Career Prospects After B. Sc.

I am posting this article based on the interaction that I had with some students during viva sessions and most of the students had the same questions :

What should I do in the following summer vacation?

Answer to this question depends on what you want to do in your life. In the following few paragraphs I will try to give you an idea of possible career prospects for a B. Sc. student and what kind skills you need to acquire and develop in order to survive and succeed in a competitive environment both at national and international level.

Most of you have completed your first year of B. Sc. and are now making a transition to the second year. This requires you to drop one of your subjects. This is a big step for some who are not very sure what they would want to do after B. Sc. i.e. pursue research or go for a job and for those who have interests in multiple subjects (I belong to this category) and for those whose ambition is not in consonance with their parents’ (this was also my case). I am not going to elaborate on this any further.

First of all I must make it clear to you that it IS YOUR life and you MUST decide how you want to spend it, none else can do this job for you. You have two option after your B. Sc. : (1) Job, (2) Higher Education. If you want to go for the job (which I don’t prefer) in some company right after your graduation then you must work in that direction to improve your verbal and managing skills, prepare for Group Discussions (GDs), improve your resume by co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, develop your personality, etc.

You can also opt for higher education wherein you will first have to enrol for M. Sc. (Master of Science) in a GOOD university. At this I must make one point very clear to you : As you go higher up the hierarchy of education, your studies get more specialised and concentrated in a particular field. That means, unlike your lower level degrees, you will be working in a particular subject in a greater depth (that’s why its called a Master degree). This means you will require the guidance of people who are experts in your area of study and are actively involved in research in that particular field. This is where the selection of Universities become critical and you future depends on it.

The only authentic institutes that I can think of in India for a good Master’s degree are IITs. He faculties here are involved in research activities and you get immense opportunities to flourish. But for this you need to crack IIT – JAM exam which are conducted by IITs at national level. You MUST aim for this if you are thinking of a research career.

However, if you don’t clear JAM it doesn’t mean the end of your career. IITs admit only a limited number of students and it is not possible for everyone to clear the exam due to tough competition. There are other good institutes in India where you can get an equally strong M. Sc. programme. The following are the institutes as substitutes for IITs :

Delhi University (DU)

Jawaharalal Nehru University (JNU)

TIFR

Hyderabad University

Pune University

Once you have an M. Sc. you again have two options : (1) Job, (2) Ph. D. (research). Job after M. Sc. from a reputed institute is much different from what you get after B. Sc. You can apply for the post of Scientist in institutes like BARC, ISRO or can be recruited in hi-profile companies as a researcher in R & D Department. DRDO also has programmes for M. Sc. degree holders.

                                                                                                                              

The other option – Research will require you to enrol in a Ph. D. programme which lasts for about 4 – 6 years depending on the institute, country and your topic of research. Here again you have two options : stay in India or go abroad for your Ph. D. To do Ph. D. in India you will be required to clear entrance exams like GATE, CSIR-UGC NET, JEST, TIFR entrance exam. The following are good institutes for Ph. D. in India :

TIFR (Mumbai) - strongly recommended – you need to clear TIFR entrance exam

IISc  (Bangalore) – strongly recommended – requires GATE or JEST or NET JRF.

JNCASR (Bangalore) – recommended – requires GATE or NET JRF or JEST.

IITs – requires GATE or NET JRF

Raman Research Institute (RRI) – requires JEST

Harishchandra Research Institute (HRI) – good for theoretical physics - requires JEST

The second option is much better – GO ABROAD. It is difficult if you don’t have an IIT tag. So, if you don’t have an IIT M. Sc. then you can appear for GATE exam through which you can join M. Tech. Programmes in IITs in your area of specialisation. This is the best option you have after your non-IIT M. Sc. There are immense opportunities and options at your disposal with your M. Tech. from an IIT. With this you will have a good chance of being accepted at an international university. But there are a few more things you need to do if you wish to go abroad. At this stage you will be competing with students at international level and here your traditional way of studies doesn’t work. Here you have to be able to prove that you possess required knowledge, skills and ability to think independently because this is what research demands (this is the reason I never give important questions in class or follow traditional books because they become useless at a certain level and leave the students handicapped).

(a)    You need to clear standardised exams like GRE, Subject GRE, TOEFL or IELTS.

(b)   You need to have a good and consistent academic record. For example you need maintain an average of about 75 – 80% throughout your B. Sc. and not just in the third year.

(c)    Good Universities abroad also look at you personality. You need to have a good record of co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. You must know at least one sport or any other activity which involves physical exertion.

(d)   You should clear most of the entrance exams in your subject in India. This will strengthen your CV.

(e)    You must be able to show that throughout your B. Sc. and M. Sc. you were actively involved in research activities or projects and this is where the answer to you question lies : “What should I do in the following summer vacation?”

What you can do in your B. Sc.?

Your future and career prospects are decided by how you use your B. Sc. years. You must work right from now to build a strong CV. Following are the things you MUST do in the three years that you have :

(1)   You MUST participate in summer projects/internships. There are many institutes in India which provide opportunities to B. Sc. and M. Sc. students to work with scientists and professors who are actively involved in research.  These are in the form of summer projects or internships and are usually of the duration of 6 – 8 weeks. These are extremely important and prove to be critical when you compete at international level. Start looking for internships from the month of September. Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) and JNCASR are two most reputed institutes which provide internships. There are many other institutes like IUCAA, RRI, etc.

(2)   Learn technical softwares like MATHEMATICA, MATLAB, ORIGIN, LATEX, MICROSOFT OFFICE, CORELDRAW, etc.

(3)   Since all the communications in research thoughout the world takes place in English, you must develop a sound background in Scientific English. For this refer to GRE and TOEFL books to get an idea about the international standards.

(4)   Browse internet to know what kind of research activities are going on in various fields. Search the websites of good universities, journals, magazines, etc. to get an idea. Read journals like Scientific American, National Geographic, Resonance.

(5)   Improve and consolidate your basics in Mathematics and Science. You must not differentiate Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Biology.  For people who are aiming for research must have curiosity to explore and know the things around them irrespective of what subject they are going to take. Solve as many problems as you can.

(6)   One of the most important things : READ BIOGRAPHIES. This will help you a lot and will enable you to judge yourself and to think what you should expect from yourself at this age.

Since most of you do not have internships for this summer, you can do the following to make the most out of your vacation :

Learn MATHEMATICA, ORIGIN, MATLAB, LATEX, CORELDRAW.

Purchase GRE and TOEFL books and use them to improve your English.

Read biographies of Einstein, Feynman, Landau, Marie Curie, Boltzmann, etc.

Most important thing : Spend some quality time with yourself and think about what you want to do in life and how you want to contribute for the well being of society.

Always remember : Your success is decided by your commitment, dedication and determination. Commitment and dedication comes only when you have a STRONG REASON. Try to create a strong reason for whatever you want to do in life. Your reason should not be self-centred. Your dedication will be as strong as your reason and a strong reason will keep you immune to distractions.