What I Learnt From PPD?

Personal Progress Development (PPD)

As an undergraduate do we really need a subject like PPD? Is it worth learning these things? These are some questions rised in my mind when I first come to the PPD lecture. We may go to different fields, we may do different jobs but there is one important thing. We all should have good soft skills and qualities where ever we go and where ever we work. From a subject like PPD we gain such things to our lives. They are invaluable.We started PPD sessions at 1 year and it is 2 years time period up to now. We gathered lots of things which we can not learn from any other subject or from any other place.

As Software Engineers we always sit in front of a laptop and code. But there are so many things that we cannot gather from other academic subjects but essential in our lives. PPD showed us the path to learn those.

It was really helpful for us to come out of laptops and other stressful subject matters and relax our minds. We engaged in different activities which brought us fun, soothed our minds as well us added new experiences.

From the first day onward miss. Sarasi encouraged us to speak in English. Most of the students were shy to speak in front of the students. But in the PPD sessions we all had to speak in front of others which helped us to have confidence and improve english.

And also we did different team activities. It helped us to learn how we should behave as a team member, what are the qualities that we have to improve as a leader, how we plan things, how we should deal with the time etc. Managing things is a very special thing. We learnt to think and have quick reactions when we need, manage resources, make our mind to have innovative ideas.

Miss. Sarasi arranged some sessions which we were able to meet the personalities in the industry where we learnt lots of new things. She taught us how to make CVs also. It is the first step in our carrier ladder.

Apart to all these things we got lot of fun during this 2 year. We laugh together, we walked together, we shared things. It made us to one family where we all became brothers and sisters. Unlike other session we had lots of memories to take back with relax minds.

When I looked back at PPD sessions I really have lots of memories which are great as well as very important to my life. We will become Software Engineers one day and we will need almost all these things that we learnt from PPD sessions on that day. I am really happy to be a part of this session which is one of the sessions that I actively participated. 

ThankYou All....

Trust Walk

We are living in a society with many kinds of people. Sometimes we can not do things alone, in order to do work with other people we must keep trust on people. But we can not trust people blindly. So let's see how we can trust people.

In last ppd session we were asked to find a partner. Then we were instructed to cover the eyes of the partner. The other person had to give instructions to the blind person about the obstacles, paths, where to turn etc. So there the one person played the role of a listener and one played the role of an instructor. The instructor should navigate the listener to the final destination. This activity had two rounds where the listener of the first round became the instructor in the second round and vice versa.

When we proceed the path we had to go over  stair cases where we had to instruct the blind person with the no. of steps and where to stop. There were white board markers on the path and if somebody put the leg on it, he or she might definitely fall. That is why we were instructed to listen the instructor well. At the first round we had to go along the path and tap a brick. While in the second round we had to tap on two concrete blocks and the brick. In the first round all most all the students walked and tap the brick with the correct instructions. But at the second round some students forgot what to do. Some forgot to tap on the brick after tapping he concrete blocks. 

When we trust someone we should not trust him or her blindly. Even though we can not see anything we have a brain to think and analyse. We can choose what we should do and what should not. We can instruct the other person when he or she does a wrong thing. In this occasion also some instructors forgot to tap the brick after tapping the concrete brick. If blind one communicated with the instructor well they won't do such a mistake. Miss Sarasi never prohibited the communication between the instructor and the blind person.

When someone keeps his or her trust on us, we have a responsibility of protecting it. Trust is like a glass. When it is broken we can't fully make it in to what it was. Some times some people keeps their life on another persons hand trusting him. In this activity also the blind one keeps trust on the instructor. If one step was taken in a wrong way sometimes the blind one may fall. So we should e a good instructor to the others. Protect the trust that someone lay on us.

Blind person also should give the maximum support. If he does what he wants to do, it is really disturbing for the instructor. We should be a good listener and trust the partner. Help hi or her to do their task. Correct their path when they deviate. 

These things are really important when we live in the society. When we work we have to trust so many people and follow their paths. Be wise. Trust the people. But do not blindly trust... 

Self Reflection

Have you over thought about your self and your capabilities?

"CLOSE YOUR EYES, SIMPLY CLOSE THE DOORS OF YOUR MIND TO THE FUTURE AND TO THE PAST. FORGET EVERY THING AND JUST THINK ABOUT YOUR SELF. WHO ARE YOU?"

In this fast moving material world we all are running behind the money. Just think life is not all about money,take a little break from your stressful life and do this. Think about your self and you will find great deal of things that you never recognized so far. With the competitive world we use to run and run and run so on. We never take a moment to think about our selves.


In last PPD that i missed session we we asked to take a photo of our self. Selfies... Yeh, how many selfies we take in a week. But we never deeply look in to it. We were asked to look at our selves for 5 minutes. Then she questioned, "what you see ?"
Most of the friends said "nothing". But I recognized one thing. I could not believe it. I had a big pimple on my nose. Oh god how ugly i am. Should do something for that. Any how that is my way.

Yeah some replied with some special things that they recognized and some were blank. Miss. Sarasi asked another question whether we think or care about what others think about our selves. Almost all said yes. Yes we should care but to a some extend. We can get the ideas, advises from others. Some point out our faults. Yes we have to care. But do not depend on those thing all the times or do not make those as an obstacle to our dreams. Take the good reviews and throw away the bad. Accept all the things with a smile but we should be intelligent enough to classify good and bad.


It is really important how we live in the society. We are not alone here. We are surrounded by lots of faces. Always we have something to learn from them. May be a bad experience may be a good one. But we should be able to face those. Once we have a deep understanding about our selves we can climb to the top.

Once a week take some minutes and spend time to think. Go in front of a mirror. It is not a big deal. You can do it while you are in the bathroom. No one can see us and no one to disturb. Think about how you should behave and how you faced the new experiences you had throughout that week. Identify the things that you should improve.


Try to be the best person in every thing you do. Keep a smile on your face. Be a person whom the others wish to be. Whom the others wish to see every day, wish to have the companionship.
Be a recognizable character. Improve the qualities. Associate everybody. Do not leave as you did not exit. Make a space for you. BE A LEGACY  which anyone can't beat easily.

Technical Writing Session - WSO2

This is an industrial session organised by WSO2 Technical team about Technical writing. This session was held on 12th of September 2018 at WSO2 premises.It was planned to begin at 9:00 am in the but it was started by 9.30. It began with a few speeches and some introductions to technical writing.Then we were grouped and given an activity in technical writing. We were asked to write about the ATM Bank system and the winners were awarded with prices.

Then we were given refreshments and after that we had an exciting game.We were grouped and asked to discover the phrase which turned into silently advised to a member of a collection and then the member showed some signs relative to the word. Finally the session ended sharply at 12:00 pm. It turned into a well organized session and we learnt a lot from that session.

Trending Technologies in IT Industry

What you do today is not what you did last night.The software world is changing day by day with new technologies. As software engineer it is very important us to know about these things. We should always get updated with new trends.

Last week we had a session conducted by WSO2 which is one of the leading software companies in Sri Lanka. Madam Sarasi introduced Mr. Srinath Perera who rendered us vast knowledge about new trends and technologies in the industry.

The speaker categorize the technology in to two groups as current technologies and emerging technologies.

Current technologies are

APIs
Analytics and AI
IoT
Bots

API - API stands for Application Programming Interface

A set of functions and procedures that allow the creation of applications which access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.
   API is like a waiter in a restaurant. It acts as a mediator between the server and the client. It takes orders or requests.

Analytics and AI - Artificial Intelligence
   This enables computer driven decisions.

IoT - Internet of Things
   System of interrelated computer devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals and people that are provided with the unique identifiers.

Bots - Conversational Agents
  Automatically generate messages.

Cake Cutting

Let's see how to cut a cake into 8 pieces only with three cuts.

Miss. Sarasi has grouped our friends and has given a small piece of cake. Then she h asked above task. Only 1 minute has been given to do that. All the groups have imaginary  tried it in different ways. But only one group has won the task.

The way that has to do it is vertically cut the cake into 4 pieces using 2 cuts and one horizontal cut.

 We should think before dong somethings. In some cases we can have a trial. But some occasions we have to try at once. We must think creatively.

Facing Interviews

Facing an interview is not just something which we can do like delivering a speech. We cannot just go and come out answering the questions they ask. There are many things that we should consider before attending to an interview.

1. First know about the place you are going
We should knpw about their mission and what they do. On going projects, which countries they deals with, company history etc. It makes the interviewers to think that you have given attention for their company. Make them impressed with such details.

2. Study the Interviewer
It is a benefit if we can know some etails bout the interviewers. It is a kind of difficult task to find who are the interviewers but if we can find their names we can use linked and other proffessional accouts to find about their details like their job poition, common things we have, specialized fields, their favours etc. Do not want to much focuss about the personal things but some details.

3. All the interviewers ask three or four common uestions other than technical questions like our streangth weaknesses etc. We are the once that know ourselves veey well. So be confident about your streangth and tell them little about it. It is good and worth if we can choose streangths that are more related to this job position.

4. It make a good expression about you if you can ask two questions. It shows your interest on the job.  You can ask about the job details, about work etc. But never ask about the salary.

5. We all are humans. It is somewhat difficult for us to do something for the first time. So to face an interview with the confidence you can practice it with a friend. Shaking hand shows confidence and personality of you. Don’t just touch the hand but hold it tight and shake. You can tell your friend to ask some questions also. Imagine that you are in the interview room and behave like that. Practice each and every step until it feel as a usual thing.

6. Before going to an interview take time to think about yourself and about the job you are applying. Think why you are applying. Reasons for you to think that why you fix for this job position. Try to match your skills with the job position and company work. For an example in some job positions you should have the skills to work with a team, high patience, communication ability. 

7. Prepare everything before you go. Make your folder in order.  It should be neat. Keep important things like your CV in the front. Order certificates according to the years. Don’t take much time to find documents when the interviewers asked. It shows your unpreparedness.

8. Be punctual. Don’t be too early or too late. Be there before 10 minutes. If it happened to go there much early, then don’t stay in the vicinity. Just stay somewhere else away from the interview room and come at the correct time. If you sweat a much keep tissues with you.

Some tips to improve interview performance

1. Practice good nonverbal communication. 
2. Dress for the job or company. 
3. Listen. 
4. Don't talk too much. 
5. Don't be too familiar. 
6. Use appropriate language. 
7. Don't be cocky. 
8. Take care to answer the questions.