A week in my work life in 2025 - Day 2
Continuing from where he left behind in the first day at work, Alex Ranjan had a fascinating second day in store.
Day 2: 9th December, 2025
I was going to be part of a Career Streaming Process – what they used to call an Assessment Centre. I still remember the assessment and development centers of about 10 years back, where organizing the center was quite a task. Getting all participants and assessors into a location, travel costs, stay and logistics and lots of paper were part and parcel of such an exercise. Then we had started moving to simulated and virtual assessment centers. Travel for assessors and participants was reduced and we could do many things using videos, online-tests and connecting through skype or similar technologies. We had progressed quite a bit in terms of online tools as well: in basket cases, knowledge and skill tests, video based interviews and group discussions, and functional and technical tests etc. What is astonishing is that using technology for assessment centers took many years, maybe access and data communication bandwidth in many parts of the country was an issue. 4G came in 2015 and then 6G in 2020 which of course changed things for all us as connectivity became much better and easier, as well as cheaper. I remember that we used to send all our senior candidates for a day to one of our partners’ premises where they went through a battery of tests and simulated exercises before moving to the next step in the hiring process. Worked well, although still very costly and time consuming.
Now of course things were a bit different. I had received the career streaming communication on my handheld last night with an auto download application which identified me through eye scan and generated my last 3 times career and test choices on the screen, as well as my last time results. I had a choice now, based on my latest career and development aspirations, and my own standards, whether I wanted to go through some or all of the last time’s tests, or select new ones which tested other aspects and to varying standards.
Life is much simpler now, at least for me. I was never a highly organized person, sometimes; I would forget the names of the folders I had stored on my laptop or desktop. But now, I just vocally say out loud a few keywords or the probable content I am looking for, and my hand held would give me all possible information available.
While I was going through the Career Streaming Process today, the assessor brought with him a few camera recorded 3D video simulation exercises. Then I was asked to wear virtual reality headsets. When I wore them, I could teleport into the situations as if it were happening in real. This led me to behave the way I would actually do if faced with a similar situation. I really enjoyed this exercise and had an inspiring discussion following it. I remember how assessors, earlier used to base these situations hypothetically. While these situations are hypothetical in nature even today, but thanks to technology, I could actually feel situations as if they are happening in real life and this ensured I behave the way I would, in real.
I forgot to mention that I had bought a multi-use charger today that uses water to charge gadgets. Unlike old times, now we have one standard charger that can be used to charge any gadget irrespective of brand, size or type. Pretty amazing! Isn’t it? This system is a brick sized, light weight, fuel cell charger powered by good old readily available H2O. I was really excited to use this charger. I poured some water into the tray which came with the charger, placed a PowerDucc cartridge in the tray, covered the system and then connected my mobile phone with a USB cable. And the best part is that I can use any water i.e. mineral water, salt water or even dirty water from streams/puddles (so as long it contains no sediments). My phone got fully charged in an hour’s time. This PowerDucc generates power by mixing sodium silicide with the water to produce hydrogen gas that powers the fuel cell. This by far has been my best purchase in recent times.
After I was done with the Assessment Centre work, I called for a cab to get back home.
I was really hungry when I reached back home. I felt like having Japanese food today. I went to the supermarket nearby and bought all the ingredients for this dish called ‘Tonkatsu’ and to go with it bought ‘Umeshu Plum Wine’ which is now readily available in India. I excitedly went back home, straight in to the kitchen and took out AutoVessel, a brand new cooking device that was launched in 2024. The cooking device has a microchip which has more than a lac recipes saved. I sorted all the ingredients and one by one dropped them inside the vessel that has 6 openings, set the timer to 20 minutes and treated myself with wine in the meantime. Right after 20 minutes, ‘Tonkatsu’ was ready to be served. I plated it, took a few pictures to be uploaded on Instagram and finally had a bite and satiated my Japanese craving taste buds! Tonkatsu came out brilliant and reminded me of the taste, the aroma of Tonkatsu I had in a small café in Shinjuku, Tokyo a few years ago.
After I finished my dinner, I watched some news on TV.
Will go to bed in an hour or so. Must remember to wear my DODO watch before I sleep!
Read:
A week in my work life in 2025 - Day 1
