“Always try to have the highest possible aim in the field of your interest. But it is important that you have a practical assessment of your abilities,” Assistant Commissioner Lavish Ordia said in Bidar on Sunday.
He was speaking after inaugurating The Hindu Education Plus Career Counselling Session 2023 at the Sri Channabasava Pattaddevaru Rang Mandir.
The young IAS officer asked students to select an area of academic interest that they will never tire of studying, understanding and explaining to others in writing and by speaking on it.
He told students that they should have very high dreams and aims in life, but their goals should be based on a realistic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.
“For example, if you are writing the UPSC Civil Services examinations, you should put a limit on yourself about how many attempts you will make at the examination and how many years will you invest on it. At any point, if you feel you have over assessed your abilities, you should stand back and introspect. It will help reduce disappointment and ensure that you will continue to enjoy a positive mindset,” he said.
Mr. Ordia spoke of his life as an IIT Mumbai graduate, an employee of Shell company and as a scientist in Houston in the U.S. He gave tips to students about studying for examination and for developing a positive outlook in life.
Mr. Ordia asked students not to feel depressed after the initial failures in examinations or in their chosen careers. “If you have a deep interest in that, you should keep working; otherwise, you should decide when to quit gracefully,” he said.
Prithvik Shankar, a young IPS officer who is serving as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Bhalki, asked students to develop healthy habits such as getting up early and going to bed early.
He asked students to plan their studies and work according to the plan. “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. It is as simple as that,” he said.
Describing himself as a regular reader of The Hindu for over a decade, the post-graduate in chemistry asked students to develop the habit of reading newspapers deeply and seriously and not just to throw a glance at them.
He spoke of his mental make-up while facing the UPSC examination when he learnt that a lot of his competitors were serving officers who had come to better their all India ranks. “It was intimidating, but I learnt to handle it well,” he said.
Shivanshu Rajput, another young IPS officer and Assistant Superintendent of Police, asked students to make good use of the resources available to them at home and college and plan for the future.
“Unlike earlier generations, today’s young people have a lot of resources like the internet and mobile phones and laptops. They should realise which part of the internet they should browse through and gain information that helps them develop their personality and increase the chances of their success,” the engineering graduate said.
Ameen Mudassar, founder CEO of Cigma India, spoke in detail about the various career options available to young people after 10th and 12th standard. He said that there are hundreds of career options that are not very well known but are as rewarding as the traditional, well-known career options and asked parents and students to consider them.
He gave a power-point presentation that had brief details of various academic and career options for medicine and engineering, law, education, media and STEM and liberal arts.
He also spoke of the various career options that are based on emerging technological tools like Python, Artificial Intelligence-based design tools and computer graphics.
He introduced students to new-age degrees in adventure tourism, travel writing, blogging, photography and animation, defence studies, railway studies, forensic analysis and super-speciality education.
Mr. Mudassar asked young people to utilise the benefits of the provisions of the New Education Policy like choice-based credits system, dual degree system and parallel offline and online degrees. He advised a government school teacher who wanted to study law to take up short-term courses from national and State universities in niche law subjects and hone his skills.
Mr. Mudassar listed two dozen rewarding careers that did not need formal degrees. They included digital marketing, content provision, commercial blogging, advertisement copy writing, managing social media handles of celebrities, conducting surveys and tracking media exposure of products and individuals.
Rajshekar Sedamkar, orthopaedic surgeon, spoke about the various challenges of a career like medicine. He asked students who do not get MBBS admissions not to feel bad. There are other interesting fields like Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, physiotherapy, psycho therapy, Pharm D and biomedical engineering that are associated with medicine and are equally interesting, he said.
N.M. Biradar, principal of Bheemanna Khandre Institute of Technology, Bhalki, said that discipline is the primary necessity to succeed in any academic sector.
He spoke about the various options available for engineering students after their degree and pointed out that a career based on research and development is among the least explored fields for young people.
Abhishek Chintamani, young entrepreneur and permaculture farmer, spoke of his love for tourism, photography and farming and how he has been able to combine all of them into a career. He spoke of his initial upsets and how he learnt to take monetary success and failure together, with the same spirit.
Sharanappa Halaburgi, CET resource person, Rang Mandir officers, officers of The Hindu and others were present.
The event was organised in association with the venue sponsor Shaheen Group of Institutions and other sponsor agencies. It was well attended. Students of schools and colleges from across the district participated.
