Are you confused whether to take arts or not?

Aiming to highlight students about career options relevant to arts stream, I will go into details about every option available to the students opting arts stream in class 11. Art is an imperative subject and also creative in all aspects.  Also, this stream brings out students’ ideas and creativity. Some of the subjects offered in arts stream are English, Political Science, History, Economics, Geography, Maths, Psychology, Painting, Physical Education, Multi media.

One question should arise in everyone’s mind that why an arts student often lands up in a job of an investment banker or a risk manager, when they are far related to each other. In historical times, most of the students who took art stream believed in their creativity and opted for the stream solely because of their interests. However, recently due to dearth of opportunities and jobs being offered to the arts students, students rarely take arts as a stream. Also, most of the schools don’t offer arts stream. Humanities and arts as a stream of choice have gone down in popularities due to lack of opportunities. But students do a huge blunder while evaluating the streams; they are short sighted when they evaluate the opportunities linked to the different streams. And yes if one evaluates the opportunities linked to arts down the line 2-3 years after graduating from college, they are minimal. Nevertheless, the opportunities for an arts student are more than those for any other stream student.
The short sightedness of students is the main reason for students deciding career choices solely based on present career opportunities. I am aware of people whose career path has been as shown below.

Science stream->B.Tech->Top engineer job-> Indian administrative services officer.

Now the problem with the above career path is the delay in identifying   what you want to do in life. And of course, the years wasted in the mid career options, which were not the target or perhaps the career choice of the student. Now, the problem with the above career path is that we don’t understand why one should study engineering and work as an engineer in one of the top public sector undertakings to become an IAS officer. Furthermore, we know that arts stream would have been more beneficial than a course in engineering to become an IAS officer.

And if one survey associates working in different sectors and their choices in class 11, one will find huge disparities between choices the associates made in class 11 and the jobs they are doing. Hence, one should focus on his/her areas of interests and the opportunities available in long term for those fields while choosing which stream to take. Further, it goes without saying that a good arts student can contribute more to a job relevant to arts than a science student or perhaps a commerce student.

I am going to list few opportunities that can be of use for students oriented towards taking arts streams. Depending upon the individual interests and hobbies there can be many opportunities starting from journalism, retail industry, fashion designing and the likes. For instance, if one has a flair for writing and enjoys researching and writing on different topics, one can become a content writer. Also, if one loves animal right from childhood and want to spend entire life surrounded by animals, one can become a wildlife photographer, a forest official, and the likes. 

Lastly, I cannot go into minute details of individual arts career for which enough information is available on the internet. However, if anyone wants to know how to relate one’s interest areas to a good career by taking appropriate career options and streams, you can write me @ chotu86.saurabh@gmail.com

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Chotu

Start early to be first !

Children at early stages of their lives may follow their seniors or perhaps their peers to be successful. And when they are somewhat intelligent enough to decide on their careers, they consult people whom they know. So, while doing the research, they find that most careers are captured by engineers. Furthermore, they are in an impression that a degree in engineering can lead anyone anywhere in this world. But they are mistaken by thinking this way. Most of the engineering graduates land up in engineering colleges due to peer pressure and high paying software jobs and not due to their interest in pursuing engineering degrees.

Since we are aware that there is dearth of core engineering jobs in mechanical, electrical, electronics, and chemical, there is no point opting for such courses in the first place, let alone get an engineering degree. So, though first and foremost a person has to research about his needs, wants, and desires, thorough research has to be done to check the opportunities available for the pursued interest. However, the less opportunity in a specific stream shouldn't restrict a person to pursue an area of interest. For instance, a person taking a mechatronics course due to his/her interest shouldn't think that there are low number of jobs in India in that stream, instead should think of pursuing a higher degree or may be a PHD in the area of interest.

For a successful career one should perform a SWOT analysis, a lingo used in MBA courses. SWOT analysis is a deep analysis of S-strengths, W-weaknesses, O-opportunities, T-threat. One should not take a path which only favors opportunities as done by many students currently in India. This can have major impact in any industry. For instance, back in 1990’s, when most I.T. firms were recruiting engineering graduates as there was major boom in the industry, students started to think that I.T. was a place to start the career. However, now the industry has peaked; graduates are not getting desired packages, they are thinking of switching their careers after working for 4-5 years; some go for MBA courses out of the blue. As a result, some are frustrated in their mid careers, others do some research, which they should have done in the first place when they opted for engineering course.

Since I have been one of the students who are doing research in the mid career, I think being in this situation I can guide students opting for different types of careers and are in dilemma. Hence, this blog would be helpful for students just passed their 10^th board exams and are confused about which stream they should take to have a career of their choice and the career by which they would earn their living.

Following will be series of articles for different streams and careers. Also, for individual query related to one’s career, please mail me @ chotu86.saurabh@gmail.com. And please allow me 1-2 business days to respond to the query.

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Chotu