[bhardwhu]

Originally Posted by SS8939

Hello Bhpians,

I'm at an important part of my education and absolutely any advice from all of you will be highly appreciated.

First, an intro: I'm 19, in my second year of college, doing my B.com. I was initially supposed to be doing CA (even wrote CPT) but eventually decided that it was not my cup of tea.

I initially wanted to go to the US for an MBA, but quickly realised that I don't have the work experience, and that the value of an MBA can be appreciated only after a few years of working

So I've more or less decided that I'll be doing my masters in the US. So with that in mind, here are some questions I'd need help with.

1. What would be a good subject to do a masters in?
2. Should I write my GMAT or GRE?
3. What kind of work does one with a masters find?

Again, any help will be appreciated.

Hello,

Although I had years of work experience in Indian Army, I chose MS in US and not MBA. My factors were opportunity cost and job availability. I have migrated from a 3 year Indian degree and from a non-technical domain into a technical project management. I have been mentoring quite a few military and non-military candidates now and can say with experience that a STEM masters here helps in job and career.
In case you need any specific question answered, please feel free to PM me.
Himanshu

[ritz3645]

Hello everyone,
Some time back received an email on BA program, distance learning medium by manipalprolearn.
Seek feedback on it.


ONLINE PROGRAM IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS
link: online.manipalprolearn.com/Business-Analytics/?utm_source=Pracharnama&utm_campaign=NR_IA&utm_med ium=Mailer#Who-should-attend-this-course

[VW2010]

Hello everyone,
Some time back received an email on BA program, distance learning medium by manipalprolearn.
Seek feedback on it.

I would say try Praxis, Aegis, Great Lakes or SP Jain. They have some comprehensive BA program both full time and part time over weekends. Based on your experience a course like Praxis or Aegis can give a boost to move towards BI/BA and even core Enterprise information management.I saw the course and i would say you are better of with something like a Coursera. Secondly coursera is free and you need to plan for a year to complete the data science course.

I myself just finished applications for the above 4 and just cleared Aegis and Sp Jain. My other two interviews are scheduled next week. I have applied for full time but the colleges are flexible to move between FT or Part Time even after you accept the offer and pay the registration fees.

If you are early in your career take up full time with Praxis or the 6 month with SP Jain. If you are seasoned go with Great lakes where you are not going to learn a lot technical hands on data science but more as a business leader on how you can use data science. Best part about Great lakes is the course is completely industry driven over 50% and interaction with real industry studies and showcase helps you create an overall BA approach.

Opens up your role to either be a technical consultant or a data based business Analyst in the core fields of Banking, Finance, Health care, Retail etc. BA with that skill set will also help you expand your knowledge in those domains and help you create products and platforms that can change the way you look at your own work.

[AYP]

Hello everyone, I am about to begin my corporate life shortly and currently have offers from two companies- Reliance and TCS. Reliance is offering me a core job similar to my engineering field, whereas TCS is of course an IT firm.
Reliance is offering me almost double the salary of TCS. However, I have heard many people saying that companies like TCS send its employees to foreign countries after a couple of years after employment and the initial deficit of money is more than balanced, whereas in Reliance, growth opportunities are less and the job/work gets quite stagnant after sometime.
Also I am interested in going for MBA after 2-3 years, so initiatives/programs for higher studies will be another crucial factor.
Currently I am a bit inclined towards Reliance mainly due to higher pay and the core job profile. However, TCS itself has a lot going for it.
What do you say guys?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by AYP

Hello everyone, I am about to begin my corporate life shortly and currently have offers from two companies- Reliance and TCS. Reliance is offering me a core job similar to my engineering field, whereas TCS is of course an IT firm......

Do you want to stick to your core competency (engineering) or move over to IT Services? Answer that question and you've pretty much solved your dilemma.

DO NOT be cajoled into making the wrong career choices based on criteria like initial salary and potential onsite stints. You should spend your first few years building a core competency for yourself, thereafter concentrating on building on your skills-base, which would of course include unlearning/relearning a lot of stuff as tech moves fast these days.

Make yourself a desirable candidate to current and future employers, and all the material stuff will find its way to you. Chasing money (in its various forms) TODAY will probably harm your prospects long-term.

[AYP]

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Do you want to stick to your core competency (engineering) or move over to IT Services? Answer that question and you've pretty much solved your dilemma.

DO NOT be cajoled into making the wrong career choices based on criteria like initial salary and potential onsite stints. You should spend your first few years building a core competency for yourself, thereafter concentrating on building on your skills-base, which would of course include unlearning/relearning a lot of stuff as tech moves fast these days.

Make yourself a desirable candidate to current and future employers, and all the material stuff will find its way to you. Chasing money (in its various forms) TODAY will probably harm your prospects long-term.

Thank you, Chetan.
I'd like to stick to my core competency of mechanical engg. and would like to apply what I have learnt in my engineering to my work even if it is for a few years. That's a major factor that is pulling me towards reliance.
However, TCS and in general IT industry is the more dynamic and rewarding one in today's times and I see the trend continuing.
What you said about answering whether I want to stick with a core profile or IT Services is very true, but I anyways intend to pursue MBA later (which morally speaking is not something an engineer should do). And thus, I am willing to shift to IT sevice if the opportunities are better and so are the programs for higher studies.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by AYP

Thank you, Chetan.
I'd like to stick to my core competency of mechanical engg. and would like to apply what I have learnt in my engineering to my work even if it is for a few years. That's a major factor that is pulling me towards reliance.
However, TCS and in general IT industry is the more dynamic and rewarding one in today's times and I see the trend continuing.
What you said about answering whether I want to stick with a core profile or IT Services is very true, but I anyways intend to pursue MBA later (which morally speaking is not something an engineer should do). And thus, I am willing to shift to IT sevice if the opportunities are better and so are the programs for higher studies.

If you like your core competency, stick to it. Get focused work ex in that. Operational level skill will be much much more important when you go for further education or job opportunities. You already have a head start in being a mechanical engineer. And you presumably like it. Two aces in the hole. Tuppence.

[bluevolt]

I am starting to prepare myself for IT Business Analyst role switching from core technical field in next 2-3 years. It's been 1.5 years since my first job working as software engineer who has worked on .net and siebel/database profiles.

Please guide me more about the roles & responsibilities along with any additional MBA degree required for the role.

Is there anything like that Business Analyst don't get onsite opportunities as compared to their technical counterparts.

[zzzehar]

I have spent most of my professional career in BPO / ITES industry working in different domains such as customer service, technical support, software support, sales, travel, and e-commerce.

My experience has been largely around Operations, Training and Quality management. I don't have a specific certification or a core skill that is niche and could be banked upon in tough times. I am referring to something that could always keep me abreast with the competition, new technology trends, the direction the job market is headed in, reliable future career options etc. Now a days, there are lot of new skills being taught online or in schools which we generally stay oblivious to.

For example, I see some of the skills picking up pace in the job market with good employment prospects such as Machine Learning, Big Data, Agile, AWS (or cloud computing entirely), new programming languages etc. In spite of being a part of some of the finest technology companies, my job role keeps me away from such upcoming skill requirements in job trends. In reference to my field, there are some certifications like Six Sigma, PMP, PRINCE2, COPC etc. which I often think of pursuing but couldn't really get around to completing them.

Since the community here is well engaged with some of these skills, I want to start a thread wherein members could help guide others on such professional learning opportunities, upcoming job market trends, skills for future along with how and from where to pursue them.

Most of us now a days don't have a govt. funded pension therefore, we will need to keep ourselves employed till at least the age of 60 irrespective of one's retirement plans. You need to keep busy and keep exercising your body and mind.

Please contribute generously to the knowledge pool.

[bluevolt]

Certifications - One of the important part of one's IT career?

There are n numbers of certifications and one is not sure which one to go for.

For ex, my current role requires DBA certification in coming time but when I discuss it with peers/friends they suggest me to go for Big data/hadoop certifications instead of DBA!

All in all, you got to make your path more clear and not to focus on just acquiring certifications instead build skills for a tech at the first place.

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by zzzehar

I have spent most of my professional career in BPO / ITES industry working in different domains such as customer service, technical support, software support, sales, travel, and e-commerce. My experience has been largely..........generously to the knowledge pool.

This is a marvellous thread and filled with really great advice for starters in life as well as those seeking change & diversity.

This maybe OT, but I wish there was some sort of training for those - like me - wanting to know how to age gracefully! I'm 65 & I envy those blokes who (tho' often older than me) seem to sail through most of life's social minefields with such grace & skill, and not dropping a brick anywhere. It invariably leaves me feeling like a club-footed oaf, filled with yearning for the finer things in life.

[searchingheaven]

Okay, so this might be OT for this thread. But I didn't find any other suitable thread for this. One of my cousins would be sitting for his campus placements the coming week and wanted to get an evaluation/review of his resume. Reviews/Suggestions/Comments welcome.

[Samurai]

Hmm, he is from my college, just 27 years junior.

Don't worry too much about fresher resume as long as it looks neat, and marks are above the filter set by the companies. Nobody takes rest of the contents seriously, unless there is something extraordinary in it.

He should focus on clearing test, interview, etc.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

Okay, so this might be OT for this thread. But I didn't find any other suitable thread for this. One of my cousins would be sitting for his campus placements the coming week and wanted to get an evaluation/review of his resume. Reviews/Suggestions/Comments welcome.

IMHO, for campus recruitment the content on the CV might not be considered seriously. Like we see some recruiters posting in other threads, what's on the CV might be a different picture than the actual candidate. Hence a clean, well formatted resume without grammar, spelling mistakes and so on. Rest of the content is not of much value. Rather, from what I had heard from some of my friends, some of the points which they had exaggerated met with a good round of scrutiny, many to the point of costing them a job. One guy had mentioned knowledge of Java as a programming language and claimed in the interview that it was his favorite language. That proved to be costly for him.

Take my own personal experience - I sat for an interview with Daimler. Knowingly I had put in lot of info about my automotive passion. In the interview, there was not a single automotive related question asked apart from my favourite car. I was prepared to take on lot of automotive technology related questions but it went for waste.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by audioholic

.....I sat for an interview with XYZ. Knowingly I had put in lot of info about my automotive passion. In the interview, there was not a single automotive related question asked apart from......

Usually for fresh recruits, recruiters are looking more for attitude and aptitude, rather than specific knowledge which would probably be part of the training/assimilation program later anyway. Not saying subject matter expertise isn't important but it's usually not a deal-breaker for campus recruits.

Interviewers increasingly like to challenge a candidate to step away from stuff they're comfortable with, just to gauge if he/she's a uni-dimensional pseudo-expert, or capable of thinking on their feet no matter the situation. I've personally hired people who display the latter trait prominently. Subject matter expertise is teachable, attitude isn't.