What to do at the next level?
Q. I am a 20-year-old third-year student doing the Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) course. I live in Jamnagar city in Gujarat, India and study in a college affiliated to Saurashtra University.
The IT field now is in the downside and jobs in India's IT sector are being cut, I believe. Therefore, I am confused as to whether I should do and MBA, MCA or any other post-graduate course in Gujarat.
I can't decide if I am good at programming or management.
Career advice from Arun Rao, global HR vice president of independent software testing company, AppLabs:
Hi. I fully empathize with your feelings as they exist now. All of us had, in the recent past, seen only an upswing in the fortunes of the various industries in general and IT/ITeS in particular, and therefore this apprehension of yours is not totally in isolation.
However, what goes up, goes down and what is down has all the potential to go up--that is the law of nature which also finds appropriate application in economics.
The course you should choose is dependent not only on the probability of success of various industries in future but also your own apetite, like and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses.
Each of the qualifications you have mentioned calls for a certain set of attributes and therefore it is important that you arrive at an answer after evaluating the options within the applicable framework of attributes. Therefore, what matters is what you are comfortable with and where you can create success--in the medium to long-term, not necessarily in the short-term.
Do remember, education is an investment with a long term horizon, therefore don't decide your options based on the immediate environment.
Finally, the kind of institute you choose to do your post-graduate education is very important. Please spend time and effort in zeroing in on the right kind of education institution--it has an impact on learning as well as market acceptance of your qualification at a later date.