Reflection – Mind Mapping

Challenge-

As a student who has recently enrolled in a full-time MBA program, the biggest challenge that  lay ahead of me was to hone my skillset to the fullest, and pursue as many events, competitions  & certifications that I could to make myself a lucrative candidate for potential recruiters. Since  the placement process begins just a few months into the MBA program, I had to be proactive  and on my toes, while being as precise and structured as possible to develop a rich CV in the  desired amount of time. Thus, I had to come up with a concise plan to achieve my goal  completely and in time.

Selection-

I needed to structure the entire process and map out each activity by the day and group them  in categories. Hence, mind mapping seemed like the most suitable choice to me since it would  be the best tool to organise and plan effectively.

Application-

After deciding to apply mind mapping tool to solve this challenge, I had to first start thinking  about the various categories that I need to work on. I began by brainstorming about all the  possible areas I could enhance my skillset in. Since I had to work on my college CV, I listed down  the following areas – academics, sports, extra-curricular, internships and projects. Using mind  mapping, I placed a box in the middle with my name in it, and placed all the above-mentioned  areas around it, forming a mind map. Now, I started attending to all the areas, one by one.  Starting with academics, I thought about the possibilities in this category and after thinking,  came up with the following – certifications, workshops, online events & quizzes. I then drew an  extension of the academics category and listed all the mentioned possibilities in it. Coming to  sports, I realised I could gather all my certificates and achievements in sports and present them  in an appealing way. This, I put as an extension to the sports category. For extra-curricular, I  decided to present my literary and dramatics achievements and I put them as an extension to  the extra-curricular category. Similarly, for internships & projects, I decided to present my  already completed internships & projects, while also searching for other feasible opportunities  which could be pursued in the stipulated time. I put this in the internships & projects extension  area.

Now, I had covered all the possible categories and elaborated each of them. I now knew what I  could do, what were the sources and how I could achieve and present the decided activities and  events. My plan had become much clearer, structured, and attainable because of mind  mapping and planning.

Insights & Approach-

Using this extremely useful tool of mind mapping, I could achieve all my targets in the desired  amount of time, covering all the aspects in a structured way and could achieve the contention  of having done something to the best of my abilities to achieve a certain goal. This approach  helped me achieve a desired result, while sparing me the anxiousness and worry if I had had a  ‘winging-it’ approach.

The next time I am faced with a similar challenge, I will most certainly apply the mind mapping  tool again. It is the most effective way to handle a situation wherein you are expected to cover  multiple areas effectively and productively in a short span of time. However, the next time I am  faced with such a situation, I will dive deeper with my mind mapping, and be more precise so  that not even a shred of doubt or ambiguity is left.

I thoroughly enjoyed this activity and am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to have a  real-life application of something so useful!

