The Hindu Education Plus career counselling session was organised successfully in Vijayapura on Saturday.
Sunil Panwar, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kalaburagi, and member secretary, Zoo Authority of Karnataka, inaugurated the event at the BLDE Vachana Pitamaha PG Halakatti college of engineering and technology auditorium.
Dr. Panwar urged youth to choose a profession based on their interests and aptitude. He asked them to develop skills in addition that made them stand out from their own academic or professional group. This explained the gap between number of graduates produced and those employed, he said.
Sharing his experience, he recalled that during an interview by a government IT company, none of the applicants was able to write a code replacing some words from a very famous slogan, keeping the meaning unchanged. This shows that most students do not think beyond their curriculum, limiting their chances of success,’‘ the senior IFS officer said.
Speaking about fluidity of careers, he said that though he was a veterinary science graduate, he had picked up skills in the field of IT and software development. This helped me serve as the CEO of the e-governance department and established a software development agency for the government of Karnataka that was able to do business of more than ₹100 crore in a few years. We developed several technology tools ensure efficient and transparent delivery of citizen services,’‘ he said.
He asked students to develop a personality outside of their professional profile that gave them deal with modern day stress. He spoke of how reading and writing urdu poetry had enabled him to participate in poetry recitals across the country. “Dedicated hard work, sincerity and commitment will never go out of fashion,’‘ he said.
Dr. Panwar asked students to have plan B, in case their initial plans for a career did not work out. The secret lies in not feeling bad or depressed, but to learn from initial failures and prepare for a better career, he said. He pointed out that emerging global economic trends had opened up several unprecedented career opportunities for young people including consultancy, parallel careers in unrelated fields, entrepreneurship and start ups in technology or trade and commerce.
T. Bhoobalan, Deputy Commissioner, recalled his childhood in a small village in interior Tamil Nadu. “I attended a government Tamil medium school. But my teachers inspired me to dream big and face challenges in life,” he said. He said that he began preparing for the UPSC examination, while working as a IT professional after his engineering degree. “Everybody faces obstacles and hindrances in life. Those who succeed however, are those who face these challenges and move on,” he said. He recalled his initial struggles to learn the local language and adjust to a culture different from one’s own. He asked students to overcome disappointments to achieve success.
The highest claps, however, went to Santosh Shiradon, a young engineer from Vijayapura, who has recently cleared the UPSC examination with an all India rank of 641. He spoke of childhood fascination for the civil services and how he chose to switch careers from IT consultancy to IAS after an engineering degree. He said that The Hindu had played an important part in his preparation for the examination. “I do not remember a single day I did not read The Hindu in all these years of my studies,” he said.
Harish Bala, consultant, CIGMA career guidance academy, gave a detailed presentation about various career choices, including some options that were not well known. He asked students to explore new fields like medical tourism, hospitality, bio medical engineering, travel writing, heritage conservation, ecological conservation and tourism, and various technology related careers.
He asked young people not to select subject just because the job market was big or that it was trendy to opt for it.
M.R. Basavaraj, KEA CET cell resource person, spoke in detail about the process of filling the examination forms and appearing for the seat selection process. He asked students not to fill the forms in a hurry and make mistakes that could not be corrected. He pointed out that the seat selection process was easy and transparent and student friendly, compared to such examinations conducted by several other such agencies.
A.P. Ambali, head of the department of geriatrics, BLDE B M Patil medical college and research centre, spoke about why choose medicine as a career. “The universal acceptability of a degree in medicine, the near universal respect for doctors in a developing society like India, the trust placed on doctors by households and the life long service potential made it different from all other professions,’‘ he said. He gave examples of his friends who had become film actors, directors, photographers and managers. “Nowadays you can find MBBS graduate branching out into aviation, defence, entrepreneurship, consultancy, and public policy. It is no longer limited to hospitals’‘, he said.
Anil Kannur, head of the department computer science, BLDEVPPGHCE, debunked the myth that there were no jobs for engineering graduates. “There are enough jobs, but not enough young graduates with skills. What the job giver wants is a batch of young engineers with industry ready skills. That is why it is essential for young engineers to pick up extra skills,’‘ he said.
Dr. Kannur said that there were over 25 branches in engineering that offered significant range of career options, but most student ended up choosing from a few. “Engineering education is fun, because it is not just an academic discipline, but a well rounded experience for students,” he said.
During the question and answer sessions, students asked questions on how to increase attention span, how to seek admission to course abroad and about increasing soft skills including spoken English and gaining confidence in public speaking.
Ramling Kotnal, chief administrative officer, BLDE society institutions, professors of various departments, teachers, students, parents and others were present.
