Career coach Ajay Sharma talks to Monika Thakur about challenges faced by entrepreneurs & how they can make it big
Tell us about the flourishing industries that offer a plethora of job opportunities in Indiaij
Fintech is associated with block chain, augmented reality and virtual reality based solutions, artificial intelligence based solutions in education, healthcare and agriculture, smart cities and smart mobility are some of the areas that are growing by leaps and bounds. Making a career in these fields can be a good option.
Why is self-employment over working for some corporate house a better and a smarter choice for youngstersij
Millenials need more freedom to work, corporates have limitation in providing opportunities for experimentation. While corporate gives good opportunity to work, but higher risk appetite of youngster clubbed with opportunities in India have given wings to entrepreneurship. Ideas are plenty and they have support coming from angel investors. The other set of millenials are ready to join start ups where the salary isn’t the main factor, but the innovation and passion to do new things help in getting similar thinking employees who work as partners rather than standard employees.
What are some of the ways in which school and college students can be encouraged to come up with start-up ideasij
Sweden has a concept called Ungforetagsamhet (https://ungforetagsamhet.se/) which allows young high school students to open their company in school time and they get mentoring from teachers and industry people.
This gives a good and safe environment to them to experiment with start-up ideas. They can continue with these ideas if they find some success in that. Talk shows from entrepreneurs at the school level can also give motivation to the students to build on their ideas.
What are some of the major challenges that come their way and how should they overcome such obstaclesij
In the world of marks, every student is weighted against the marks obtained rather than the skills developed. Each parent wants her child to become an employee of a big organisation. The second challenge is, companies giving importance to degrees over skills.
One of the ways to overcome these obstacles is to focus on skills acquisition rather than experimentation skills. If one is good in identifying the skills required to be successful entrepreneur and develop themself then there is not much an issue in surviving.
How can budding business professionals sharpen their job skillsij
Before developing the skills, they should know which skills they should acquire and develop. Unfortunately, we don’t have a good career coaching system. As a trained career coach, I have helped many budding professionals in companies to identify their aptitude and acquire skills.
With the availability of so many educational opportunities through online, offline and massive open online courses (MOOC), there is no problem in acquiring knowledge but to convert it into skill, they need opportunities to use that knowledge. Online or onsite internships give a strong opportunity to them to display their knowledge and help both the interns and the organisations.
What role does a college play in a student’s business careerij
Institutes where teachers are involved in more industry-academia co-operation will have a better understanding of market. So the student should choose an institute which is more tuned to the industry and provides ample internship opportunities.
What are some of the diploma courses for High School dropouts that can help them acquire required professional skillsij
The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) (http://niesbud.nic.in/) is a Government institute which provides such training to students and budding entrepreneurs. The National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) is another big set-up supporting skill acquisition for entrepreneurship.
What skills do management companies look for in a studentij
Subject knowledge is only one of the criteria to select employees. High analytical skills, sharp comprehension, implementation or execution skills and communication skills are important too. While ideation or innovation is crucial, execution is always given higher importance.
What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneursij
Don’t just jump into entrepreneurship because others are doing it. Having an idea is very different from running a business. Ideas needs to be developed, nurtured and sustained over a period of time to turn them into a successful business.
So, developing a robust business plan with a good mentor is always a useful step towards achieving success. Don’t run for investor; create a plan which will help you get revenue which, in turn, will attract investors.