Public prospects

After completing my BA in political science next year, I want to pursue my Master’s in public administration . What are the career prospects of this course? Kokila Sen
An MA in public administration will give you the option of going into teaching at the school or college level (for teaching in a college, you will have to clear the UGC-NET exam). You could also explore research jobs in institutions focusing in political and social issues.For eg, IDSA, CPR (Centre for Policy Research), CSSR (Centre for Social Science Research) or other think tanks such as USI or NGOs like NFI (National Foundation of India), among others. Public administration, as it is popularly called, is a common favourite for the UPSC Civil Services Exam (in combination with geography law, sociology , etc). If you make it to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), you can put your theoretical knowledge of the subject into practice.
FUTURE DILEMMA
I am in class XII. I am very confused regarding what field to choose after school. I want to pursue something related to design but I am not sure whether fashion design would be the right field for me. How should I decide? Please guide me. Aftab Beg
From an upcoming profession, fashion design has developed into an established mainline career today. But the fancy salaries and glitzy photo-features we see in the doublepage spreads of fashion glossies are only for the handful of genuinely talented designers graduating from the premier fashion schools and that too after years of sweat and hard work. For the rest, establishing a toehold in the industry is no cakewalk. Moreover, carving a successful career in any of the many design-related fields demands the right mix of skills and talents. You must possess good creative and visualising ability, be good with colours and design, be able to sketch/draw/paint reasonably well and be good with your hands. If you fit the bill, then why just fashion design, even other design-related careers such as textile design; knitwear design; accessory and jewellery design as also footwear design could be the areas you could try for. Other creative fields that you could consider are visual merchandising, graphic design, product design, architecture and interior design. However, if your creative skills are not that heightened, but you would still desire a career in a creative field, then check out courses such as fashion merchandising, fashion styling, fashion management or even fashion communication. If you’re not sure about joining a course in any of these fields straight after school, then take up a regular Bachelor’s degree and alongside take up short-term diploma courses in some of these areas. This will help you get a better idea of what is involved in each discipline and your suitability for it while choosing a specialisation at the PG level.
CAREER IN BANKING
I am a student of class XII (PCM). Despite having science as my stream of study, I am not too keen on engineering but I am very good at math and would like to pursue a career in it. One field, which I am considering is the banking sector. How should I proceed? Isha Jamwal
How lucky you are. For most numerically-challenged , math-phobic mortals , a number-crunching math wiz (like you) seems to belong to a different galaxy altogether. Career opportunities are truly wide and varied for people who have a talent and passion for mathematics. Moreover, the skills you develop while studying for a math degreesuch as the ability to think logically as well as in abstraction will prove to be a great asset in any profession. No wonder it is called the queen of sciences . Mathematics finds multifaceted applications in all walks of life, including banking, business and law. Some of the careers where a mathematical background is particularly valued are actuarial science (insurance ), taxation, business management , finance, computer science, operations research, market research (specifically quantitative) and media planning. The banking and financial services sector is a major growth area where the work focuses on portfolio management , financial control methods and forecasting, equity research, financial planning, etc. For all these, MBA (finance), MFC, CA, CFA will hold you in good stead. For RBI jobs: www.rbi.org.in Many financial services companies, research labs of multinational companies , etc, are aggressively hiring Indian mathematicians and the best part is that the pay package is better than that offered to IT professionals. Business analytics is another area, which you can get into if you do an MBA (finance).
OIL DEMAND
Can you please tell me something about the prospects in the oil drilling sector? Varun Yadav
The opening up of the Indian petroleum sector to private players, dismantling of price controls and the spiralling fuel costs combined with ever-increasing consumption of petroleum products have brought the oil industry into the forefront. Over the next 50 years, global energy consumption is expected to go up by 50%. Until we find cheap sustainable fuel, one of the major challenges of the oil industry is going to be centered on finding new oil. And to find the oil, we need to have machines like super computers and hi-tech imaging systems , not to mention, competent people. There is a marked paucity of talent both at the upstream (oil and gas exploration) and downstream (refining) levels. Geoscientists for exploration operations , drillers and project managers are expected to be in great demand.