Assignment is about developing empathy for someone who has a stake in the school-to-work transition, and defining a problem or need (*) he/she has related to the challenge.

1. ASSIGNMENT - DEVELOPING
EMPATHY FOR SOMEONE WHO
HAS A STAKE IN THE SCHOOL-TO-
WORK TRANSITION
Empathize and Define

3. Scenario –
Aish and Kathy have graduated from premium institute of design and
now have joined a recruitment firm, a dot com company which is a
large company and there role is to study the job portal to suggest
design changes in job search area. Krish is there reporting manager
who has assigned the project to them. He has team of 14 designers.
The manager
Name – Krish
Occupation – Manager (UX)
The new comers
Name – Aish
Occupation – Intern from Design School
Name – Kathy
Occupation – Intern from Design School

4. The manager
“You have understood the project we have assigned for you. I remain
busy most of the time but in case of any problem you can come to me
or take help from any team member.”
The new comers
•“It feels good here. I have been given the project to start my work
here. It’s our dream to do something new in design”
•“Whatever we have learned from my D-school we know that very well
but still we are little nervous.”
•“People looks nice around us. We are doing this work with together we
are new joiner from D school here.”
•“The meeting we had with the manager about the project was helpful
but the way he works is so different from the way things have taught to
us in our school. But we have understood the process so let’s see”

5. The manager
•Does not know how are they going to do the project due to business.
•He hardly has time to spend with them during most of the time.
The new comers
•Are trying to do without asking of any help.
•Doing long calculations to do small tasks.
•Following whatever has been told religiously.
•They have adopted going on their own method until the pre final
submission date has arrived.

6. The manager
•They are from reputed school they will come up with some good
improvement plan to me.
•They are nervous I know but if I ll talk too much right now I will end up
blocking there creativity.
The new comers
•Whatever we are doing seems perfect but still I find seniors doing
things differently.
•The real work place is totally different from what I thought it was.
•The way these people calculate things are understandable for me.

7. The manager
•These guys need to take transition from school kids to real work
employee soon.
•They should stop me and ask me questions sometimes or else they
should ask from someone else from the team.
The new comers
•Oh we are doing it the way we did it in our school and we got A grade
for that.
•What if manager does not like it. Let’s hope for the best and we ll see
how will it go on this weekend submission where we will present it first
in front of the whole team.
•We don’t know how to tell manager to review our project privately first.

8. The manager
•Lack of time to review what new comers are doing.
•Lack of understanding that they are in the process of taking transition
from students to employee which requires guidance.
The new comers
•They are working hard but don’t know how good or bad they are doing
from real world work process’s point of view.
•In real world managers do multiple calculations to measure things
right. From there perspective they have done good work but from
manager’s perspective they are doing childlike calculations.
•Whatever works best in D school not necessarily work the same way
at work place.
•They need to learn to open up with the manager or the team members
to take help on time.

9. The solutions can be brain stormed on these points-
 Better time management + Better communication process + Process to provide timely
Guidance for happy transition
The manger’s :
1. The wrong measurement of manager’s understanding of the level of student’s
understanding on the subject.
2. The bad time management
3. The expectation of the results from the students is impractical which can create
disappointment for him in front of his seniors.
The students –
1. The wrong perception of the students that they will do something really great without
getting it timely reviewed by seniors. They can be directionless without guidance.
2. Lack of communication between the two can lead them to vague results.

10. By Preeti chopra
Priiti.3@gmail.com
For Stanford university