A few days back I wrote about 11 questions one should ask if he desires to go for training after AeSI. And I promised that I will post my answers to the questions that I had, so here we go. Hope this will give you some insight and direction in your quest for training after AeSI.
What is my goal for doing the training?
Well when I was at the training stage of AeSI, my most important criteria was to get into a environment which gave me the opportunity to learn and apply my skills. I already had the programming knack and I enjoyed thermodynamic and the propulsion subjects so I wanted to learn something that was based on these two skills. Catia or any CAE software were not in my mind. I was ready to accept learning catia or any other CAD but I wanted to test the waters for my programming skills and the stream I was graduating from.
Is there an alternate way I can fulfill this goal?
Since I had one subject (that is VMD ) left to clear and had the time so I initiated my training to make fruitful use of the time I had and my goal was to learn whatever I can and then give exams while doing this.
What skills I will develop with this training?
For me CAD and CAE skills were not the primary goal. When I joined NAL, my primary focus was what I knew and how I can apply it to the benefit of the mentor who took me as a trainee. So as I sat for the small interview with Dr Ramamurthy sir, my focus was on the c and small vb skills that I had. In fact those were the highlights of my resume at that time.
Are the skills congruent with my specialization?
In those days performance job was the only thing propulsion stream guys did. It was the in thing and for this excel and knowledge of one programming language was the most important so while I joined NAL, I was prepared to focus on these tool and skills. They were as I knew then congruent with my desire of working in an aerospace organization on software development and tools development
How much time I'll spend on the tools?
At the time of joining I made a goal that I will put at least 1 hours of my time in the tools that I want to learn and explore. In my last semester of AeSI, I employed a similar technique and put in a daily goal in which I wrote one c program daily. So I can decided to carry on the same here in my training and made a daily target to put in one hour minimum of my time in learning the tools that are available at my disposal in NAL. I set this minimum one hour limit and vowed not to miss it any day.
Does the skills I will learn congruent with my job goals?
As fate has been, I knew C but when I joined NAL and began working, my mentor handed me FORTRAN programs which I was supposed to run, and debug. This changed my course and without considering a bit I began learning FORTRAN putting the needed hours into it. Then as I began picking it, I was entrusted VB which I began learning in earnest and so as things progressed I picked up the skills that I am now using in my present and last work. So I would say at that time I just wanted to learn something and the best thing that I did then was I didn't block anything that came my way. I just accepted the opportunity that the work brought and carried on and I am thankful that I did so.
Is the mentor I will be working under well known or known to be good?
Yes this was best for me. Even before joining NAL, my friends told that if you want a good training then Dr Ramamurthy was the best for a propulsion stream guy. So He was the first person I approached and by luck I got through. He liked my resume and I got selected. I am glad and will forever be indebted to have him as my first boss later when I joined NAL as a contract engineer.
What are my 3 specific targets from this training?
My 3 specific goals during the training were.
- To apply what I knew to the benefit of my mentors work, be it in programming, designing or analysis.
- To be market ready and learn whatever is presented in my way
- To gather skills and experience that will help me get a job after the training
How long I am willing to put in the time in what I do?
Since I still had one subject to clear, so I knew 6 months was “pakka” for me to stay and I decided that I will stay 6 months more before I head for any job. I even promised Dr Ramamurthy about this and in reality I stayed more than that duration and it was all worth it.
Do I really believe all the answers I have written?
When I did this training and decided to join, I knew what I am good at. So I wanted to test the water and wanted to see what I can learn and what I love the most. Even though my thoughts were not so clear about what I liked more (programming or designing or analysis), but I knew I wanted to explore my possibilities and areas of interest and training in NAL did fulfill all my wishes and helped me know what I enjoyed the most and wanted to work.
How will you quantify your success at the training?
This was one thing that I did in two ways one was to log the hours on each software that I worked on. So every night I came home and noted the hours that I put in each software. This helped me learn incrementally. Sometime even when there was no work I just explored that software and tinkering with it, always taught me a thing or two.
Another way I quantified my success was by crafting my resume, all that work that I did there increased my work experience and taught me new software tools every month, so I made a resume every 2 month with the updated new skills and work and posted it in naukri.com. This updating showed me that I was learning and the posting of resume in naukri brought in the new offers in my email that showed me what kind of profile I was building with the skills I was acquiring.
So that’s it,It has become a longer post that usual but I hope it helps AeSI students who are looking for training to clarify their thoughts and helps make them better choices.
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Being in the not known doesn't means we are immune to what things are happening. So take active interest in this stuff. 
