Introspection is the key to happy money

There is a big problem with Indian society – they interfere too much in a child’s life. The decision of what a child should become professionally is unfortunately decided mostly by parents and not the child himself.

The bigger problem is that parents’ decisions are driven by social norms.

Therefore, they will try to coerce their children into becoming socially acceptable professionals like engineers, doctors, lawyers, CAs instead of something which the child would enjoy more.

I encourage our student readers to go for a profession they would enjoy. As someone has said, you should be doing what you do when your mind wanders off studies or work. Understanding what is it that you like is INTROSPECTION.

  • Do you love socializing and get people excited about something – you could be a great sales person or a HR manager!
  • Did you love assembling PCs for your friends and families? – Great, get into hardware consultations.
  • Do you want to play games all the time – why not be a game engineer?

That’s very simplistic but I hope you get the drift. Find out what excites you and you shall never have to work a boring job again.

It is never too early to introspect. It is ideally done before Class XI but even if you do it before joining college, it’s ok. Forget that, it is even beneficial to do this while you are in college because you still have time to choose your first job.

Lack of exposure in our schools and colleges has aggravated this problem many fold and I see students following herd mentality instead of listening to their inner voices. I have covered this topic more extensively in this article-

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Once you can do a thorough introspection, you can figure a career path that will keep you inspired. We cover this in our career counseling service as well as help incoming Grad Students get more clarity on what career to pursue in Grad School.

I don’t want to earn my living, I want to live

Oscar Wilde

Now, we are not blessed with automatic means of survival and livelihood, so we do need to do some work. But work doesn’t have to feel like ‘work’, you can enjoy what you do. So, find out what is it that you will enjoy doing 🙂

Need help? Contact us.

Best career options for engineering students

Know what Arvind Kejriwal, Vikram Pandit, Shankar Mahadevan, APJ Kalam, Mukesh Ambani and Harsha Bhogle have in common? – They are all Engineers!

Engineering has become a multi purpose degree these days. Anyone who has good aptitude decides to go for Engineering as this is one program that can open your door into virtually anything (except Medical or Law, possibly). Here, we discuss what are the different career options for an Engineer –

Engineering jobs in your field – It is the most common option when an engineer takes up a job profile directly related to what he studied. E.g. a software engineer joining Microsoft as a programmer, a mechanical engineer joining Tata Motors as a design engineer and so on.

Engineering jobs in a different field – Sometimes an engineer shifts gear slightly and takes up a job profile not related to his area of study. E.g. an electrical engineer joining Morgan Stanley as a banker or a civil engineer joining TCS as a software analyst. Joining as a consultant, marketing analyst etc. also falls under this category.

Further specialization through MS, ME, MTech – This is the route engineers take when they think going to a better school can improve their job prospects. Here MS from esteemed universities in US and Europe is a more lucrative option as it opens the door to jobs abroad.

Switch to business roles through MBA – Usually done to get into higher paying jobs, many engineering grads try to get into IIMs and other elite management schools in India right out of college. Rare few from IITs are able to get into Business Schools abroad as well but it’s still a very small percentage since MBA in America, Europe etc requires non-trivial work experience.

Entrepreneurship/Family Business – Still fewer end up working for themselves or their family owned businesses. Entrepreneurship or startups are particularly in rise in recent times as students find it best to experiment ideas during college and pursue any viable ideas upon graduation when the opportunity cost is still low.

Non-traditional roles – There are handful who spot lucrative opportunities in totally non-related fields such as civil services (0.3% success rate), teaching (yes, a few academically successful engineers join as teachers in coaching institutions which offer handsome packages), creative fields etc.

In next couple of articles, we will elaborate over each option and provide a clearer picture on why you should go with one of these. We will also tie up this to why an option of going abroad can be a smarter choice in the long run. Stay tuned. 

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Want to study abroad in a top university?

Ever felt frustrated about competitive exams in India? Ever felt you are not getting the education worth your money? Ever wished building your career was easier? Ever wondered if YOU can find your way to Harvard, Stanford or MIT?

Welcome aboard, you are not alone. And no, it’s not too late. People who get into these schools are not born to succeed, they just focused on the right things. And, so can you.

Indian Institutes are great – but only a handful. Even the IITs don’t rank in Top 10 engineering schools in the world. Education in India is getting extremely competitive and on top of that, it is not the best. So, why not study in top schools of the world, get a better quality education and that too without going through ridiculously designed entrance exams or paying donations?

With little planning, you can study in best colleges in the world and plan a brighter future for yourself. And, its not rocket science.

I am Nistha and I’m starting this blog to share the learnings that I have acquired through academics, jobs, my own ventures and most importantly, life in general. I graduated from an average engineering college in India in 2004, then headed to world’s 5th best Computer Science Engineering school – University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, for Masters, then spent some insightful years on Wall Street, went for an MBA from world’s 10th best MBA program at the most happening New York University (and then dropped out of it. Why? That is a story for another time). The bottomline is that I got to a point where I could proceed in life on my terms. And, so can you. With my fair share of global education, I am developing strategies that can help Indian students find their way into TOP INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS.

Try it out for yourself. If you are an Indian student and want to increase your chances of succeeding at bigger things in life – stop fretting about entrance exams and stop compromising.