A Quick Guide to

Preparing for your

Dream Career

Kantilal Joshi

Dean Placements & Industry Relations

G.H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur

1. Identify your Goal

To be, or not to be, that is the question

What to do you want to do when you graduate? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
These are the typical questions you will face in any interview. Though the questions sound to be
cliched, they are extremely important.

So what are the options?

1. Campus Placement
2. Higher Studies
3. Entrepreneurship
4. I really dont know

If your answer is out of first three options it is good. And if it is the 4th option, it is even better. At
least you have accepted that you dont know. Here is a simple process that may help you
identify your area of interest.

Decision Matrix: Arrange your career options as rows and Factors affecting themas columns. You
may give weights to different options. So in the example given below, highest weight is to
Finance. Next, give marks out of 5 in every column, based on your opinion.

Factors: Interest Finance, Technical Growth Total

Parent Support Aptitude Prospects

Weights: 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 1

Campus 5 2 5 5 4.4
Placement/Job

Higher Studies 0 3 2 2 1.4

Entrepreneurship 2 2 1 3 2

Sample calculation(Campus Placement/Job) 5*0.4+2*0.2+5*0.2+5*0.2=4.4

Being a placement officer, I have got highest score in Placement row. You may do your own
calculations. I will recommend to use your own options as rows and own factors as columns.

2. IT, Core, Programming or ????

Assuming that you have opted for placements, next big question is should I go for IT or for Core?

Fundamentally, this question is wrong.Allindustrysectorsareinterdependent.Youmaystartina

particularjobrole,butasyougrowyouwillhavetotakeupmanypositions,especiallymanagerial
ones. I would like you to have a look at the LinkedIn profile of one of your seniors.

SinamLeninSingh,anElectricalEngineerfromGHRCEalwayshadapassiontolead,andnowhe
is working with CISCO but not in the technical role but as HR. So you may be an Engineering
graduate, but you can always take a role in other domains.

You may take this exercise to find out what your seniors are doing? how they got there? what
skills did they acquire? This should give you a fair idea of different job roles in the market and
required skills.

There are many other online resources which tell you about skill requirements for a specific
company and jobrole. Youmayvisithttp://www.skilldevelopment.gov.in/ssc.htmlandthenfollow
any one industry sector. For example if you explore the options in IT sector you may visit
http://www.sscnasscom.com/ssc-projects/career-paths/animated-career-maps/it-services/

Please note, even a Mechanical Engineer can find a relevant technical profile in IT sector for
example CAD software design and a Computer Science engineer can find a role in Steel Industry.

3. Prepare a good Resume

A well prepared Resume can help you sail throughtheshortlistingprocess.Especiallyintoday's
context many ofthecompaniesarerelyingondistancehiring.Thetrendisexpectedtoonlygrow
in that direction. It is not only your Resume but also your Social network profile which is under
scrutiny. There are manyarticlesonlinewhichmayguideabouthowtoprepareresume.Youmay
refer following link for a good article on this topic

https://uptowork.com/blog/resume-summary.

As a student, you may find it challenging to prepare your first resume. Here is a wonderful free
tool called Resume Builder by Accenture. You can register on this website and use the
templates to create a nice looking Resume.

https://resumebuilder.accenture.com/

One very important aspect about your Resume is that, it cannot be same for every company or
job profile. You have tocarefullycraftitforeveryopportunity.Thetaskmayseemdaunting,butit
is worth the effort.

4. Practice Practice Practice!

No matter what was your 10th, 12th scoreorCGPA is,todaycompaniesarelookingoutforskills.
So if you aspire to be a Coder then you must have those skills. You must have participated in
many hackathons, online competitions by various IT companies and you must have prepared at
least 5-6 projects during your academic years. Following are some of the online platforms that
you can explore to practice coding.

www.codechef.com

www.hackerearth.com

www.codewars.com

I am sure if you are really interested you can find many more such platforms. Key is to practice,
you may also find many apps on Playstore and AppStore which can help you learn, code and
practice.

In case you are interested in joining PSUs or Navratna companies then you must have a valid
GATE Score. GATE score is also considered as a markofyourtechnicalcompetencebymanyof
the private companies. For more information on GATE 2018, please visit following link.

http://www.gate.iitg.ac.in

5. Must haves

I havedeliberatelynottoucheduponsomeaspectslikehowtodress,bodylanguageetc.toavoid
your focus on thesethingsattheoutset.Youwillcertainlygetalotoftraininginthisareathrough
college. These are the skills which are absolute must. Anothermustisdisciplineandpunctuality.
This may sound preachy but it is the deciding factor when there are many equals.

6. Conclusion

There is a famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt

No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without

Your Consent

Now it is upto you to decide your path and prepare accordingly! If you wish to, there is no dearth
of support system!

Wish you all the best!