall short of implementing various stipulated guidelines. Technical writing is widely used in media, manuals, dissertations, scientific articles and research and other areas. All these areas have specific rules to observe when writing. It is, therefore, not enough for a writer simply to know the subject but rather should be equipped with the relevant knowledge applied in that specific field. So thankfully to WSO2 and Madam Sarasi, we had the opportunity to get know about technical writing from the experts of one of leading IT company in Srilanka, WSO2

Session with Industry to emerge tech trends of the world

Technology is embedded in everything we do and enhances the way we live, work and live the world. However, more transformation is at stake - a change that goes beyond digitization, at a time when technology is embedded in every interaction. The technology vision of Accentuation from 2018 explores rapidly changing computer trends, not only in everyday life, but also in society as a whole. This enables companies from all sectors to rethink their options.


For example, one of the key WSO2 companies in Sri Lanka, coordinated by Madam Sarasi, organized a meeting to introduce ourselves and familiarize ourselves with new trend technologies.

So the session conductors Mr.Srinath Perera with Mrs. Premila Rajapaksha discussed above these techs.

The world is changing day by day, new technologies emerge. As a software engineer, it is important that we know these things. We should always be up to date with new trends.