Zeroing in on your specialisation

Updated on: Monday, July 27, 2009

The last time they possibly had a choice was after Class X, when they had to choose a stream for Plus-Two. Now into college, students would have to take their next big decision — which stream to opt for?

For students of engineering, the choice may have to be made right at the beginning, but for a host of arts and science courses, choice of area of specialisation or electives has to be made later, at the beginning of the second year in many cases. And this decision-making skill acquired in college, would come in handy at the postgraduate level, too.

So how should students make this key decision? Experts note that students should go by which area interests them the most and what skills they possess.
Institutions’ role

To help students make the right choice, institutions should clearly define the objective of each elective or area of selection, according to S. Vincent, Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology.

“Institutions offer a basket of electives and identify them based on the areas they deem important for students to gain expertise in. Arts and science colleges could also consider conducting counselling sessions where students could make an informed decision about the electives they wish to opt for,” he says.

Moreover, electives should be designed in a way that there is scope for active interaction with industry, he emphasises. “The practical component should be made equal to or more than the theoretical element. A student pursuing commerce may want to specialise in marketing. But the specialisation becomes more valuable when the student has exposure to industry,” Dr. Vincent adds.
“The right choice for me”

Though the decision-making skills regarding specialisation may largely be the same for all courses, students may have to adopt some strategies depending on the course of study. According, to Sharmada Radhakrishnan, senior manager with a private bank, the approach to selecting electives in a management programme should be to broadly see which of the streams would suit the person’s make-up, skill sets and interests.

“For example, finance is fully a numbers job, while HR would require people skills and has an emotional intelligence side to it. Marketing would need people skills, communication skills, creativity and also willingness to travel,” says the MBA graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.

Further, each stream would either be a desk job or a field job predominantly. “So that is also a factor in deciding.”

It is also important to consider aspects such as how good the stream is in the institute that one is studying in, the placements record, faculty support, infrastructure support like library and industry linkages, professionals observe. “This aspect is secondary to the first one. It is a combination of the above which can be used in deciding — giving say roughly 70 per cent – 30 per cent or 60 per cent – 40 per cent weightage to one’s preference under both options,” says Ms. Radhakrishnan.

“I liked number-crunching and decided to opt for finance. The reassurance from seniors and faculty on support for the finance stream and other back-up measures like additional certifications that could be done to enhance CV value also helped,” she adds.

Sunanda Narayan, creative consultant, FanticArt, opted to specialise in ad photography during her visual communications course at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women. “I was introduced to manual photography in my second year and I did a bit of studio photography using that. I found that manipulating with the lights and creating an atmosphere in the studio was great fun,” she says.

Though much has been said about the dangers of reading too much into current industry trends, and only genuine passion for a subject helping students sustain interest, considering the future prospects of a stream or an elective is also vital in the exercise, note some professionals.

Ms. Narayan, who did precisely that, is a happy professional today. “I wanted to try and go digital. It obviously makes a huge difference as it has far better scope in terms of output and creativity,”

Zeroing in on your specialisation

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