Build your employability

Anoop Verma

PICKING the right courses and the right college is critical for your success. The progress that you make in much of your working life will to a large extent be linked not only to the degree or diploma that you have, but also to the passion and dedication that you bring to your chosen field. A particular college might have a large brand value, but will it enable you to achieve your goals in life? You should not pick up a college or a course merely due to the hype; you have to make your choices after a process self-evaluation and research.

Getting job ready

With the rapid expansion of the Indian economy during the last few years, there has been rise in the demand for employees who are trained in certain niche areas. To keep up with the demand from job providers, many institutions have moved away from the plain vanilla courses like BA and BSc and are offering courses like BS, BBA, BIFA, BSc (Tech) and so on. Undergraduate students can access innovatively designed courses on Hotel Management, Applied Nutrition, Software Quality Assurance, and much else. Students who have done BBA, BMS or have gone for some reputed IT certification might be more fit for entry-level jobs in large companies than those students who have gone for the traditional courses.

With admission cut-offs in most coveted colleges being in plus 90 per cent domain, most students are unlikely to get admission in the top colleges. A large majority of students have to compromise and get into the second best or the third best colleges. However, even if you study in a relatively unknown college, you can still have a lot of doors opening for you, if your choice of courses is right.

A BBA in telecom, retail, media or any other sunrise industry can be your launch pad for a successful career in these sectors. It is not very important what college you study in, as long as you are able to get the most out of the courses. It is possible that the perceived market value of the course that you are interested in perusing might not be as great as some other course. But ultimately it is your interests that should drive your education. The course that you enrol into at college has to be in line with your personal goals. After that it is your hard work and perseverance that will take you forward in life.

The option of internship

The companies are looking for not just degrees and diplomas; they are also looking for some kind of working experience in the candidates that they hire. In our system of education we don’t lay much emphasis on part-time jobs or internships. This is the reason why vast majority of our students complete their graduation and even post-graduation without having even a minor experience of a real office environment. They have no answers to offer when the job interviewer asks, “What kind of experience do you have?”

It is not important that you have to pick up a major organisation for doing your internship. Even if you find an internship position in a large company, chances are that you may not be able to get full exposure. A large organisation will have very set working systems in place and they are not likely to delegate any major responsibility to an intern. So it is better to do your internship in a smaller organisation where you can hope to get better responsibilities. There are so many small enterprises that are looking for freshers who can afford to work at a lower salary.

Once you have completed your internship tenure at any company, you will get a certificate. But the practical experience that you get is usually more useful in the long run than any certificate.

Internship ideas

Many interested students tend to find attractive internship options in the campus itself through the recruiting agents representing many large and small companies. You can also turn to the Internet to discover some internship ideas. Here is a list of websites that many students are using for landing up with good internship positions:

http://jobs.freshersworld.com/category/Internship
http://www.letmeknow.in/
http://www.asia-interns.com/
http://www.lawctopus.com/
http://10internship.in/
http://www.hellointern.com/
http://www.indianinternship.com/

Some of these websites require you to register yourself; in others you can directly access the information that you need on the web interface itself.

Option of Distance Learning

The cost of education is a big factor for students who have limited budgets. While government run institutions charge lower fees, the private institutions, which offer courses that are aligned with the needs of the industry, charge much higher fees. Also, some students get into jobs after finishing their higher school or graduation and so for them a full-time, campus degree programme is not an option. They can enrol in workplace-relevant distance learning versions of degrees, which are considerably less expensive and also allow the flexibility of learning on an anytime, anywhere basis.

The Distance Learning Sector in India is now witnessing a big boom. IGNOU, located in New Delhi, has more than 2.8 million students. The Sikkim Manipal boasts of two lakh students. Technology has become a game changer in distance learning. Downloadable course materials are available in PDF format and students can also take advantage of video lectures and video conferencing with teachers and other students. Many institutions are experimenting with placing all the content online and then trusting students to direct their own learning. This can be an effective way of motivating the students.

You can peruse Distance Learning for getting a higher degree, diploma or certification while you are working on a fulltime or part-time. There are a large number of institutions that you can choose from for Distance Learning.