How to choose a career path-A students Guide

College times are most confusing times for every student but these are also the most important time for a student to decide what he/she want to be in life. It is an ideal place where a student can experiment, make mistakes and correct them. It also help you in identifying which option is best suitable and you would most enjoy doing it. While choosing your career options according to your interests and academic qualification, the most important is to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Do SWOT analyses to discover them. I will leave you all to Google what SWOT analysis means. Today there are various opportunities available, however picking the right one might take you places. So before making any decision, it’s important for you be aware of the various options available and see if they cater to your requirements. There is nothing wrong if you pick monetary benefits a reason for choosing an opportunity as long as you earning money make you happy. But if you put-up your focus, hard work dedication on the field of your choice money keep coming as a byproduct. Choosing a career. While choosing you career option, keeping in mind your interests, strengths and weaknesses, you should also see the scope of learning and demand of that field. It’s a very simple equation of supply-demand. More the demand, more chances of you landing in a job quickly. There are many careers options engineering students can choose from comprise high salaried options like management, software-IT, Engineering, Bio-technology, bio-informatics, designing, automotive, research and development and other off-beat opportunities ,government services, journalism, advertising, Graphic designing,Pharmcy,economics,music,theatre,movies,sports,law,fashion, human resources to list a few. When exploring a career option one must do a study about the nature of work, the work responsibilities that will be assigned to you, your role as an individual and your role as a team player and you also need to do a study on various skilled based training involved to enhance your career path. When you are looking for career options, do think about your personality traits, and extracurricular activities along with the interests, skills, hobbies if you are interested in solving difficult math sums or you like to design a car or you love fashion then give preference to the above types of fields while selecting your career option. If you love theater, writing, drawing or sports then select your career option from art or sports field accordingly. First thing you need to do is make a list of the career options which best align themselves with your interests and strengths. If counted, there are more than thousand different professions. However, you need not check all of them. If you want to do your career in research and development, then you just need to explore career options related to that field only. Meet the people from field that you are considering as a career. Also, attend seminars, forums and trade shows related to concern field. Try to organize mock interview or informational discussions with the people working in the same area. You need to know as many things as possible. Don’t waste much time in thinking. Prepare your resume. You can refer free resume templates online to prepare your eye-catching resume. You need to take decision as early as possible. Many people change their career options during their working lives. So college times are the best times to take decisions. Networking always helps. Try to meet people of your area of interest and find out the latest techniques, tools which are being used. You should always ask them if there are any free to use tools available online, if yes, download them and get your hands dirty. This way you can practice what you’re theoretically learning from text books. We always are skeptic while picking up our career, thinking what is the demand in the market is. I use a simple technique by checking job portals like monster, naukri.com, custom search by changing the no of years of experience. Ex: If I’m looking for a job as a software engineering and my competency is Java. Search as Java developers and vary the years of experience from 0-4 years. This experiment will help you finding out some critical information, viz; who are the companies hiring, what is the current demand in the market and the skill set the companies looking for. Every job posted has a detailed job description, which talks in detail about the task(s) need to perform on a daily basis. A JD can be used to understand other skills/tools which you need to learn to execute your day to day activities in the job. Always upload dummy resumes on job portals and try facing the telephonic round of interviews. This will build your confidence and you can understand what questions are typically being asked during an interview. Always make a note of these questions and prepare rebuttals/answers for them. So the next time when you face the similar question, will be ready with an answer. Always have a LinkedIn profile active and try to build your contact base. There are many active forums on different fields on it, which can help you understanding the domain/field and its way forward. Use social media effectively by making new friends from different field. Folks, especially aspiring to pickup writing, acting , music ,designing or any creative field can make use of websites like facebook, twitter ,google + to showcase their skills. The greatest advantage with social media is they are free to use and audience is great! You can build a huge fan base in no time and you never know one day you might be the chosen one. Acting /direction/lyricist/writers enthusiast can go ahead and make short films and upload them on YouTube/vimeo/daily motion. You can populate them facebook, twitter etc and build your fan base. You should always interact with people who like/comment on your work. Appreciate them for sparing time on your videos. Be open for any sort of comment/criticism /appreciations. Use them for your own good and never hark back from learning from your mistakes. You should always have an open mind and have progressive thought process. Bloggers /Journalist fanatic can use sites like blogger, word press to put up their blogs /articles and publicize them online. Make sure before using these content management sites, you go to articles/videos online to understand how to use them. You should always map your content with specific keywords which epitomize the article. Always Remember, more often you will be searched with the keywords and less with your name. Ex: When I need info about phones on Google, all the Google spiders and crawlers who are responsible to bring up the search results pick the articles by those keywords. So when you write an article on 2G scam and you categorize your article under keyword “Scam”, Google go ahead and pick all the articles under “Scam” category and top list them for you. Confusing? Try blogger /word press! You will enjoy it as I did when I started off blogging. You get many widgets/online which you can integrate with your blog. These widgets make your blog lively and since these widgets require some coding knowledge, you can also abreast your coding skills. I recommend you to use widgets which reads the traffic on your blog (there are many such online) and indiblogger badge widget. Indi blogger is a site/community which rate your blog based on the popularity online. Yes, use social media to promote them. Students who think that they have a nice vocabulary and articulated English speaking capability can looks for a job as a customer service representative or in a international call center/contact center. After reading this line, did you just say -A call center job in exclamation? Why? Aren’t these jobs? These also require skill to make a customer happy by providing resolutions or tele- marketing a product over the phone. Did you ever try doing it? Did you ever try convincing to buy something over the phone to someone who have never met you and don’t belong to same country? Tele calling is a great skill and they are not despicable or shameful jobs to do. Yes, initially when you start with your career, you might be paid less, but eventually when you grow you can make a lot of money. Process designing, restructuring, optimization or process quality is most sought after professions today. A six sigma green belt/black belt certified is paid more than what a typical software engineers/manager gets today. As a student, while doing under graduation you learn a lot of things, like computers, math, electronic devices, VLSI etc, but you only use 5-10 % of what you learn in your job. Most of the times in a job you start somewhere and end up somewhere. The common syllabus which everybody learns while in college and implemented it in your jobs is down to earth nature and ability to reproduce solutions to questions which your end customers post. So my dear friends who want to build a career with their customer centric skills and good articulated language speaking capability can go ahead now. Try reading related case studies on customer centricity and practice telephonic etiquette like good morning, How may I help you? , Sorry, thank you etc. As a customer service executive you should know where and when to use it to please your end customer. Remember , In the end making that sale or helping that customer is very important. Budding entrepreneurs, students who want to start their own business from the scratch should first understand where they can sell their skill to make money. You’re though process, dreams should always be larger than life and you should never be scared off sharing your dream with your peers, family or anyone for the matter of fact. It shows your confidence in wanting to become something different from others. Always raise your bar and don’t succumb to any negative criticism from your well wishers. As a country of a billion people, our society is dynamics are such that most of the parents like their wards to take up the normal 9-5 jobs. Our parenting structure is such that we are pushed to walk on a risk free path rather than a thorny one. But, remember! You should build a warrior like spirit within and never ever give up .Always have the big picture in mind and learn to prove your odds wrong by showing great results. Always believe in your skill, interact more with people, try to understand the problem areas and see how your skill can provide a solution to it. For example: You know Photoshop and can create some eye catchy images ,go and talk to small business and tell them that you can rebrand their business by making a new logo and nice looking banners and promote the business. This is just an example. Try different stuff with your skill, see how your skill or competency fill in the gaps and provide a solution to problems which can create huge impact, in terms of money, in terms of time etc. Go out in the market do a competitive study, talk to people ask them if you can help them in solving problems with your skill. But, you should always understand your niche and your competency in that particular skill. I suggest you to start with few customers. Address to their problem by asking them good questions. Come up with solutions and ask them for feedback. Ask them if your solution or idea will help them. At the beginning 99 times out of 100 times you goof it up and make a mess of it and you get scared to explain your customer about it. Congratulations! Failure is the first step of entrepreneurship. When you mess it up, that is where you understand customer centricity. You learn from the goof ups you make. Always be on your toes and explain the customer with the issues you’re facing. He might reprimand you for wasting his/her time, but most of the times end up suggesting or correcting you. Day by day when you mature and get comfortable with your skill, complains will slowly become compliments and without your knowledge you will become an entrepreneur. You should always look to make your business scalable and self sustaining. Always look for opportunities to earn more money. Remember! You should always look after a business for some time may be a year or two and after that the business should look after you. That’s how the Ambani’s, the mallaya’s did it, and it’s your turn now. Social entrepreneurship is another new age career option available these days. As Wikipedia say Social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change (a social venture). College is the best time to understand the real life problems of the society, as many of us comes from very modest backgrounds. Try and see how your skills and education be of some help to the society by and large. Go to villages and see how you can contribute to people there. Can you find good farming techniques and teach them? Can you find customers to sell their crop harvest for a good price? Can you teach a bunch of students who cannot afford good quality education? Can you save part of your pocket money and fund a child’s education? Do you see atrocity on a minor section of people? Can you help them out by starting a campaign among friend? Not just for social good or contributing to society. These days social entrepreneurship is a career option all together. Social indicatives like micro financing, corporative society are serving people and also making sure that these ventures self sustain. My batch mate and best buddy Rajesh Kamireddi is exploring this field and has done some exemplary work. His solutions /approaches are helping Kakinada from avoidable blindness and cataract. His initiatives and ideas won him several accolades and he was recently awarded as social entrepreneur of the Year by a corporate –governing body called ASSOCHAM. He is based out of Kakinada, so do get a chance to interact with him. Always keep in mind that the society gave us so many things, like education, identity, culture and respect and you should always pay back by doing your bit . I love a quote from a movie called “Pay it forward” – “When someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back... Pay It Forward “ Students should also show enthusiasm in politics. Understand the importance of politics in society and how a government servant like a minister, IAS, IPS officers and his ability to make changes in policies can bring changes in the society. Participate debates on social issues, read books related to our history and the problems we are facing as a society, do an advocacy research. Participate on campaigns like RTI ‘s and understand how they can make changes to the society. Encourage yourself to enter yourself into politics. If you think that you can bring about changes in society with your skills you always have a chance. But please don’t come into politics thinking it another money making career. As a country we need good politicians who can bring about change in the society conquering millions of problems we have today. Having said that you don’t need to be a politician every time to bring a change, you can also work against the status quo to bring about change you want to see. Remember Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal,Aruna Roy ,how they became a pressure point to the government resulting in changes in government functioning. Think about it and give it shot if you have it in you. UPSE enthusiast can start reading newspapers, watching news especially DD news ,read history books ,geography books from 8-12th standard CBSE,ICSE etc . Plan out from now onwards and read as much as you can which will help you cracking the civil services exam. There are good coaching institutes in Hyderabad, Delhi, always keep track of best ones available. Same with GRE, Gate, GMAT. You need to start your preparation right from college. Books like “All about words”, Baron and newspapers will help you in improving in your vocabulary. Keep practicing Quantitative reasoning, aptitude on a regular basis. Plan to write the exams in such a way that you start Post graduation studies immediately after college. I hardly have any information on these things. Please check the required information on Google to enlighten you. With this I would put a stop to this write up and allow you to think on what career options to choose which ignite your passion and always keep you interested while perceiving it. You can get in touch with me @ vakaravi@gmail.com for any queries you may have in future. You can add me on facebook by searching me by name “ Ravi Vaka “. Good luck and I wish you good luck in your future endeavors. Regards,

How to deal with Back stabbers!!

How to Deal With Backstabbers

They might say they're your 'best friends' , but the moment your back is turned, they lie about you to others. No one wants to be hurt in this way, but how do deal with them?. Perhaps the following tips can help.

1
All backstabbers share a common denominator; they all want something from you.

Whether it is money, homework, a house to trash, your computer, your style, practically anything, varies from person to person.
Be aware of your surroundings. If you have a bad feeling about somebody, listen to your instincts!

2
Pay attention to red flags.
If somebody betrays you, don't trust that person again without extensive consideration.
3
If the other person doesn't have friends of his or her own, there may be a reason. Perhaps other people know something that you don't.
4
If someone is mean to you one minute and nice to you the next, there is definitely something wrong.
5
If someone is too aggressive or tries too hard to sell you on something, he or she is likely setting you up.
6
Trust your real friends. They're here to help you.
Notice the other person's work ethic. If he or she is lazy and irresponsible, stay away from the person as far as anything that requires hard work goes. If you work hard, he or she will use you in a heartbeat!
7
Notice how he treats things you care about. For instance if you really care that your room is clean, and after you've explained this to him he still comes over, throws his backpack on the ground, takes his shoes off in the middle of the room and so on; this means he doesn't really care about you.
8
Try to detect from an early stage what the backstabber is interested in sucking from you.
9
If the backstabber persists in pestering you, either ignore him or tell him dispassionately that you do not want to do (insert activity here). Be polite, but extremely firm. If they detect a weakness in your firmness, they will try as hard as they can to puncture it.

TIPS

1
Get away from these people as soon as possible.

2.
Don't hesitate to ask questions. If somebody seems shady in any perspective, ask them about it but pay close attention to their answers. More often than not, they will try to pull one over you.

3.
There is a difference between friends and acquaintances. This means that even though he might be fun to talk at in classroom or at lunch, he might not be the kind of person you would like to hang out with after school.
4.
Don't rely on the backstabber for anything; even the tiniest of things. In this way, you will avoid situations where you owe him/her a favor. This technique takes patience, practice and goes completely against your better nature. The backstabber will get the hint and move on the next sucker/victim.
5.
Also do not tell them any secret that you want kept hidden, as they will tell it to another one of their "friends" the moment it will gain them something.
Treat him/her like you would any other snake. Be polite when in his/her area but keep to the path, and maintain your distance.
6.
Make sure not to reduce to his level by saying untrue and bad things about him behind his back (this is a huge no-no!) as it will only spur him to action against you.
7.
Try to avoid revenge. This will create more problems. But if you simply have to get even, remember that the best revenge in this case would be hanging out with your best friends right in front of their face.

Warnings
1
Never let the backstabber know that he/she has gotten to you.
2
Do not underestimate his power. Try not to offend or hurt him, but be merely polite and refuse him anything he asks that you are not willing to give.
3
Do not get angry when he backstabs you. Realize from the start it will happen eventually. Don't form any deep relationship with him. He'll suck you dry.
4
And don't confront him, just smile knowingly and take action to prevent further damage.
5
Be careful when you talk to backstabbers, they might be recording you.
6
Don't talk to the backstabbers friends, they could be spies.

Worst Flood in 100 Years claims 210 lives in Karnataka, AP.my heart goes out to the families of the victim.

At least 210 people have been killed in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring Karnataka due to floods resulting from heavy rains since Wednesday (1st Oct). Andhra Pradesh is facing the worst ever floods in its 100 years, as 60 per cent of Kurnool district was submerged on Friday leaving thousands homeless and stranded without food and water. Nearly two lakh people have been evacuated to relief camps in the worst-affected districts of Kurnool, Mahabubnagar and Krishna district.
"This is a never-before-seen situation. Never in the past has the Krishna basin witnessed such floods and inflow of water into the dams. I am urging the people in the low-lying areas not to take the threat lightly. Move out to the safer places and cooperate with the officials," said the State Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasad Rao in Hyderabad.
Army boats and Air Force helicopters Friday began to rescue hundreds of people marooned at several places. Thousands have been rendered homeless. Over 40,000 houses have been damaged. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah said the flood situation was grim and army personnel have been deployed for rescue operations. Six helicopters have been pressed into service to rescue people. While four helicopters are being used to airlift the flood-hit in Kurnool district, two choppers were deployed in Mahabubnagar district.
Army boats and Air Force helicopters Friday began to rescue hundreds of people marooned at several places. Thousands have been rendered homeless. Over 40,000 houses have been damaged. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah said the flood situation was grim and army personnel have been deployed for rescue operations. Six helicopters have been pressed into service to rescue people. While four helicopters are being used to airlift the flood-hit in Kurnool district, two choppers were deployed in Mahabubnagar district.
Preliminary first hand report from volunteers
Seva Bharati volunteers have already started launching relief camps in affected towns of AP & Karnataka and now food is being provided to the people. As per the preliminary report received from volunteers for below 2 districts the situation is as below:


Kurnool District:
Affected Data
- Total 8 Revenue Mandals - About 6 lakh people
- About 1,00,00 acre crop - Kurnool town 50% affected (2.5lakh people) - Mantralaya - famous temple of Raghavendra Swamy completely immersed in water.


Palamoor District (Mahabubnagar District):
Affected Data
- Total 2 Revenue Mandals - About 2 lakh people - About 5,000 acre crop - 130 small lakes got cut due to floods causing at least 130-150 villages completely sub-merging in water.

A time for action is here again. Let us donate generously for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected people many of whom have lost everything overnight. "The wise person understands that his own happiness must
include the happiness of others."


Online transfer of funds can be done to Seva Bharathi A/c No: 630501065297, ICICI Bank,Himayat nagar Branch, Hyderabad. You can also draw a cheque/draft in the name of Seva Bharathi and post/courier it to below address

SEVA BHARATHI
H No:3-4-228,Opp Jain Mandir
Lingampally, Kachiguda, Hyderabad 50007
Mob: + 91 9701226830, +91 9849262868

[Please note that all contributions to Seva Bharathi are tax-exempt under 80G.]

If you are interested in joining the Seva Bharathi team at ground zero, please send email to sewabharathi@gmail.com.

Him I call a Mahatma whose heart bleeds for the poor – Swami Vivekananda

Trying To Prove Men Wrong, Doesn’t Make women Right !!

Well I completely respect your emotions. Feel sorry for what I happened to you. I would answer this in parts.

1) What if one day you come to know if Mr.XYZ (assume him to be virgin) who didn't post "are you a virgin" question to a girl, marry her and give her all the happiness in the world. And one day he comes to know she has an affair with some stud Mr.ZYX?

2) We always divide people basing on gender, Men and women. Why don't we understand one point, We are all human beings .When will we divide right or wrong on the basis of people and not on the basis of gender, rather giving the most cliché answer Men are bad ,women and good or vice versa . Good or bad is everywhere. Men are cheaters (accepted), does that mean women are very pious. Point here is why is that Men are always on the receiving end .Majority of the population of men are hypocrites (accepted).But there are honest men who are been cheated by women in lot of ways. When women probably here this, they (women) make the most annoying answers, yeah just one or two that’s it or rare cases. I’m not supporting men (being one) here .I have some idiot friends who are non-virgins, Don’t have a job or blah blah blah,and market them self as the Rama just for the sake of good dowry and a beautiful(vary to person to person).At the same time I also have some friends(girls) who does the same(demands might be different this time). Assume that ,both are wrong .Lets say women is not a virgin and boy ask her the same question “ Are you a virgin” .I’m sure most of them will answer I’m virgin. Let’s take another issue; of late most of the girls consume alcohol. But do girls really volunteer and tell straight that they do. you folks being open minded may say up-front. But will most of the girls accept the fact they don’t consume alcohol.Another scenario :How many non-virgin girls will volunteer them self and tell a boy that she is promiscuous and I’m not playing a blame game here, but I’m saying that this is a world of hypocrites and to be honest no one is 100% correct. Just because you believe that you are good , doesn’t make you the most wonderful person in the world. How many commit a mistake and genuinely accept it and how many forgive them. Either of the cases something called ego crept in .If we accept that it’s my mistake I will be tainted bad or if we accept their apology, I will be give her or him a chance. Personally I don’t think I’m 100% genuine and correct, but I understand What I’m good at and what I’m bad at ,and best part is I let people know about my pain points and good points .I also put efforts to change myself to be a better person. Does that make me ideal...The answer will still remain “NO”. India see lot of male politicians ,does that make all the female politicians genuine .Lord Seetha and Lord Rama are considered as the best example of being two wonderful people on earth. I’m not sure what mistakes Rama made, but I’m sure Lord rama was always tainted to be unjustified towards seetha .Lord Krishna was a flirt. I accept both of them are wrong .Now does that mean women from all the generations are 100 % genuine? I might be deviating from the topic. Personally if you would ask me, everything in the world has a reason. May be in your case, family who asked you the question could possibly be a victim in their previous experience. May be Someone from their family did not ask the question (“are you a virgin”?) and married the girl and later by some means, they came to know she isn’t (very much possible) or some women from the same family might have posted the question and the guy is just taking it to you(very possible ,isn’t it). I always believe that no one is wrong until they are caught. I also lie, curse, yell but I also love, participate in noble activities, help people. Kaun dhood ki dulha hai? I think as a person (both men and women), if they believe they are at least 70 % good (consider some good things for yourself), I consider them as ideal. This is an absurd world, where what I feel right might not be correct in your case or vice versa .We stay in the world of hypocrisy and we all are very diplomatic.

I always wish to be 100 % true when I talk to a girl whom I like or whom I wanted to marry. As long as the girl hear good things about me, things are fine, when she suddenly hears something very bad, she become so paranoid and, she decide that he is not the right guy.

3) This is a very paradoxical world. We always say that looks are not the most important thing in the world. But we always end-up demanding for the most handsome guy or girl. Guy doesn’t look nice, let him be the most wonderful person in the world .The answer would be No. The girl is beautiful, she had relationships before marriage, who cares, I will take an extra lakh as dowry. We always debate we haste caste, but we always end up marrying a guy or a girl from the same caste, Why?We always say I don’t have feelings on you, so I cannot accept you, but end up marrying a stranger. I have no clue, from where they get those feelings in a night. We always speak about Justice, someone commits a mistake, we curse, bully and when we commit the same mistake, we become very oblivious to it. Point here is we stay in ambiguity where everybody is right and everybody is wrong as well. Girl don’t like the guy to ask “are you a virgin “, but will it stop her asking him how much do you earn in a month or doubt his job and sometime ask his character.

Evadi frustration vadidi ..lols

Swathi, do you trust men? , Yes -I’m happy , No –Why ?,coz You have your reasons(you might agree to it ,I might not).

And Do I trust women? Yes-you are happy, No-Why? I have my own reasons (you might disagree to it, I might not).

You cannot accept a virgin unemployed, but you will accept non virgin CEO. (Not true in all the cases).

I’m sorry for blaming girls, but this is reality, nothing in the world is correct. You want an ideal person to be your friend, life partner, but you will never wanted to be changed and they should be accepted for what you are (presuming you to be ideal).

Bottom-line: We live in a society of protocols, everybody have their own constrains in life and we go by it .Just because you feel that this point is right it doesn’t make it correct, it might not be true in my case (Sorry for being repetitive). So if you don’t think you don’t like being asked “are you are virgin “question, dump him as simple as that and if the next guy don’t ask this question he might ask you another annoying thing. Dump him as well. Some other guy some other point, dump him as well. But how long? At one point you will have compromise or you will never marry at all. So if you ask me for a suggestion (up to you if you want to perceive it). Write down what u need in your man and if he satisfy more than 70% of your criteria or condition, go ahead and opt him and stay happy J

I would love to be challenged and would love to be proved wrong by anyone who commented till now or would comment. Comments and feedbacks will be accepted constructively.

Peace

Vaka Ravi

Mallika searching for a suitable boy

es, the kissing queen Mallika Sherawat is searching for a boy literally. Mallika was noted telling close friends that that she was now searching for a partner. The sex bomb has recently appeared in two comedies, Ugly aur Pagli and Maan Gaye Mughall-E-Azam. Though she has been doing comedy on screen, off screen, her life seems to be filled with solitude after her split with her first husband.

Mallika was heard commenting that she finds herself very lonely staying away from her family and to add to that she has been without any male partner.

In fact she went on to appeal to the media in an interview to find her a boy friend and went on to say that she was considering marriage also, if she finds a suitable groom.

courtesy:aol

Katrina on top with six hits in a row: critics

New Delhi, (IANS) British-born actress Katrina Kaif has delivered six back-to-back hits, bagged several brand endorsements and is now a highly sought after heroine - all the qualities needed to be crowned the reigning actress in Bollywood, say film critics.

"Katrina has immensely evolved as an actress. In Bollywood, actors are mostly known for the number of hits that they can deliver. Katrina has won in that respect hands down. She can undoubtedly be called a lucky mascot for her producers," popular film critic Taran Adarsh told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

After wowing audiences in the recently released romantic comedy "Singh Is Kinng" opposite Akshay Kumar, Katrina has successfully displaced top-rung actors, including Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra.

Her success story started with "Namastey London" and continued with "Apne", "Partner", "Welcome", "Race" and now "Singh Is Kinng".

"Last year was simply fantastic and, touchwood, this year is the same. I would like to thank god. I believe in enjoying doing the work I'm doing. It is also good to know that the hard work I have put in has shown result. I will continue to do so," Katrina said.

The 24-year-old star ventured into Bollywood in 2003 and was instantly written off because of her strong British accent. But after five years of hard work and determination, she is one of the most sought after actresses in the Hindi film industry.

Her next is Subhash Ghai's "Yuvraaj", which is about the arrogance and overconfidence of contemporary youth. Set to release in October, critics are confident that Katrina has another hit on the anvil in "Yuvraaj".

Mumbai-based film critic Anupama Chopra says there are high expectations from Katrina's performance in the movie.

"Katrina has had a fortunate choice of films" even though she "had a rather unfortunate start with 'Boom'," Chopra said.

"She is a stunning looking actress and so far she is doing well with her glam doll image. We did see glimpses of an actor in her performance-oriented roles such as in 'Namastey London'," Chopra explained.

Katrina is one of eight siblings, all girls. Her mother is British and her father is from Jammu and Kashmir who has since acquired British citizenship.

The actress spent her formative years in Hawaii but later moved to London. She started modelling accidentally when she was in Hawaii at the age of 14. Thereafter she continued modelling in London till she moved to Mumbai in quest of a career in the world's largest film industry.

She has also moved on to bigger banners and has teamed up with John Abraham and Neil Mukesh for a Yash Raj Films' project. Apart from that, she will be seen in Rajkumar Santoshi's next film, "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani", with Ranbir Kapoor.

Besides spinning gold at the box office, Katrina also has an assorted line-up of brand endorsements. These include Nakshatra diamond jewellery and Veet hair removal cream among others.

The actress created waves when she replaced Aishwarya Rai as the brand ambassador of Nakshatra last month, besides bagging the crown of being the most downloaded Indian actress in cyber space.

"Katrina is the perfect representation of the young, trendy and fashionable woman that Nakshatra targets. We feel that Katrina lends a refreshing look to the brand. We are excited about having her on board as the new face for Nakshatra," said Mehul Choksi, chairman, Gitanjali Group and Nakshatra.

Though the actress has acquired a star status in a short span, critics feel that she needs to work on more performance-based roles.

Said Chopra: "Katrina needs to evolve and emerge out of her glamorous image to do meatier roles like the ones Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta were doing two to three years ago."