Careers to take you out of the box

BHUBANESWAR: On Day II of the two-day Mission Admission seminar organized by The Times of India at IDCOL auditorium on Tuesday, experts advised students not to be obsessed with traditional career choices such as medical and engineering as several alternative career options were now available.
At the start of the session, Anupam Srivastava of Admizzionz Campuz gave an overview of opportunities in alternative careers."Alternative careers do not mean you have to do something different and take the not-so-traversed path. There are many hot careers for the future even in conventional fields," he said.
He discussed alternate career options available in sectors such as allied healthcare, web services, management, information technology (IT), and careers in art and design. With e-commerce businesses and use of the Internet growing fast, there is huge demand in web services in which sphere one can make a career as a professional blogger, search engine optimizer, social media manager or user service designer.
"In this field, there is huge scope for creativity. One would deal with people from different cultures and have flexible working hours. There is no need for any fancy degree," he said. One could go for short-term courses in internet marketing, search engine optimizing after a BTech in computer science or an MCA.
Anahita Suri and Satya S Banerjee, faculty members from NIFT, Bhubaneswar, spoke on career options in design. They began with an engrossing video on various courses and facilities available at NIFT, the premier institute of fashion technology in India.
"When we talk about design, the first thing that comes to our mind is fashion shows and models wearing beautiful clothes. But a career in design is much more," said Suri.
A career in design includes sculpture, painting, print making, applied art, art history, lifestyle and accessories design, jewellery design and so on. The envisaged careers in fashion design include design management, trend forecasting, costume design, illustration, pattern engineering, leather design and entrepreneurship.
"Students who have not applied for NIFT this year can join any of the continuing or short term or summer courses, which enhance the basic skills required for a career in fashion designing," said Banerjee.
Abdul Rashid, AGM, human resources, Fortis Healthcare, discussed various prospects in the health care sector. "Health care is one of the sunrise industries in India and there is lots of scope in this sector in a varied range of professions," he said. One can pursue a career in customer care or patient care, services, faculty management, security, IT or supply chain, process management and finance.
The last session, on careers in travel and tourism, was the most interactive and interesting with Shivani Vig, zonal head-north and east, Kuoni Academy, giving information on a wide range of career options available in this sector.
"This is a career where you are paid for traveling and making people travel. And there are options for all those who are good at studies and also for the not-so-good ones. One in every 10 jobs globally is in the tourism sector and it is one of the most rewarding career options in terms of money, facilities, meeting people and going places," Vig said.
Some trends in teh tourism sectors are dark tourism, where people visit haunted places and places where people had suffered or are suffering, wine tours, shopping, culinary, sports, creative, Bollywood and education tourism.
Besides, one can choose from fields like aviation, cruise specialists, tourism boards, tour companies, hotels and resorts, travel journalism, recreational tourism, club management, amusement parks, and film units.