A Clarion Call to Kick-start your Career

In the ever-growing competitive world, where the scope after graduation is limited in our country, Students are always in search of a way that would provide a kick-start to their careers. BrightWayz by Mr. Niketan Taware caters towards such aspirations of young graduates. His vision behind starting up this organization was to polish the college graduates and equip them with opportunities and skills needed for getting into today’s evolving Industry. SGPC’s Guru Nanak Institute of Management Studies (GNIMS) noticed the noble path on which Mr. Niketan Taware wanted to lead his students and invited him to be a part of a special career counselling seminar for last year undergrads, showcasing an overall view of the Industry’s employability requirements. The auditorium at GNIMS was filled with a hundred energetic minds focused on listening to the wise guest speakers and chalking out their career plans accordingly.

Mr. Ajit Joshi addressing the audience

There were two batches of students comprising of those who were interested in IT & Operations and others who were yearning to make a career in HR. Accordingly, the guest speakers invited were Mr. Ajit Joshi (National Alliance Manager at Red Hat), Mr. Mahesh Kamath (Head-HR, Herman Finochem Ltd.) and Ms. Sunayana Mahadeshwar (Sr. Business Development-HR, UNI-eServices & HR Solutions Pvt. Ltd.). The first batch of students mainly consisted of engineering graduates who were curious to know about the various career options in the fields of IT and Operations industry. Mr. Joshi Sir who is also a visiting faculty for PGDM-IT at GNIMS, initially briefed the students about various departments in an organization viz., Finance, Marketing, Sales, Operations, IT, etc. Later, he explained how Operations Management is the nerve center of any business that the company does, whether it be Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Logistics or providing customer service in customer service business. Though not in forefront Operations Management plays a pivotal role in any organization. Talking about Information Technology (IT) sector, he emphasized that every business these days is IT business and number of IT Engineers in India are neck to neck with the US market. He elaborately explained about the opportunities for an IT engineer backed with MBA can take up. One can perform various roles in a traditional IT company or the IT department of any business; ranging from Business analytics, MIS to System analyst.There were two batches of students comprising of those who were interested in IT & Operations and others who were yearning to make a career in HR. Accordingly, the guest speakers invited were Mr. Ajit Joshi (National Alliance Manager at Red Hat), Mr. Mahesh Kamath (Head-HR, Herman Finochem Ltd.) and Ms. Sunayana Mahadeshwar (Sr. Business Development-HR, UNI-eServices & HR Solutions Pvt. Ltd.). The first batch of students mainly consisted of engineering graduates who were curious to know about the various career options in the fields of IT and Operations industry. Mr. Joshi Sir who is also a visiting faculty for PGDM-IT at GNIMS, initially briefed the students about various departments in an organization viz., Finance, Marketing, Sales, Operations, IT, etc. Later, he explained how Operations Management is the nerve center of any business that the company does, whether it be Supply Chain Management (SCM) in Logistics or providing customer service in customer service business. Though not in forefront Operations Management plays a pivotal role in any organization. Talking about Information Technology (IT) sector, he emphasized that every business these days is IT business and number of IT Engineers in India are neck to neck with the US market. He elaborately explained about the opportunities for an IT engineer backed with MBA can take up. One can perform various roles in a traditional IT company or the IT department of any business; ranging from Business analytics, MIS to System analyst.

Dr. Kiran Yadav asking questions to the students

Dr. Kiran Yadav, MMS from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and B.Sc (Mathematics) from Royal Institute of Science, currently a faculty of Marketing at GNIMS, shared the dais with the speakers for explaining the significance of MBA in a graduate’s life. He very tactfully made the students realize the difference between undergrad attitude of rot learning and PGDM. Being from a mathematics background he asked the students an elementary level math question – Explain Pythagoras theorem, its proof and its daily life applications? Students were baffled when he announced monetary prize from his pocket for anyone who gave the answer. Still no one in the crowd of 100 could remember the exact theorem learnt in school. However, Dr. Kiran Sir awarded one of the girls who could at least state the theorem somewhat. The learning behind performing that act was to make the students aware of the difference between a graduate and an MBA. A degree of PGDM would evolve you into being a Manager, a problem solver; and the companies  are in constant hunt for employees of such caliber.

Prof. Kapil Bhopatkar explaining the admission process and fees structure

Prof. Kapil Bhopatkar (Faculty-in-charge Finance and Head of Admissions & Marketing at GNIMS) further explained about the PGDM programs at GNIMS and how they help in developing a student into a professional. The institute had started 2 types of PGDM programs – one was the normal course and the other was Intensive Industry Immersion PGDM. The later was a specially designed program for those students who wanted to learn along with a job. He emphasized the students to keep a broad mind while choosing their specialization and learn all aspects of business. At a certain point of time in your career, you will be piled with numerous responsibilities pertaining to various departments in an organization, and at that time being a ‘Business guy’ would prove worthy than staying in a ‘water-tight compartment’ and restricting your growth. This is the sole reason behind including all specialization related subjects in the 1st year curriculum of the PGDM course, so that the students can chose wisely. He later explained the admission procedures and fees structure, which was backed by various banks loan facilities. Further, he stated the USP of the PGDM programs at GNIMS was an International IV with foreign universities (viz., Teesside University, UK) which would enable students to get an exposure of global industry. At the end of his speech he informed them about the various soft skills ingrained among students during the course of these programs For instance students are made to prepare a short film on their life, to help them answer the most frequent interview question – Tell me about yourself?

Mr. Mahesh Kamath and Ms. Sunayana Mahadeshwar engage in Q & A session with students

Mr. Mahesh Kamath very beautifully clarified the entire career building process with an analogy of a childhood drawing – ‘A boat in a river scenery

’. He said that while choosing a career we are all rowing a boat in a river; where the bright sun represents our guide and the flow of river is our path on which we have to row perfectly to reach our destination. His message to the students was not to get distracted by looking at the other boats rowing parallel to them, to think holistically and keep their boat steady in the river of career. Ms. Sunayana Madadeshwar elaborately talked upon the various employment opportunities such as HR Generalist (Performing all HR functions), HR Specialist (Performing specific HR function viz., Training & Development) and upcoming avenues in Business HR and HR Consultancy services.

The event was concluded by Q & A session and later application forms were filled by the students for giving the Aptitude Test/Entrance Exam of GNIMS, in order to get an admission to the next batch in the prestigious institute. The guest speakers along with the GNIMS faculty gave a clarion call to the graduates’ present to think and choose wisely their careers. Mr. Niketan Taware thanked GNIMS, Mr. Kapil Sir and Mr. Kiran Sir for giving a chance to his students to emerge as tomorrow’s famous corporate personalities after being developed and polished at GNIMS.