It is fairly common today to see teenagers or even more, their worried parents, hurtling around exploring possible career options for a 'bright future'.  Career, in today's parlance, means particular occupation for which one is trained. Career implies gainful employment, one that offers remuneration suitable for a comfortable living.

 

Having said that, it becomes pertinent to know what the career options available in India are that one can choose from and how choices are made. Delving first into how choices are made, it is important that you choose to do something that brings out the true colors of your personality, something that gives you a sense of satisfaction and boosts your self esteem. It should give an expression to your creativity and match your abilities.

 

 

In India, due to rapid economic growth in post reforms era, the career vistas have broadened immensely. Amongst the various career options available in India today, some of the ones in major demand can be broadly classified as under. 

The career options mentioned above include some of the top paying jobs in India like Management, Chartered Accountancy, Software and Engineering. While it is important to see where your interest lies and what field you choose to make a career in, it is also important to know how you may be able to get there. For example, to get into the top jobs in the fields of management and engineering, you need to attend post graduate and graduate level courses at prestigious institutes like the IIMs and IITs, amongst others. For admission into any of such institutes, you need to pass their respective all India level competitive entrance exams.   

 

This Joint Entrance Examination is conducted every year for admissions to prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology. The successful candidates are admitted to various undergraduate courses. Besides the seven IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee), few other institutes like IT BHU, Varanasi and ISM Dhanbad also consider the IIT JEE scores as criteria for admissions. To be eligible to appear in IIT JEE, a candidate must have passed (or be appearing in) 10 + 2 or equivalent level exam with at least 60 % marks (55% for SC/ST and PD) in aggregate and his/her age must not be more than 25 years as on 1st October of the year in which the exam is taken.

 

Apart from IIT JEE, there are also other important engineering entrance examinations like AIEEE, AIME, BITSAT and CEE Delhi.

 

CAT 

Common Admission Test (CAT) is an all India level competitive examination to shortlist candidates for admissions into prestigious Indian Institutes of Management. Successful candidate at this examination are called by individual IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Indore, Shillong) separately for appearing in group discussion and personal interview. Apart from the seven IIMs there are a host of other institutes like TAPMI, IMTs, SPJIMR etc. that consider CAT scores as criteria for their admissions. The eligibility for taking the CAT is minimum 50 % in aggregate in graduation. Even student appearing in final year examinations of graduation can take the CAT. 

Apart from CAT, there are other important all India and state level examination like XAT, JMET, ATMA, MH-CET and so on.  

 

The PMT (Pre Medical Test) is a national level competitive examination conducted by the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) every year. The PMT is taken by a huge number of aspirants for admission to 15% of the total seats for MBBS and BDS courses in medical colleges run by Union of India, state government, municipal and other local authorities in India except the state of Jammu & Kashmir. To be eligible to take the PMT a candidate must have passed 10+2 or equivalent examination with a minimum of 50 % (40% in case of SC/ST/OBC) marks in PCB (Physics+Chemistry+Biology). Also, candidate must complete 17 years of age on or before December 31st of the year of admission.

 

Apart from the CBSE PMT, there are a host of other national and state level medical entrance examinations for institutes like AFMC (Pune) AIIMS (Delhi), CMC (Vellore) and so on. 

 

In post economic reforms period, it has been seen that job seekers have increasingly turned towards white collared jobs like the ones in the fields of Management and Software / IT/ ITES. Fat salaries and handsome perks have been heavy weights while choosing amongst fields to make a career in.

 

However, from the past one year, owing to the economic slow down, organizations world over have seen drastic financial trimmings that has lead to lay-offs in huge numbers. Job security which until last year didn't trouble many has suddenly become a major criterion for choosing where to work.

 

In this changed scenario, job seekers are now looking for options that offer job security. Trends of change are already evident with young job seekers applying for Government jobs like Civil Services and positions in various PSEs, in increasing numbers.