INTRODUCTION

Today you may be at a juncture, when you have to take a very important and crucial decision about choosing your career. Yes, it is you who has to make a choice and finally, it is your choice that matters. Do you believe that we as individuals have no choice in whatever we do? The reality is that when we think we have no choice, we have actually chosen to not believe that we have a choice. Similarly, Life is made up of a series of choices and today being free from stress or over stressed is one of those choices we made (Stress is a Choice by David Zerfoss).

CAREER OPTIONS

Unlike in the 70′s or 80′s, when we had very few options or avenues open for making a choice, today, in every sphere of life you are forced to choose one because you have a plethora of alternatives available be it on what to eat or what to wear or what to study. With more choice, one is bound to be more confused!

Opening up of the economy and Globalisation have resulted in newer opportunities, some of which were hitherto unknown and had limited openings. The list is big but to name a few: Business Management, Hospitality Industry, Fashion, Design, Animation, Multi-media, IT enabled Services, Sports and Performing Arts and so on…

Given this complex situation, what should be ones next move?

Undoubtedly, opening up of economy and globalization have thrown a large number of openings in the field of business management particularly for MBA aspirants. Given that the selection of specialization in MBA is an important move towards building a career, the scope of this article is limited at emerging areas of opportunities in Human Resource Management (HRM).

WHY HRM ?

Statistics of enrolment and students graduating from different management institutes over the years reveal that Marketing and Finance specialisations are the preferred destinations for most of the students and there are very few takers for Human Resource Management.

Why it is so? Is it due to a belief that there are not many opportunities in the field of Human Resource Management?

It is not true that there are limited opportunities in the field of Human Resource Management. Given that survival and productivity of any organization, to a great extent depends on the kind of people it employs, and to find right people for the right job, every organization need right kind of Human Resource professionals, the demand and growth opportunities for such professionals would only increase. Coupled with global opportunities and increasing demand, the compensation package for such professionals are also on rise and the profession becoming more lucrative and challenging.

In order to avail the emerging opportunities, you should possess more than a paper degree but should be:

Competent

Motivated

Skilled

Able to handle a diversity of people

Multi tasking

Flexible

Technology savvy

Core competence in people management

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The career opportunities or employment prospects of HR spreads beyond the industry to include the following:

Corporate HRM

Training & Development

Recruitment Consulting

Competency Mapping

Balanced Scorecard

HR Consulting

Career Counselling

Academics (Teacher/Researcher)

Cross cultural management

International HRM

Learning & Development

HR Audit

CONCLUSION

It is evident from the above that in the field of Human Resource Management, one can look forward for plenty of challenging job opportunities. The opportunity could be in any sector of the economy, namely, information technology, banking, manufacturing, automobile, electronics, telecommunications, FMCG industries just to name a few. Profitable, fruitful and fulfilling careers await young and dynamic MBAs and Postgraduates in HR, as good HR professionals are in perpetual demand.

Career is created and made by every individual. If you believe that career is created, then definitely the starting premise is the Right Choice. There are many success stories to guide you. As Dr Verghese Kurien (The man who created White Revolution in the country) mentioned in his Book titled Too Had a Dream (as told to Gouri Salvi), To be quite honest, service to our nations farmers was not the career I had envisioned for myself. But somehow, a series of events swept me along and put me in a certain place at a certain time when I had to choose between one option and another. I was faced with a choice that would transform my life. I could have pursued a career in metallurgy and perhaps become the chief and so on….. Yet I chose none of these because somewhere deep down, I knew I could make a more meaningful contribution by working here in Anand, Gujarat

Prof (Dr) Pralay Kumar Ghosh
Director, Suryadatta Institute of Business Management & Technology (SIBMT), Pune