Agreed, most private teaching shops mostly franchisee shops like these Institutes have failed to deliver. But NIIT also had great success stories with their GNIIT programme a few years ago. Regretfully, after the dot com bust and NASHDAQ crash, most G-NIIT guys and gals are on the streets. Or maybe elsewhere working on new idea. Anyway, when top of the line Engg Colleges find it hard to hire good faculty, where can NIIT get top of the line folks to teach? Fortunately there is a massive shake out and many NIIT Centers have shut down or are in the process of doing so. Same applies to APTECH/DATAPRO and many others. All the hugh ads in newspapers have disappeared. Maybe NIIT may get their act together, concentrate on quality control, have fewer Centers and make a comeback soon. They were the pioneers in IT education in the Private Sector for two decades and many of their students have prospered too. The director of NIIT, Mr Rajendra Pawar is a smart man and a wise man. He made a mistake, cashed in during the boom time (who did not, huh?), went bust, may have learnt from it and will deliver sooner or later.
I am using the NIIT platform to convey an idea not so orignal yet hope to get your brain spinning like a top. After all way back in the late Eighties NIIT was an idea that spun millions of bucks for two decades!
Choosing a Profession/Career is CHOOSING A LIFESTYLE. The choice you make now will determine the way you live your life over the next 40 years or so, be it IT or whatever else.
In the good old days it was enough to get one degree, take up a job and get on with life. In the Nineties, an Engineer choose to do an MBA say Marketing and get into another field altogether, like working out strategies to sell fast moving consumer goods. MBBS docs used to move over to the IPS and so on.
So what needs to be done for the next decade upto year 2115?
M Tech/MBA/Eco/Life Sciences/Env Sciences/Medicine/Dentistry/Defence/Merchant Navy and so on is fine and maybe current.
The future lies in making a Career in two/three areas in parallel. Like Parallel Processing in Super Computing. Remember your brain is used to an extent of 10 percent max this very day. The potential to exploit the remaining 90 % remains to be tapped.
What? You ask. I can barely cope up with what I am doing now. Where is the time? How is that possible? Is that necessary?
Of course it is.
Lets look at it this way. Remember the great recessions that hit India and the world in the field of IT in the year 1999-2002? Hordes of desis returned from USA hit by the dot com bust. Having returned they had nowhere to go coz the domestic IT Industry was not hiring either.
Look what’s happening in the USA. Besides IT, the hospitality Industry/Airlines/Business are taking a hit. No jobs for M. Techs/MBA’s some say even from Wharton!
Back home the 1970’s the Shipping Industry took a hugh hit. Many careers were ruined. This day year 2003, many newly qualified 2nd mates today have no jobs and nowhere to go. Coz many Private Institues are churning out Marine Officers by the hundreds each year. And they pay a bomb for it.
Now in the years 2003-2015, I see these crazy cycles repeating in most unpredictable ways with a much higher frequency.
I would strongly recommend to all:
Firstly try and understand, it is no longer desirable or safe to follow just one career path. You have the time to follow 2 more!
Take up a hobby like Photography/Writing/Painting or anything that you fancy, even Crafts, Tailoring, Pottery, Mobike/Car maintainence and repairs. Give at least 14 hrs a week for SELF STUDY and practical work. Work out your own syllibus, go on the net download info and lo...in three years flat, while you are doing your BA/BSC/BE, you will have acquired additional skills which can pay you handsomely! This also applies to the young who are already employed gainfully. Hey I am not joking. I know hardcore Professionals who already have 2 or more side jobs or businesses big and small. They do it by exploiting their talents/skills unrelated to their main profession and making good dough! In bad times, these alternatives can bring in the much needed moolah else pay for expensive vacations or educating kids abroad. I know a Brigadier in the Army who got his housewife to start tailoring outfits. Today they have a tie up with Nike and a Rs 10 Crores turnover! Now they just want to quit this Nike stuff and move on to something new altogether.
You know folks, I am not frivolous here. Some of our Star Writers on Mouthshut have enough talent to write books and win them fancy Brooker/Pulitzer Prizes. Many of these Star Writers should work at freelance journalism and make it big a-la-Shobha De. Give it a shot! Why work for free for Mouthshut? Just coz it thrills you to see ur pic coming and going on and off as a Star Writer? It’s a thrill no doubt! An achievement too. But move on folks. Shake your lazy butts.
Yours truly is right now working on an alternative career too. Coz of public demand! Regretfully, I am not devoting sufficient time to my alternate plus career path coz of mundane time wasting stuff like writing for Mouthshut (actually you can delete this), partying, internet surfing, movies and eating out, long irrelevant chatting on the phone and now this cell phone thing, SMS stuff, socialising, boozing, golfing (okay cut out golfing) reading glossy magazines, watching TV...the list is endless.
Just think...if you are one like me, wasting your time and energy, just figure out dude where you can be, should you have a more focussed approach to work at 2/3 careers simulteneously.
Many years ago, a young 35 something fren, an MBA from IIM took a sabbatical for 2 years. Started a venture with a few not so successful frens, went on to set up his own stuff in Interiors and is raking money in more than half a dozen ways. Spin offs. I was offered to join in too...but laziness and golf ...destroyed my chances!
Dont blow up ur chances should you have one!
Comments welcome. Live examples too.
Yours good fer sumthing maybe nutting
Mariner!