Is the Commerce stream for you? Class XII Student!

Is the Commerce stream for you?

Sonali Arora | June 15, 2007

If you're just out of class X and headed for college, it's time to take that all-important decision -- will it be science, commerce or arts?

It is a major decision, one that will have an impact on your future, so make sure you do your research before making a choice. Consult family and friends for their advice and recommendations, but don't neglect your interests and aptitude either.

If you're thinking about choosing commerce, here are some considerations you need to keep in mind before making your decision:

Interests and aptitude

Students who have an interest in working with numbers, and enjoy reading and analysing numerical data and who aspire to make a career in the financial and business world are ideally suited for commerce.

• Should you opt for Arts in college?

Percentage

While technically even a 50 per cent result in the Class X examinations would enable you to qualify for admission into commerce, to get into a top-notch college, you'll need to secure a first-class.

Subjects offered

If you think you're cut out for the commerce stream, here's what you can look forward to in college. Most commerce colleges offer the following subjects:

• Business economics: This would cover concepts like the laws of demand and supply, law of returns, elasticity, theory of pricing under different market forms etc.
• Financial accounting: This subject would deal with the preparation of profit and loss statements, balance sheets and final accounts of a company, knowledge of Indian and international accounting standards, calculation of depreciation and valuation of shares and goodwill of a company.
• Cost accounting: This would include process, job and contract costing, costing of overheads, standard and variance costing and budgetary control.
• Income tax: This would encompass the nature and basis of charge of income tax, tax planning, tax deduction, incomes not taxable etc.
• Auditing: This would deal with vouching, valuation and verification of transactions, assets and liabilities. It will also include studying the auditing of different organisations like clubs, hospitals and charitable concerns.
• Business finance: This would include in its scope financial analysis as a diagnostic tool, the management of working capital and its components as well as capital structure leverages.
• Business law: This subject would discuss the different laws in India relating to, among others, the Companies Act and the Consumer Protection Act.
• Marketing: This subject would deal with products, pricing methods, promotion, channels of distribution, logistics etc.
• Business communication: This subject focuses on the art of business correspondence --business letter writing, memo writing, notices etc.

While submitting the college application form, you will have to make a choice of four subjects from the ones offered. English (most commonly referred to as 'Communication Skills') and an additional language (Hindi or French, some colleges may offer Marathi or Gujarati) are mandatory for all. There will be a total of six subjects.

• Do you need career counselling?

Careers options

There are a number of career streams that open up for students once they opt for commerce. Here are some of the most popular choices:

~ MBA: Students interested in learning how to manage a business professionally can opt for a degree in management. An MBA course can vary in duration with a regular MBA being a 2-year course, while an Executive MBA taking 1 year to complete. Doing an MBA through correspondence is also an option.

~ Chartered accountancy: A chartered accountant is responsible for auditing companies, stock brokers and income tax assesses. A student can join a CA course either after the 10+2 board examination by registering for the Professional Education (PE) I course (a 10-month course) or after graduating (with the specified percentage) by registering for the PE II course (also 10-months long).

~ Cost accountant: The option of pursuing cost accountancy is open to any student of 17 years of age who has passed the Senior Secondary Examination (under the 10+2 scheme) of a recognised board.

~ Company secretary: A person who is responsible for ensuring that the company meets its statutory obligations is called a company secretary. Any student who has passed the Senior Secondary (10+2) examination is eligible to apply for a company secretary course.

~ Chartered financial analyst: A chartered financial analyst can operate in the areas of financial accounting, management accounting, financial management, investment management, security evaluation, project planning, venture capital management and credit rating. The course is a 3-year post graduation degree.

Apart from the careers mentioned above, a person taking up commerce can also get into streams like advertising, marketing, banking, law and business consulting among many others. It's just a matter of knowing your interests and applying yourself.

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/jun/15coll2.htm
Source: Rediff

Deciding upon a career? Class XII Students

Deciding upon a career? Choose wisely

Sourajit Anthony Ghosh | June 15, 2007

Today, students who have passed out of Class XII have far more educational and career options to explore than I had nine years ago. What's interesting, however, is that the majority of sought-after options from back then continue to be hot favorites even now -- the dream colleges are still the IITs for engineering and AIIMS for medicine, although teenagers today have a whole lot of other interesting options to choose from.

Before we go into what career options are available to Class XII students, let's see how one goes about making a career choice. I would say that you need to strike a balance between what you are good at and enjoy, and pursuing a career in a field that is worth it. By 'worth it', I mean financially feasible and relatively possible.

Say you really love fashion. Now, designers Rohit Bal and Ritu Beri are rich, famous and hopefully happy with their lives. But it's very difficult to reach the level of success they have. What you need to understand is that with average efforts and talent, the chances of making it big in a career (that is not abstract) are much higher than making it big in a niche career, like fashion designing or tennis, which require exceptional talent and hard work.

• Do you need career counselling?

Career options

So, what are the options open to you after Class XII? Here's a short list of the most popular careers today:

• Engineering
• Medicine
• BBA/ BBS/ BMS
• BIS/ BIT/ BCA/ BSc (Computer Science)
• Law
• Fashion technology and design
• Hotel management
• Mass communication

There are, of course, many other career options available. Doing a little research by visiting various colleges and obtaining their prospectuses, or visiting their websites, will help you make a more informed choice, one more suited to your interests.

Picking a college

Once you have decided on the career you want to pursue, the next step is to find the best college offering that course. Getting into top colleges in a particular field means you need to score reasonably well in the board exams.

Here is a list of some colleges that are the most distinguished in their field:

• Engineering: IITs, NITs, top state-level colleges
• Medical: AIIMS, Vellore, top state-level colleges
• BBA/ BBS/ BMS: Jamia Milia Islamia (Delhi), IPS Academy (Indore) and a number of other colleges in the country's metros
• BIS/ BIT/ BCA/ BSc (Computer Science): Most major universities such as the Maharashtra universities and Delhi University offer these courses
• Law: National Law University (Bangalore), Government Law College (Mumbai)
• Fashion Technology & Design: NIFT, iNIFD
• Hotel Management: Exams conducted by the National Council for Hotel Management, Delhi
• Mass Communication: IIMC (New Delhi), Xavier Institute of Communications (Mumbai), Asian College of Journalism (Chennai)

At present, business process outsourcing (BPOs) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPOs) firms are booming, and with any such boom come attractive job opportunities. If you are interested in seeking a job at a BPO concern, your academic career may not be a priority, but proficiency in spoken English is a must. For the KPOs levels, proficiency in statistics, economics, law and other such streams is needed.

• Follow your career path in digital filmmaking

What qualifies as a 'good career'?

How do I define a good career? Honestly, before anything else, a good career is one that ensures a good job.

So, what do you need to do to ensure a higher probability of success? Let's look at the situation from a recruiter's point of view. What does a company look for in a candidate? A company, for any given vacancy, will have a wide pool of candidates to pick from. So, even before you get a chance to meet someone from the company, you have to get short-listed first. The common criteria that most companies look at while short-listing candidates are:

~ Academic background, which includes the names of educational institutes and examination results of the candidate.

~ Subject examination, which tests your knowledge in that relevant subject.

~ An aptitude test, which comprises basic mathematics, English and general knowledge.

Once you are short-listed, the interview stage comes next. The interviewer will test you on knowledge of concepts, common sense, quick thinking and communication skills. Premium colleges follow a similar admission process.

To summarise, aptitude and attitude are the two pillars on which your success in any career depend.

Your aptitude for a subject is a good measure of whether you will enjoy your field of study and the success you will achieve in a particular profession. A positive attitude will help improve your people management skills, stress management skills, ability to influence others and work environment.

Different jobs will test both these facets, with the degrees varying according to the nature of the job.

Finally, as most people will agree, there's no shortcut to success, so whatever you choose to do, make sure you are involved 100 percent, and give it your best shot.

Sourajit Anthony Ghosh is Senior Manager at the Triumphant Institute of Management Education (TIME) Pvt Ltd.

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/jun/15coll.htm
(Source: Rediff)

Why Employees Leave Organizations?

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANISATIONS ?

- Azim Premji, CEO- Wipro


Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Mark, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.

He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food.

Twice Mark was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.
Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Mark walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave ?
Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.

The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:
If you're losing good people, look to their manager....
manager is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he 's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies ," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Mostly manager drives people away?

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don 't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.

UPSC Civil Services (IAS/IPS/IFS/IES) Govt of India

Indian Civil Services (UPSC)

Indian Civil Services has various departments to serve the Nation. (Proud to be an Indian)

UPSC Official Website: http://www.upsc.gov.in/

IAS Official Website: http://ias.nic.in/

IFS Office Website: http://ifs.nic.in/

It includes,

• Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
• Indian Police Service (IPS)
• Indian Foriegn Service (IFS)
• Group-A sector
  • Audit, Finance, Customs, Central Excise, Defence, Revenue, Postal, Railway, RPF, Indian Informative Service.
• Group-B sector
  • RRB, Armed Forces (Civil), Union Teritory Civil Service.

Education & Eligibility:

• Any degree from a recognised University, citizen of India.
• Age limit: 21-30 as on August 1st of the year.
• More specific details: http://www.thisismyindia.com/education/civil-services-eligibility.html

Examinations:

• IAS Prelims (2 hrs): General Studies & Optional Subject (Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Agriculture, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Statistics etc.) -- [Timeline: May-June]
• Civil Services Main Examinations: (9 papers in Oct-Nov - 3hrs each paper)
• One of the Indian languages, English, Essay GK and Current Affairs: 2 papers on general studies
• 2-papers on optional-1 and 2-papers on optional-2 (see UPSC Prospectus)
• Civil Services Interview: Interview Calls sent in Mar-Apr and it take place in Apr-May.
• UPSC Results 2007 (News) - http://www.indianexpress.com/story/30955.html
  

Remuneration:

The Government of India has fixed salary grades for Civil Servants. Approximately the range of salaries drawn at various levels is as follows: (http://www.civilserviceindia.com/job-prospects-and-remuneration.html)

• Junior Officers: Rs. 8000-275-13500
• Senior Officers: Rs. 10650-325-15200
• Junior Administrative Grade: Rs. 12,750-375-16,500
• Selection Grade: Rs. 15,100-400-18,300
• Additional Secretary: Rs. 22400-525-24500
• Secretary/Cabinet Secretary: Rs. 26,000/30,000
  
  (The above scales only provide an idea of the pay scales. Different branches of the service have different scales of pay.)
  
  In addition to the salary civil servants receive various allowances such as Dearness Allowance, City compensatory Allowance, Leave Travel Allowance, Medical and subsidised housing.

Magazines to be referred:

• Manorama year book
• Competition Success Review
• Toppers
• Civil Services Chronicle

Some useful websites to prepare for Civil Services

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Administrative_Service

http://sriramsias.tripod.com/

http://www.vajiramandravi.com/

http://www.onesmartclick.com/exams/upsc.html

Yahoogroup email list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indian-civil-services/

From Answers.com;

http://www.answers.com/topic/indian-administrative-service
http://www.answers.com/topic/indian-police-service
http://www.answers.com/topic/indian-forest-service

Important Note: Information provided may be incorrect or changed by Govt of India. Please visit UPSC website or contact UPSC offices at your regional center for details.

Career in "Advertising" industry for creativity and talent

The Advertising industry has a voracious appetite for creativity and talent. It is constantly growing and creating jobs for highly talented people who can think out of the box and come up with innovative ideas. Both big and small advertising agencies exist that help companies touch base with their consumers and put their message across using the various media like print, radio, television, and the Internet.

There is a perennial demand for talent. "As products launch and grow, so does the job market. Ad agencies now face competition on an international level from MNC brands. If you join a widely spread agency, you have chances to be transferred overseas too. Growth prospects are immense," says Pankaj Sharma, 29, an executive in a recruitment consultancy in Delhi.

Job profile

Advertising is handled by advertising agencies that vary in size and scope. Some large companies have set up separate departments to handle specialized areas like market research, film, video production etc. The job profiles vary according to the departments: Client Servicing, Creative Department, Media Department, Production, Television and Film, Photography, Market Research, Exhibition and Event Management, Promotion, and Direct Marketing.

The executive side includes Client Servicing, Market Research and Media Research. It involves understanding client needs, finding new business and retaining existing business, selecting the appropriate media, analysing timing and placement of advertisements, and negotiating the financial aspects of the deal.

For example, an accounts executive who works in the client servicing department should know the most effective way to advertise the client's product or service, i.e., the media and their cost effectiveness. Account executives should also have an idea about market research and target audiences.

Thus, the client-servicing arena is crucial. It is the delicate link between the client and the agency. Communication skills are tested here, as it has to communicate to the agency what the client has in mind. Vacancies in this field call for individuals who go out into the market to get the right brief and then sell the ideas.

Media personnel have grown from minuscule one-man-armies that would handle release orders, negotiate deals and send material, to a full-fledged part of any agency.

The creative group is the foundation of a sound advertising agency. It includes Art Directors, Creative Directors, copywriters, scriptwriters, visualisers, photographers, typographers, and the mandatory DTP operators. This department creates the advertisement copy. It verbalises and visualises the specific needs of a client. As ad films are also a part of filmmaking, career options related to film also are part in this field.

Thus, careers in advertising can include working in advertising agencies, marketing jobs, copywriting, graphic design, media, market research, public relations, etc. You can work in the field of targeted advertising, Internet advertising, radio advertising, advertising affiliate programs, billboard advertising, etc.

Today, new areas are emerging within advertising -- like event management, image management, digital marketing, Internet marketing, etc. Event management is when events are marketed, and image management is when a particular profile of an individual / organisation is projected. Internet marketing has also brought about a lot of changes in advertising, and one can cater to a select group of audiences rather than a mass audience.

Requirements

There is a great demand for graduates from the general stream who have a command of the language of communication plus knowledge of designing packages like Photoshop, Coral Draw or fine arts, especially in the creative department.

"Advertising agencies generally prefer individuals who have a creative bend of mind, can think independently but work well in teams. If you are interested in pursuing a career in advertising, you must be highly goal driven and work well under pressure," says Shailesh Singh, 27, who works in an ad agency in Delhi.

"Basic qualities like creativity, flair for writing, and the ability to translate ideas into a visual format are required. Candidates should have insights into the interests of people from all walks of life. Those in the creative field should possess artistic abilities to make the ad appealing to the masses," he continues.

Payment structure

Job positions and earnings in an agency vary with its size and turnover. "Fresh graduates can start with a salary of Rs 10,000 - Rs 15,000 per month. This can go up to Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 per month with a few years experience.

Doing a specialised diploma/degree can further boost a candidate's worth. The salary of a successful advertising person can be between Rs 30,000 and Rs. 60,000 or more per month depending on the agency or company," says Pankaj.

Job prospects

Career opportunities in advertising include openings in private advertising agencies; advertising departments in private or public sector companies; in advertising sections of newspapers, journals, magazines; commercial sections of radio or television; market research organisations, etc. One can also freelance, of course.

"If you are a graduate, you can enter at a trainee level. The pay packet also gets heavier as the workload and levels increase. However, although you may get a break at the lower levels easily, sheer quality is demanded at the top. The ever-increasing pressures at these levels expedite the exit from this category," says Shailesh. "It is up to the individual to know where his potential lies. There are colleges and degrees available that polish you in the line you choose. Or, simply work as an intern in an ad agency. Gain knowledge of all the departments and then make up your mind."

Courses to spruce up your skills

• B.A. integrated courses in Advertising, Sales Promotion & Sales Management
• Course in Advertising and Communication
• Course in Advertising and Public Relations
• Course in Marketing and Advertising
• Diploma in Advertising
• Diploma in Advertising and Communication Management
• Diploma in Commercial Art and Advertising
• Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising
• Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing Communication
• Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising Management
• Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations and Advertising

Companies that hire

• Mudra Communications (http://www.mudra.com/)
• Contract Advertising (India) Ltd (http://www.contractadvertising.com/icontract/careers.htm)
• Percept Advertising Ltd (http://www.perceptholdings.com/files/careers/careers.htm)
• Akshara Advertising (http://www.e-akshara.com/default_new.php)
• Leo Burnett India Pvt Ltd (http://www.leoburnett.com/)
• Crayons Advertising and Marketing Pvt Ltd (http://www.crayonad.com/)
• Euro RSCG Advertising Pvt Ltd (http://www.eurorscgindia.com/)
• Fountainhead Communications Pvt Ltd (http://www.fountainheadindia.com/)
• Graphisads Pvt Ltd (http://www.graphisads.com/home.asp)
• Interface Communications Limited (http://interfacecom.com)
• Imageads (http://www.imageadsgroup.com/)
• J Walter Thompson India (http://www.jwt.com/
• McCann-Erickson India Ltd (http://www.mccann.com/)
• Madison Advertising Pvt Ltd (http://www.madisonindia.com/home.htm)
• O & M Ogilvy & Mather Ltd (http://www.ogilvy.com/)
• Pressman Advertising & Marketing Ltd (http://www.pressmanindia.com/)
• Urja Communications Pvt Ltd (http://www.urja.com/)

[Source: Rediff.com]
[Disclaimer: Data, Pictures & Information are gathered from various sources and from internet.]