The Counsellor - 36

THE COUNSELLOR

Beyond boundaries

I am residing in Gurgaon and I want to pursue MBA from a reputed college. Please give me a list of B-schools in Gurgaon.
Suresh Mishra

I would urge you not to confine your choice of a B-school to Gurgaon or even Delhi for that matter. An MBA is your brand equity for life. Make sure you do it from the best school possible — regardless of where or how far in India you may need to go for it.

Visa issues

Please tell me something about the new point-based immigration system introduced in UK. Does it mean that it will become very difficult to immigrate there? I work in a hotel and I am very keen to move to London.
Vikas Rajan

The new points-based system was introduced in February this year to rate prospective immigrants based on their skills. Besides making people aware of whether they could settle down in the country or not, this would increase the immigrant flow, although the prevalent view is that it has been brought about to restrict the number of people coming into the UK. Europe being in need of skilled manpower due to its declining population, the points-based immigration system would, in principle, provide a fair chance to skilled Indian workers to work and settle in UK. However, there are always some “ifs” and “buts”. Since the US slowdown has had global ramifications, jobs and hiring have taken a severe beating in the UK as well. And some sectors are more affected than others.

Right bet

I completed Master’s in Urdu in the year 2006. I also cleared NET (Urdu) with 63.11% marks. What type of jobs can I look at?
Gokul Chand

After completing a PhD in Urdu, you can take up teaching at the college or university level. With the proliferation of the media, there is a growing demand for those who can communicate with style, ease and competence. There are large number of Urdu based channels being telecast worldwide. So you have the option to join electronic media. You can work there as announcer, newsreader, anchorperson or scriptwriter. You can also work as a journalist in print media and web content creator in the online medium. Creative writing is yet another option. You can be a copywriter in an advertising agency, technical writer, public relations executive or editor. An additional course in public relation, journalism, advertising or mass communication would give you the necessary professional edge.
You could also look at openings abroad in countries where Urdu is widely spoken. It is in the Middle-East countries and some of the western South Asian countries where you could look for job openings, but be prepared to face stiff competition from the local applicants who might have similar qualifications and the added advantage of regional and market familiarity.If you are fluent with any language other than Urdu ie English or French, a translator or interpreter's job may be worth. The Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) has introduced BEd (Urdu) in collaboration with Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, www.manuu.ac.in .

Looking ahead

I belong to a family of farmers in Himachal Pradesh. I have heard that cultivating aromatic medicinal plants is a very lucrative option. How far this true?
Vijay Kumar

Plants have been used medicinally since antiquity. According to the World Health Organisation’s survey, 80% of the world’s population uses plants as medicine for primary health care. Plant based medicines are used in various systems ie Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Homeopathy and even in Allopathy to some extent. Nearly 90% of plant-based medicines are obtained from nature, while 10% are from medicinal plants cultivated in farms. However, owing to the growing demand of plant based medicines, there is an urgent need to grow certain medicinal plants on a large scale. Some common spices and condiments are being cultivated in farms on a large scale eg black pepper, chilies, coriander, cumin, fennel, garlic, ginger, mustard, mint, onion, turmeric etc. You could also consider this option.
India has rich plant diversity to meet the growing demands of plant based medicines, perfumery and flavouring. India’s favourable soil and climate plays host to over 320 of the 400 families of flowering medicinal plants in the world. As we have some of the rarest and most needed medicinal plants in
India, we can capitalise on this to capture a large share of the growing global trade. Organic farming would go a long way in increasing the acceptability of these plants. Pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of ayurvedic medicines, herbal cosmetics, health food, perfume industry and nature cure clinics — in India and abroad namely USA, EU, Japan and Australia constitute the major market for Indian medicinal plants. On the other hand many others like New Zealand, Germany and Korea have shown keen interest. While our domestic market alone is huge, and growing steadily, our herbal exports to the US exceed that of China.
The National Medicinal Plants Board, www.nmpb.nic.in , expects export of medicinal and value-added products from India to double from the present Rs 800-900 crore, by 2011-12. Several states eg Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttaranchal offer incentives for plantation of medicinal herbs. The entire Himalayan region of Himachal Pradesh, particularly the higher reaches of Chamba, Kulu, Shimla and Sirmour districts, is home to over 3,500 species of herbs and aromatic plants. Of these as many as 70 endangered Himalayan herbs with rare medicinal properties are on the verge of extinction.
By 2011-12 government’s new National Mission on Medicinal Plants (NMMP) expects to bring some 80,000-1,00,000 hectares of land under medicinal plants through direct financial assistance for cultivation, and an almost equal area, which will be covered by incentivising farmers who may switch over from traditional crops to medicinal plants. Some 200 nurseries are proposed to be set up, both in the public and private sector, for making available seeds of certified quality.
New testing labs are being created through public-private partnerships.

Sunil Sharma

Moderator

Dil Se Desi Group

&

www.dilsedesi.org

Choosing careers at an early age

Career Smart

Students are now being encouraged to think about careers from a relatively early age,

GONE are the days when students thought about choosing careers after reaching class XII. Today, they are serious about careers at an earlier age and start ‘exploring’ various options.
A resource centre was recently launched to this end at Delhi Public School (DPS), Ghaziabad. The centre will provide knowledge about new careers, courses and institutions to students, teachers and parents ranging from actuarial science, avionics to bioinformatics, to name a few. It will also enable access to neutral career information and career planning aids help in selecting the right course and institute.
Elaborating on the need for such a centre, Jitin Chawla, career counsellor and managing director, JUMP and also the brain behind the concept, said: “Career awareness among students is a major problem, and thus we aim to build that right from class IX onwards to help students make informed career decisions.”
Speaking about the activities planned for the resource centre, he said: “We will ensure regular visits by our career counsellors to tackle queries and conduct workshops. In addition, we have a display board showcasing new programmes and institutions, charts showing career routes, a career books library, a compilation of online resources and mock tests for different exams.”

THE RIGHT AGE

Most teachers feel that students should start thinking seriously about their careers from class VIII onwards. As Sunita Roy, counsellor, Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai, put it: “Ideally, class VIII onwards, students should at least know about the career options available.” She added: “In fact, young children who are at impressionable age, start imitating doctors or policemen, so depending on their interest, they should be made to interact with people from different professions so that they can know more about it.”
On the other hand, P Anjali Mehta, counsellor, Amity School, Noida, said: “The right age for career counselling is when a child reaches class IX and the exploration phase must start at this age.” She added: “Students also need to be made aware about various lifestyles that each profession holds and they must pursue it only if it suits their temperament.”
One can’t deny that children are turning materialistic today, opined Mehta. She said: “What students usually want today is money, power, status and job satisfaction. Hence, they prefer to chose careers that are lucrative.” Similarly, Roy stated: “Today’s generation wants to pursue lucrative careers with lesser working hours, so they are especially interested in learning about the career options available in this regard.”

COUNSELLING PARENTS

Most counsellors agree to the fact that parents need counselling more than students, as they are usually the final decision-makers. Talking about one of their focussed programmes specially for parents, Roy said: “We have a class-wise programme wherein we encourage regular interactions of parents and children so that both can understand each other’s perceptions. This greatly helps in motivating both participants.”
Mehta's advice for students, on pursuing ‘new millennium careers’ is that that they should only pursue them depending on their abilities and sheer passion for it. She added: “Students should be exposed to career fairs and be encouraged to explore as much as possible to gain insights.”

TIPS FOR CHOOSING A CAREER


• Understand yourself completely. Understand your strengths, which you can build on, and your weaknesses as well

• Know which subjects/hobbies/activities interest you the most and you can choose your career accordingly

• Always evaluate all the career options available and then select the career that attracts you the most

• You should not only know about traditional career options such as engineering or medicine but also about off-beat careers that are very successful these days, including stand up comedians, wedding choreographers etc

• Don’t select careers by talking to your friends and parents. Try and interact with people working in varied fields/industries

• Even if a job looks very interesting, try working part-time at first

• Never choose any career under pressure or by getting influenced by others

Sunil Sharma

Moderator

Dil Se Desi Group

&

www.dilsedesi.org

LEONARD N STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

The city advantage

PURSUING AN MBA IN THE HEART OF AMERICA’S MOST COSMOPOLITAN CITY, NEW YORK, CAN HAVE MANY BENEFITS. DEAN OF THE LEONARD N STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY TALKS ABOUT WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE THE CUT

Stern is unique because it is located at the heart of a large, dynamic city. How does this location contribute to academics at your B-School?

Our urban campus acts as a great intellectual and professional stimulus. We use New York City as both a classroom and a laboratory for learning. Business leaders from banking, finance, entertainment and the media, are frequent guest speakers, enriching our rigorous academic programmes with their pragmatic insights. Many co-curricular activities also take advantage of our location. For example, MBA students are exposed to many of the unique cultural organisations in New York and have the opportunity to consult for them and for small businesses.

Do you see a lot of applications from Indian students? How can Indian students interact with your representatives?

For our undergraduate college and full-time MBA programme, India is one of the top countries from which we receive applications. To recruit for our full-time MBA programme, we visit several cities in India during the fall as part of our admissions process. We hold our own presentations in Mumbai, and this year, in Bangalore, as well. We return to the region in the winter to interview prospective students whom we have invited to interview (we interview everyone we admit).

What is the average student profile that you adhere to when reviewing applications for the MBA programme?

One of the greatest assets of our school is its community. For example, in our full-time MBA programme, our students bring with them a wide range of backgrounds and expertise, which enriches the experience of their peers.
There are some highlights, however. About 42% of our student body constitutes women, a little more than onethird of our students are international or dual citizens, and we have among the highest percentage of underrepresented minority students at 16%. About 40% of this class previously worked in either the financial services, consulting or marketing industries (data from the Fall 2007 entering class).
In our executive MBA programme, which targets senior executives, the average age is 38 and almost 50% of enrolled students already hold advanced degrees.
We don’t have a defined GMAT score requirement. Applicants can visit our website to see our admitted class profile. As far as work experience is concerned, most students in our full-time MBA programme have about five years of work experience under their belt. All our programmes are extremely selective and competitive. For entry to our full-time MBA programme this fall, we received more than 4700 applications for about 400 spots. It was a record year for our GMAT, which hit 707, as well as our selectivity (admissions rate), an indicator of competitiveness, which is 13%.

If the situation is so competitive, what can a student do right before applying to Stern to make sure that he/she is admitted to a programme?

For our full-time MBA programme, we evaluate each candidate holistically, based on academic potential, career history and goals, and personal and professional characteristics. Since our community at our institute is one of our strongest assets, we try to ensure a student’s ‘fit’ with our community. A student must illustrate through the application and interview process why this institute is the right fit for him and how he envisions himself contributing to our community.

Do you think management graduates are holding up well in the face of the current economic situation and changing job market in the US?

This is certainly a tougher job market, but our graduating MBA students are faring well. Currently, our placement rate is only slightly behind where we were last year. What we are seeing is that some recent alumni are experiencing lay-offs as a result of the credit crunch. In response to the end of the dotcom bubble in 2001, we created the Career Centre for Working Professionals for our working student population and alumni. So we’re in a strong position to provide support to our alumni.

Sunil Sharma

Moderator

Dil Se Desi Group

&

www.dilsedesi.org