Booming Offbeat Careers in India

With changing economic and business scenario all over India, a shift in student ideology has been observed. Growing competition in the traditional careers of becoming doctors, engineers or academicians has left many students in the search of worthwhile alternatives.

As global trends been easily observed from the comfort of their homes, many students have been inspired by catchy offbeat careers trending amongst the youth of the developed countries.

These unconventional career options seem fun, challenging and interesting to students and allow them to live their creative and instinctive passions.

Photography

Photography has always been fun both for experts and novices. Earning a living using a camera is a great choice for fun loving and creative individuals.

Photographers of different sorts are required in different industries like  Fashion, Scientific Research, Commercial, and Media. Photographers today need be good at both capturing and editing the captured pictures. They need to spend a lot of time on Adobe and similar software trying to make their shots look perfect.

Photography is a broad career with different specialisations; you have portrait photographers who take pictures of people and events like weddings and meetings.

Photojournalists work for newspapers, magazines, television and are often travelling to cover news via pictures. Commercial and Industrial photographers specialise in taking pictures for books, magazines or advertisements.

Such people are often employed in advertising or marketing companies. While fashion photographers are experts at taking pictures of models in designer clothes, scientific photographers use specialised equipment to photograph for scientific and medical research or teaching.

Communication

It is commonly stated that a person has a host of opportunities to pick from after a degree in Communication. From working in a Fashion Brand to working for an NGO dedicated to child education, your range of career options will always be broad. 

A lot of Communication professionals opt to work in advertising industry which in turn gives them a host of career paths to choose from like Media Planning, Copy Writing, Account Management and so on.

These degrees also give a chance to work in the media industry which includes broadcast, telecast or even entertainment industries. Often considered to be a glamorous job, yet you can also work in the back end departments if you desire so.

Both print and electronic journalism show an ever growing need for professionals with the number of online news portals increasing significantly over the last few years. Journalism is particularly good for those who enjoy research and analysis.

Communication professionals are highly sought after as Public Relations specialists by various business houses, political parties, NGOs, governments and other law agencies.

Graphic Designing & Animation

Graphic designing and Animation are paths to choose for those with an artistic flair and a love for technology. Graphic designers are pivotal in communicating using strong messages channelled via visual media created with a combination of artistic and technical skills.

Graphic designers are vital for preparing print advertisements, magazine layouts, fliers, posters, brochures and all other printed marketing promotional materials.

On the other hand, animators specialise in expressing stories and other marketing communications through the use of media, animation, moving graphics and special effects.

Animators may work in the entertainment industry where they help in chiselling out the final ready to release videos or might be hired by advertising firms or businesses in order to communicate promotional messages.

These professionals are expected to have freehand art skills and a strong ability to work with ever changing technology.

Wedding Planning

Luxurious Wedding planning although not very popular but is a very lucrative career for those who know how to plan things well while being creative.

Wedding planners are also known as bridal consultants and are particularly good at negotiations and networking. Training in event planning or an MBA can be an asset when it comes to the profession.

Although not explored enough, the industry has a lot of scopes to accommodate new entrants as you will never find a shortage of clients with a large number of marriages taking place in India in opposition to the western world.

Many young, dynamic entrepreneurs like Surruchi Joshhi, the founder of RAAS Luxury Weddings have already found success in the field in a very short span of time. You just need to dare and do something different.

Written by Prof  Ramola Kumar, Dean, The Delhi School of Communication.