Jobs market is changing

By Ranjan K Baruah

Many students and parents ask me different questions related to career options and opportunities. It is very challenging to choose the right career at the right time. As time has changed, mere qualification is not enough to get a good job or to be self-employed and earn well. Gone are the days when one could dream of a job related to his or her subjects. Students from engineering background are doing well in banks and social sector which they do not learn when they study engineering in colleges.
Our students and parents or guardians must be aware of the present job market and prepare well since secondary level to get employed. Few attributes or necessities for career are given below and these are based on my experiences:
Qualification: An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, normally at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, typically including bachelors, masters and doctorates, often alongside other academic certificates and professional degrees.
More academic qualification means better for the aspirant but getting high marks do not guarantee a job. We see required qualification for various jobs with minimum marks. There is no job for any maximum mark, so even if we do not get cent per cent we should not worry because if we have the minimum qualification then we can apply for jobs. But it is always advisable to get good marks as marks and skills mean guaranteed success in future.

Planning: Career planning is must to be successful in life. It consists of activities and actions which one take to achieve his or her individual career goal. Career planning is the ongoing process where one explores interests and abilities and plans strategically. Planning must be done on the basis of SWOT analysis and authentic information. Wrong or misleading information is dangerous. It encourages individuals to explore and gather information, which enables them to gain competencies, make decisions, set goals and take action.

Hard Work: We are aware that there is no shortcut to success and similarly there is no successful career without hard work. The problem with many of us is that instead of hard work we ‘hardly work.’ As we are aware of it so I am skipping more about hard work. All of us talk about this but many of us do not follow, so it’s up to us whether we are going to work hard or be reluctant.

Information: For any good career we must have authentic information. Information related to subjects and also about the future jobs associated with different streams and subjects. Many of our students are negatively motivated by elders. I have come across one common thing that negatively motivates many students. Many people say there is no scope or limited scope if a student takes admission in arts or commerce. Well, I would appeal to our readers that if anyone says so then please tell in front of that person that he has no scope in life as only frustrated people disappoint others. Any positive person with information would share information and help others. There are many sources for collecting authentic information. We must cross-check information which we collect online from different websites.

(Ranjan K Baruah is a career mentor, skill trainer, academic consultant and strategic planner and can be reached at [email protected] or 8473943734 for any career related queries)