Career Choices: How do you make them?

Choosing the career that is right for you is more important than the right career. As such there is nothing like a right career anymore. Speaking in an Indian context – late into the ‘90’s you would practically want to do an undergraduate studies in technology as a stepping stone towards career paths. An engineering degree more often than not equipped you with the pre-requisite to get a decent paid job at the age of 21.

Management studies, gateway to PSU’s, Engineering services and Civil services almost invariably traveled through an engineering education. Even the toppers of various UPSC exams invariably came from one of the technology giants generally IITs. Career choices otherwise were very limited – not qualifying for an engineering seat was indeed a step back and umpteen capitation fee type education shops mushroomed to tap the excess demand for an engineering seat. Few of them indeed became good colleges but most of them were nothing more than commercial means to distribute engineering degrees to those privileged who otherwise missed the mainstream boat. In niche areas like medicine and law – opportunities were limited and by no means capable of handling all Indian aspirants.

Things are much different now – growth of alternate education in form of bio-technology, bio-chemistry, social sciences, life sciences, clean energy, portfolio management, CFA, advertising, media and entertainment, supply chain and project management related streams and specialized education related to manufacturing, inventory control, logistics, planning and scheduling, budgeting, accounting, governance- risk and compliance, procurement, knowledge process outsourcing, consulting, real estate management, corporate governance, hotel management, administration, IT security, patents, advance science, statistics and modelling, brokerage, photography, fine arts and ENTREPRENEURSHIP has open those avenues which by no means are any less than the age old streams and most of them are high powered growth drivers for the current and next generation.

Now it is no big deal to miss an engineering boat or a medicine seat – few are chasing them anyway. There is just so much opportunity which exist that India, even by virtue of its grandiose volume of working population cannot meet the demand of requirement. It is a nice situation to be in – from a situation when their was less opportunities from a corporate demand perspective now there is latent demand in system even during receissionary times. A demand – which no supply of right trained resource and fulfill anytime soon. The push is required from federal and private agencies to bring the aspirants to the right level of education and know how in these areas – this will be quite a challenge but gives India the best opportunity to become leaders in the coming decade surpassing the developed West Economies.

Youth of today needs to chase their dreams – dreams are most likely to be in one of the new areas mentioned below. Private and budgetary funds needs to be put in place for state of art – center of excellence in these areas. Significant part of this planning will mean the tender minds are told and encouraged to chase these areas. It can only come from experts who have traveled in these areas – those are very limited folks out there. These are the early movers in these areas and know the path, the contour the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead. We encourage GenNext to let us know which of these dreams he/she is chasing and we will invariably connect him/her to the right one within our million plus contact list. It will be just the door which will open the path to lasting success for our nations growth.

About the Author: Prakash Kumar is a business consultant with global experience in energy and technology sectors. He has a passion for finance and investments in equities, commoditities and bond markets in India and abroad.