By Niti Garg:
What are your career goals? This is probably the most important question you can ask and very few people can actually answer it. Job defines who you are. Every father wants his son to be an Engineer or a Chartered accountant and every mother wants her daughter to be a Doctor or a Teacher… This is the typical Indian mentality which prevails in more than 90% of the middle class homes. The middle-class or the ‘Service Class’, is the major source of human power and with such restricted approach to careers, the overall development of society suffers. Due to growing competitions it is not possible for every student to clear IIT, CPMT and CPT exams. Thus, alternate careers are now at a great height. Menaka, a mother of 19-years old Rahul, often gets sleepless nights worrying about her son’s future. “He lags behind the rest of the class in studies, and although he is intelligent, he shows no academic inclination.”
“All of us are different and if you are going to spend most of your life doing something, you may as well do something you like”, says Shikha Kukreja, a lecturer. Open your mind and see that your dream job can come true.
It is now being widely recognized and accepted that a good profession, which embraces respect of the society and earns a handsome salary, is not just a synonym of Engineers or Doctors only. With the onset of Globalization and the introduction of MNC players in India, jobs that were earlier considered menial are gaining importance. There is acute requirement of people equipped with various skills and the trend of educational pattern and inclination of institutes towards providing courses in Hotel Management, Fashion Designing, Legal Consultancy, Media, Movie Making and Editing and the list goes on and on. These courses not only enhance the creativity and talent of the students, they also provide them with guaranteed placement and good package. The above careers lie apart from standard careers that involve educational qualifications and are available for non-academically inclined child.
“This is the time of recession and my personal experience says that students doing professional courses are being offered with better job opportunities than engineers and doctors. 60% of the students are now going for courses like fashion journalism, hotel management and mass communication”, gushes professor Trivedi.
We have observed various alternate careers available to the youth discussed below:-
Media Personnel: – The media is today’s fastest growing industry. Highly paid and very noble are in abundance. Media is the ‘EYE’ of the society and to be successful in this stream you need to have presentation skills. Apart from this it also offers jobs in various fields like advertising, production, public relation and event management.
Law: – A degree in Law is sufficient to enable you to set up a private practice. But KPOs today are offering better remuneration and more scope of growth to the ambitious youth today.
Apparel Designing: – Also referred to as fashion designing, apparel designing is a course which offers tremendous scope for world tours and full throttle to initiative and creativity. Apart from this, jewellery designing, footwear designing are also upcoming careers for the innovative students.
Architecture: – If you can understand where to lay your first stone, you can become an architect, drawing monthly salaries in figures of 10!
Interior Designing: – With growing aesthetic sense and belief in Vastu-Shastra and Feng-Shui, Interior Designing is becoming a profession which decides the way the society lives in their homes. Creativity and problem solving attitude are a must for this profession.
Hotel Management: – Well educated and cultured people are in demand for hospitality and hotel management. If you can take good care of others, you are suited for this profession.
How would you go ahead to discover your real career or professional goals?
Know what you want- you need knowledge about yourself as well as information about the career option that fit your skill, value and interest.
Determine your skills- you must list the skills you currently possess as well as skills you do not have and wish to develop.
Set preliminary goals- summarize the result of your self assessment in a prioritized list or statement to serve as a reference as you begin to identify and research employs.
Now the time has come for the students who think that due to their failure to qualify IIT-JEE or PMT, their life has lost its meaning and also an eye-opener for those parents who are pushing their children in a mad rat race, thus, destroying their childhood. Separate Universities have also been established which are UGC recognized for imparting professional education. Some of the well known Universities in India are Sikkim Manipal University, Symbiosis, Amity University and Indraprastha University. It is the time for the parents to understand and help out there children to choose the right career according to their aptitude. Parents should be their child’s friend and guide and not dictators.