Find your interest and follow it

Dear Sir,

I am a BE graduate (E&C) and I have been working for 15 years. I am based in Bangalore. I want to pursue an MS/MTech in Telecommunications through distance education. Are there any institutes that offer these programmes? I want to check all  the available options and then choose the right one.

I am also interested in doing a PhD after my post-graduation. Can you let me know of the options available in Bangalore?

Anand

Dear Anand,

If you are keen on doing a PhD and pursuing research or teaching, it is better if you do a Master’s course through regular, full-time classes, or at least through a college offering evening classes.

If that is not possible, then you may consider distance education courses. BITS is definitely one of the good ones but you can also explore Indira Gandhi National Open University (www.ignou.org, Mangalore University), R V Engineering College ([e-mail]) and SRM University, Chennai for distance learning courses.

Dear Sir,

I am pursuing a Bachelor’s degree (8th semester) in Instrumentation Technology at B V Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Tech in Hubli, Karnataka. I have no backlogs and my CGPA score is 9.0/10. I have been offered jobs in TCS and Mindtree via campus recruitment. But I plan to do a Master’s in Embedded Systems.

Can you suggest  universities in USA, UK or Germany that offer the course? I am also wondering whether to get into a core job now and then pursue a Master’s after two years. I also want to know the scope of the Master’s degree.

Bhavani Jotwani

Dear Bhavani,

It will definitely be an asset if you could take up a job right now, especially since you have been offered good roles. It will expose you to the professional world and also help you to decide which area of specialisation would be most suited for you.

As an instrumentation graduate, you may take up any of those that you mentioned above, but it is better that you make the choice based on your work experience, and what you seem to be taking a deeper interest in and what you enjoy doing. After a year of working, you can not only decide your area of specialisation, but also whether you would like to go abroad or study in a premier institution in India, as studying in India is equally good, yet cheaper.

If you take the time off to work, you can also prepare for entrance exams better.
 
Dear Sir,

My brother is in Class 10 and is very creative. I want him to become an architect. But since he does not seem to show an aptitude for technical subjects, I want to know more about job prospects for Fine Arts courses.

How about Hotel Management? His hearing is impaired. Will that affect his admission to a Hotel Management course? What does the admission process entail?

Preeti

Dear Preeti,

It would be nice if you explore what he is interested in, rather than what he is not. Engineering is only one among a hundred options he has and it is better if he broadly starts classifying which areas he has an interest in, right now.

If he has a hearing problem, which also leads to speech difficulty, it is better if he is not in a strongly people-related field like Hotel Management.

If he is genuinely a creative person with good talent in design, he can not only explore architecture, but also visual communications and various other fields related to design.

After his 10th Board exams, encourage him to take up a short-term course in a field of design and get an opinion about his creative skills from a third person (not the coaching institute). If he is interested in architecture or product design, it may be better if he takes up Science at +2 level, and then narrows down his final choice after he completes 11th standard.