INDIA

My journey to India will begin soon! Jippiii! :)

So Karina.. WHERE ARE YOU GOING???

Well I am going to my AIESEC traineeship at Technopak (http://www.technopak.com/) in India. This is an international management consulting firm that provides strategy advise and implementation support to leading companies across the world in the focus areas of food & grocery, fashion, consumer durables, consumer electronics, fast moving consumer goods, healtcare, hospitality and human resource development. (believe me or not but I didnt copy it from the home page, I already know how to introduce my work place!)
Technopak has it`s head office in Gurgaon and this is only 30 min away from Delhi, the capital of India. There are also offices is Bangalore (which I might visit as well) and in Mumbai.

Okay. Nice. What are you going to do there?

My job will be market research. I liked the most MindScape - the strategic consumer insights division of Technopak. It is the place where I can apply my background (psychology & economics) fully. Consumer psychology is a distinct branch!

It seems interesting! When are you going?

I am leaving Estonia on the 28th of October and I will be in India on the 29th of Oct. There will be 5 trainees starting work at Technopak and we are going to start from the 1st of November.

And for how long?

I am going there for 1 year. Yes, the whole year of new experiences, diversity, people from all the corners of the world and continius professional and personal growth! Isn`t it amazing?

Would you like to add anything?

Yes, I promise to keep my blog more fresh and up to date with my adventure in India!

Thank you Karina for these news and next time hear about you in India.

Thank you for listening as well and greetings from Pattina!

Lack of communication in organisation (communication assumetry) = absence of caringness

I had a personal development talk in AIESEC today. I gave some feedback to the work of AIESEC Tartu local commitee. What I am not happy about is the lack of communication or let`s say communication assumetry - not delivering the right information at the right time to the right people.

After having talk with Ege I thought a lot about this fenomen. I tried to find out - why is it so. I reached the routs of this fenomen.

The reason is the absence of caringness. When someone wants to ensure the well being of other person, then it will come automatically that the information will be delivered to the right person. Communication is the tool. Communication as it is, is not the final goal. No one communicates because of the communication itself. If people would have the ability to read what other think, there would be no need for the communication as it exists nowadays. And when you think about the well being of other person - communication comes as a natural part of the process.

Care(=communicate) about the people around you!

Who are we?

Today I had a great experience. I got a chance to verbalize a reasonable example of one of my basic beliefs - WE CAN BE ANYTHING.

We were discussing this and that - me, my grandmom and 2 more granddaughters of my grandmom. I was mentioning that I have a home task in Self-Presentation and Impression Management. The home task contains of 3 self-reflection writings - me, ideal me and how others see me.

Grandmom asked me - how can I know who I am if I don`t listen what others say about me. I strongly opposed her. How can others know my values, my beliefs if I don`t communicate it out? Thus others cannot judge what they are not seeing. Then... a reasonable example crossed my mind and which I expressed. What if I get different perspectives from others? What if one person says I am stupid and an other says I am smart? Then who am I? There might be a lot of different opinions from different people and which one a person should identify with oneself.

Here comes the answer - you can be anything you decide to be. People are not deciding for you who to be. You are the master of your life.

I am discovering that people are a great source of learning. Even if they are not sharing the same values and believes as you do.

CSR

I think I found the field that I am interested in. It is CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. When I was teenager I thought I will become a business lady. Actually I didnt think about this so much, it was natural for me going into business. I wanted to do something by my own or if I would not have been come up with some good idea then I thought about taking over the business.

My mind changed when I was about to graduate the high school. I didnt like the world of the dirty business. I saw there a lot of corruption and it seemed impossible to do something alone without playing the game with others. My values didnt match the business world. So I went to study psychology because it was a way to help other people. Psychology and ethics are usually going together although sometimes you might hear about some "psychologists" who have no relevant education.

While discovering AIESEC I understood that actually business is not only about dirty games. There are many people who are living the right values and want to be a true leader.

Now I found CSR. Still I have some controversy with some people but I dont believe in Friedman`s doctrine - the business of business is business. And I believe that CSR is the future. It must be.

CSR is not as popular in Estonia as it is in West Europe. Hansapank is the first - they are building their CSR division. From this year Äripäev is also launching the CSR Index. So it is starting from somewhere atleast. And I want to do my seminar work in CSR (research related to values, personality...).

First post this year

I havent written anything for some time in here. Why? I feel busy. Somehow there is so many things to do so that I hardly find time for myself. To reflect. To enjoy free moments. Being alone with my thoughts. Yes - this feels like nostalgia. Earlier i used to have these moments more often.

Today i had my last exam. Now i feel i have more time. And there is no tension any more.

Many times i felt like writing down some of my experiences but then i couldnt sit down and do it because all the time it seemed like being in hurry and every minute seemed to be important - even if i did nothing at this one minute.

As it is a new year so i want to sum up the last year. What was different from previous years.

The year 2007 didnt begin with good news. There was a lot of trouble just from the beginning. And it continued wholly the first half of the year. I dont feel like sharing all the details but it was not an easy period.

Still there was a lot of positive things during the year 2007.

In february i participated on my first youth exchange in Macedonia. It was really exciting experience. After this youth exchange we organised a youth exchange in Estonia. It was very useful and fun. There was so many thing to learn by doing. In August i participated on my third youth exchange in Sweden. I liked it as well.

In february i joined AIESEC. It was my aim to be the member of this organisation because i understood it is a place what i really want to belong to.

In july i was a group leader in a camp. It was quite cool altough sometimes it is not so easy to manage teanagers.

From September i belong to ProjectEDU team. My dream of making change in education system in Estonia is coming true.

What about university? Yes.. in 2007 i started studing econimics as my minor. I planned to take both modules and now i am almost finished with them - only some more subjects are left that seem easy. And my psychology studies are going well. (One more semester and then my studies are supposed to be finished.)

When i think about my last year i feel like doing too much. Both semesters over 30 credit points, volunteer at youth centre, AIESEC, street dance trainings. Yeah... thats why i dont feel like studing ahead right after finishing my bachelor degree. I feel i need some time for myself, finding some vision for next period in my life. Right now i even prefer doing MBA than masters in psychology. Anayway - i need some clarity. Probably a gap year is the best solution.

So.. what about this new year? I have some high expectations towards this year. We will see what is going to happen :)

This is how i spent the 1st of January 2008.

Youth centre KOHT

projectEDU

This is a project that our team is working at in AIESEC. The aim of this project is to improve and diverse language teaching at secondary schools in Tartu and its near surroundings. What we gonna do is to bring native (preferred) language teachers to our schools and give a possibility to Estonian interns to go abroad. Why are we doing this? Because we see lack of language teachers and creativity at secondary schools.

By our side we want to give the best integration during the stay of a foreigner. Estonian language classes and cultural introduction (for example trips to every county) will be provided.

Interns will also work out a unique personal development/creativity class that the pupils will have as an optional subject.

At the end of a school year all the interns and some pupils will share their experience on a conference. Pupils will give their performs.

So - if you are a student of some language department dont miss this opportunity. Practice is the best way of learning.