The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : How to update your knowledge constantly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 23, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

How to update your knowledge constantly

Special Correspondent

`Make best use of the information available'

CAREER ADVANCEMENT: Surf your way to success. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Bangalore: Even senior managers would be risking their career advancement if they do not update their knowledge constantly.

Information comes from multiple media, but filtering it down to what is relevant to you and your organisation and using the best of the time available is more important.

Financial sector executive N.J. Mathur has found it useful to spend ten minutes each morning with business papers, followed by updates on websites.

"I get home late and am in time to see the business news telecast around 8 or 8.30 p.m. I sometimes jot down notes for reference the next day."

The habit of noting down useful information for more detailed reference later has paid dividends for many executives.

Media consultant Sheila Raj saw just by chance on television that a public utility was going in for handheld computers for on-the-spot billing. She immediately called a client dealing with such devices and next morning was working out a media plan, including demonstrations.

"You don't need to be constantly glued to the TV to get such useful information. Taking a casual look at relevant websites and newspapers is enough to alert one to new business possibilities,'' she says.

She spends around 30 minutes each night on the Internet, going only into websites that are relevant. She also takes home business magazines and goes through them carefully in the weekends. "Many weekend magazine sections of mainstream newspapers carry business sections with a lot of information. Sometimes they are easier to read because the writers avoid jargon,'' says Mr. Mathur.

It is useful for those setting out on a career to read a lot about the concerned sector.

This can be augmented with material downloaded from the Internet, he adds.

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