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Entrepreneurs

It started as a bright idea by a young entrepreneur, and was then given shape by a team of forward-thinking students and startups. Today, Let Me Know makes sure other students with bright ideas don’t miss out on opportunities, just because they weren’t in the know.

The website (www.letmeknow.in) aims to help students anywhere in the country find opportunities of various kinds. Based on an idea presented by Nitin Rao in London Business School in 2007, the non-profit organisation first launched the project on a Wordpress blog. The site in its current form lists opportunities according to category, with information about registering, fees and duration. What’s more, students can log in using their Yahoo, Google or OpenID accounts and even sign up for RSS feeds - it’s all free.

Not a job portal

However, the site is not a job portal, and Head of Operations Mohammed Sanaulla emphasises on this point. “The website is meant for students still in college, not for those who are graduating. We’re listing opportunities that are open to students, where they can broaden their horizons. They can go for internships, apply for scholarships, and even attend literary or cultural events,” says the III year NITK Surathkal student.

The team that generates content includes more students from his college, a handful from IIT Kharagpur, PESIT Bangalore as well as some from BITS Pilani and Goa among others.
“We gather content from the Internet now. But we’re looking at getting into partnerships with companies directly in the future. That way, they can send us opportunities directly,” says Vikram Gulati, another NITK student who handles Communications for Let Me Know.

Funding all this has been the team’s biggest challenge so far.

“Initially we had a little funding from a couple of donors. We got the site designed by a student startup team from Goa called Grayscale, on a quid pro quo arrangement. Now, we have to keep our business model really simple so that we don’t incur too many costs.
We’re just looking to help students,” Gulati says.

But with over 3000 hits per day and 950 subscribers to their RSS feeds, Let Me Know seems to have found a formula for success. And they vow to keep working on it.

“Recently, we received feedback requesting a calendar of events, and we’ve placed that on the site. Right now, there are just too many events and students are spoilt for choice.
We’re working on filtering this calendar based on the user’s requirements,” says Sanaulla.

Students can also suggest opportunities that aren’t listed, or even apply to join the team. It’s all in an effort to break the “information barrier”, as the team puts it.

LMK post its

Announcements on the site:

* FAEA Scholarships are offered to deserving students to pursue undergrad studies in arts, commerce, science, medical, engineering, other technical and professional disciplines at any university, institution or college. Foundation for Acedemic Excellence and Access (FAEA) offers scholarships- 50 for SC/ST and 20 for General which includes the tution fee, maintenence allowance or hostel/mess charges. These scholarships are sponsored by the CII, Tata Group of Companies and others.
For details visit: www.letmeknow.in/index/show/id/987
Application deadline: June 30

*The Microsoft Research PhD Scholarship Programme recognises and supports exceptional students who show the potential to make an outstanding contribution to science and computing. This programme supports PhD students in computing and those working at the intersection of computing and the sciences. For details visit: www.letmeknow.in/index/show/id/973
Application deadline: Sept 16

Career Tips
Integrating coaching with college studies

It is a known fact that the transition from SSLC to PUC is a difficult one, since the “portions” increase significantly, new subjects are to be learnt, in many cases the class sizes become much larger, and lecturers cannot give individual attention as school teachers do.

Hence many students find their grades coming down significantly from SSLC to PUC. Also, those who are going in for competitive exams like CET, IIT-JEE, CLAT, etc., have to do the balancing act between studies for their board exams and for the selection exams.

Often students at the +2 level are admitted to colleges that offer integrated coaching for entrance exams to professional courses, and are kept in the hostels with rigorous daily routine. This step requires deep introspection, for it takes the child away at his crucial adolescent years, and it focuses too much on his getting admission to “prestigious” institutions.

If he cannot make it he may fall into depression. Anyway it is likely that the child may have to go to hostel later for his graduate studies. It is better to prepare him for that phase where he is becoming a budding professional, and hence staying in the hostel at that level may give him more time, interaction, better facilities, and a chance to blossom into an independent adult.

Home sweet home

At the +2 level, whenever possible, a student should be with his family, and learn the basic life skills that will help him move into adult and professional life. While there is nothing wrong in taking coaching or tuition for difficult subjects, or for learning how to tackle highly competitive exams, the prime focus should remain on learning and not just memorising to get optimum marks.

Also, this is the stage when the student is forming his identity and is finalising his goals in life. Hence he should be given exposure to different types of people and professions, made to introspect on his strengths and weaknesses, and build up motivation to study hard without getting distracted into unwanted activities. This requires personalised attention and guidance, which cannot be given by college lecturers, and is the sole responsibility of the family.

Dr Ali Khwaja