Gauri Chhabra
Year 2016 came and went. There were some Tsunamis in the Information Communication sector like the Reliance Jio that rattled the telecom industry like no other thing ever did. There were also the whirlwinds of demonetization that claimed to suck the black money from the economy. The socio economic landscape also had its effect on the careers. Some saw a decline; others were created, while some others remained in demand.
What made these careers stay in demand? Well, it has been a mixture of factors like salary, occupational outlook, and work-life balance.
Following are some careers that stayed in demand in 2016:
Management
Out of all the careers, the one that ruled the roost was the MBA program. This has been because of the fact that, majority of the employers have strived towards improving performance and productivity, expanding their customer base, and launching new products and services and less focused on overcoming economic challenges and cutting costs than in recent years.There has been an exponential growth in ecommerce, start -up ventures coming up and the increasing focus on expansion among US companies in Asia-Pacific region. The Corporate Recruiters Survey, carried out annually by GMAC (the Graduate Management Admissions Council) had anticipated that the outlook for MBA job market to be quite positive the best since 2010.
This has proven true. There has been relatively high demand for both ‘business development’ roles in the consulting and the HealthCare industry.Globally, firms in Asia-Pacific display the highest rise in demand for MBAs, with 62% of companies reporting their intention to hire more MBAs than previous years.MBA Placements in 2016 have broken all previous records and as compared to any other post- graduation program. Not only the final placement 2016 has been completed and closed in most of the B-schools with higher salary packages , more pre-placement offers as well as the summer placements in many new B-schools have recorded higher stipend than offered earlier.The in demand roles have been specializations in the field of Supply Chain and Logistics.
Information Technology and
Software Development:
In 2016, Entrepreneurship and startups ceased to be dirty words and became glamorous and towards the end of 2016 they shed their glamor tag and became main stream. This kept the IT careers in full swing.
According to Pay Scale, the average salary for a Senior Software Engineer has been Rs 711,652 per year. It rises steadily for more experienced workers.The highest paying skills associated with this job are C++ Programming Language and C++. With mobility on the rise, exposure to developing Mobile Applications on multiple mobile platforms – iOS, Android &Windows has been a big plus. Owing to the spurge in Cloud Computing and big data, the in demand roles have been those of Front end developers, data analysts and security analysts.
Chartered Accountancy
Another evergreen career that remained in demand has been that of a Chartered Accountant. There has been huge demand for CAs in the country in IT, Retail and Telecom sectors as an auditor, financial planner, tax planner, teacher, investment manager, and so on.
As per Pay Scale, the average salary for a Chartered Accountant is Rs 706,946 per year. The highest paying skills associated with this job are Budget Management, SAP SAP Financial Accounting and Controlling (SAP FICO), Evaluation and Management Auditing, Financial Advisor, and Strategic Accounts.
Oil and Natural Gas Sector
With growth, comes a perennial demand for professionals in the Oil and Natural Gas sector. The oil consumption had been predicted to reach4.0 mbpd by end of 2016, leading toIndia’s higher dependency on oil imports.Rapid economic growth is leading to greater outputs, which in turn is increasing the demand of oil for production and transportation.There has been an increase in jobs in PSUs such as ONGC, IOCL and Bharat Petroleum and also private sector employers such as, Reliance Energy, Halliburton, Schlumberger and Shell.
ONGC has announced its recruitments for 2017 for engineer, diploma, and medical officers. These arefor all disciples in engineering, graduates in chemistry, physics, electronics, geology, geophysics and reservoirs. Administrative jobs are available for finance, medical, marketing, legal and management candidates too.
Information Communications
The Jio Tsunami has completely turned the telecommunications industry on its head. It has been one of the changing forces that has put a halt to rising data costs and increased mobile penetration in second tier towns and rural areas.The launch of Jio signals an important shift from scrounging for data and data-scarcity to potentially an era of data abundance.This loss-leader strategy does come, with its own consequences for competition and consumer protection.
Careers were built and careers stayed. It opened the flood gates for the freshers and also for posts of Key Account Manager, JC Digital Sales Specialist and others.As per Glassdoor, the average salary of an Assistant Manager in Information Communications is close to 4,47,133 per year.
Medical Professionals
One career that has been and would be in perennial demand has been that of doctors who can earn from private practice, standalone surgeries and more.
As per Pay scale, a doctor’s (MD) average salary with 2- 3 yrs of experience is Rs 8, 40,000 per year. For a specialized surgeon, it could be double. However, among Medical professionals, general and thoracic surgeons, psychiatrists and gynecologists have been in demand.
Skills 2.0
If we have to sum up 2016, skills have shown an entirely new makeover. The new 21st century skills have been those of adaptability and agility to sift through truckloads of information on the web.
In short, for people with the right skills 2016 has been glorious and 2017 holds a promise …
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