Explore Event Management Jobs
If communication skills are your forte and you get excited about being in the limelight and organizing things, then you might consider event management as a career option. Event management requires you to be social, outgoing, possessing excellent organizing skills and of course, top notch communication skills. Are you the person behind cultural programmes in your college? Does preparing, rehearsing and organizing a great show get you all charged up? If you agree then turn your passion into a career.
Event management will require you to organize programmes of various magnitudes. From cultural programmes, small office meets to high level international seminars and symposiums, event management oscillates between the hip and happening to the serious and conservative. As an event manager, you have to study the venue, understand all the requirements, thoroughly know the purpose of the event and estimate a budget for it. You will have to arrange all that is needed in the programme and might be asked to take part in the scheduling and sequencing of events as well. Once you know the details of a project, you will need to submit a report based on which you will receive the contract to organize it. Plenty of young people are showing an inclination towards this owing to the excitement and creativity it promises. Event management grooms your organizing skills, man management skills and demands innovative thinking.
If you are interested in jumping into the event management bandwagon, you can pick up and sharpen your skills at National Institute of Event Management (NIEM), College of Events and Media (COEM) etc.
Explore, Learn and Decide
Many of us, prior to looking for a job, have the impression that whatever we are doing in our classrooms and laboratories are exactly what we will be doing in professional life. In a way we view work as an extension of our student life. There is no denying that our education is equipping us with certain skills and theories which will be put to practice once we step into the professional sphere, but there are a lot of other things we need to know and be prepared for. As long as we were students, we never really knew what deadlines mean in the industry, how critical a project and its timely execution can be and how quickly we need to think and improvise. Often our services might be required for something apart from our projects and it will be expected from us that we adapt and deliver.
As the course comes to an end and thoughts of starting work dawn, it is important to research and get to know more about the functioning of different companies. A good idea about the structures of various organizations, big and small, will go a long way in giving aspirants an idea about what to expect. It is important, in my opinion, to look at the various profiles, develop an understanding of the core and added responsibilities, get to know the management and explore opportunities to grow and learn. Working for big companies will enable you to boast of a name and expose you to an assembly-line style of work but ascent will take time and the work can get monotonous. New and smaller companies can be a little disorganized and might want employees to figure things out on their own but offer flexibility and quick growth.
A decision has to be taken regarding what kind of exposure and work-experience would one like before taking up the first job. Once that decision is made, a lot of things become clear.
Consider Internship Jobs
If you want to taste professional life before plunging into it and would like to experience what it feels like to handle a real time project, an internship can be a very good idea. Several major concerns offer opportunities for internship where you get to learn all about life at work and gain valuable experience in the domain of your choice. Internships can be part time or full time for a limited period, so you can probably take them up along with your studies. Internships can help you make up your mind on your choice of career as there is nothing better than to actually be a part of the industry and learn your work hands on.
Bear in mind however that internships might or might not come with a stipend all the time. So you might have to arrange for your accommodation and travel if your company asks you to report to an office in another state or country. However, good performance will always be rewarded and the company might offer you a position at the end of your internship if you manage to impress them. Google, Infosys and even the United Nations among many others, offer good internship opportunities.
Infosys Training Attempts to Address Employability Issues
How does an introduction to the booming IT industry at an early age by a premier company sound to you? That’s exactly what Infosys is doing in their “Catch Them Young” programme. The programme is aimed at identifying talented school students and training them for a successful IT career. The students are chosen through a written test and trained in computer languages and other IT functions.For outstanding performers,there are opportunities for working on a real time project with Infosys paying a stipend.
In addition to this, Infosys also runs the “Rural Reach Program” where school students in rural areas are exposed to the basics of computer education so that they can aspire to a career along those lines later. The “Train the Trainer” programme is also worth mentioning as it’s objective is to train the lecturers of technical institutions so that they can handle their courses better and equip their students with the right skills.
Think in English
Many of us are in the habit of talking to ourselves. When we are alone and don’t have anything important to do, various random thoughts drift in and out of our minds. Now if we are asked in which language we think or talk to ourselves, most of us will say that we think in our mother tongues. Even in response to a question in English, we think about the reply in our mother tongues and try to translate it into English. However, sometimes we find that we do not have/ know English equivalents for all the words in our regional languages which constitute our reply.
In professional lives, this might lead to the serious problem of being unable to express ourselves. You cannot always rehearse your speech while making presentations or explaining the nuances of a project to your clients or colleagues. You have no way of knowing what questions might be thrown at you or what new ideas you might get out of interactions. In order to be proficient in a language it is extremely important that you think in that language. So if you are learning English, make sure you also think in it. You will figure alternate ways of expressing certain concepts or words in your language for which there are no exact English equivalents. In addition to gaining confidence while communicating, this will add a lot of flexibility to your thinking.