Architecture

         Architecture, the science of building, is the visualisation of building blocks. It is the area of study which deals with the designing and planning of buildings and structures and the spaces between them. Architecture is a highly competitive and multi-disciplinary profession which involves a variety of tasks at work. This is a field which covers various fields including spatial design, aesthetics, safety management, material management etc.

         Architects are the licensed professionals trained in the art and science of building. They are involved in all the phases of the building construction i.e the functional, safety, economical and has to satisfy the needs of its occupants. They are responsible person for the planning, designing and supervision of construction works for houses, office buildings, skyscrapers, landscapes, and even entire cities. An Architect is a combination of artist, professional and businessperson. They ideates, sketches, makes blueprints of their designs and then sees them come to life as cottages, skyscrapers and even monuments. Apart from designing and construction, architects are trained in activities ranging from conceptual problem solving to project management.

            One can rise to a successful position in the field through talent and hard work. Success in this competitive profession is measured by the size of responsibility entrusted to an individual, an invitation to partnership in a firm or, ideally, a well-established private practice. 

Eligibility & Course Areas

             A bachelor's degree in architecture (B.Arch) or Diploma in architecture is needed to become a qualified architect. For practical purposes there is no difference between the two qualifications.

The basic eligibility criteria for B.Arch is 10+2 (senior secondary Class XII) or equivalent referred to as the qualifying examination from a recognized Board/University with a minimum of 50% marks in Science subjects (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics). Besides this, the candidate must qualify an entrance examination.

Entrance Tests : Admission to first year of Five years full time undergraduate course in Architecture (Bachelor of Architecture) in various colleges of India is through National and State level entrance examinations. 

              The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education ) conducts a national level entrance examination- All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) on an All India basis for entry to undergraduate programmes in B. Architecture and B. Planning in government and private institutes. The paper consists of Mathematics, an Aptitude Test and a Drawing test. The National Aptitude test in Architecture (NATA), the online test with drawing exam is conducted by the National Institute of Advanced Studies and Architecture in association with the Council of Architecture (COA). NATA scores are used by admissions authorities of different unaided & Government aided schools / colleges of Architecture, to provide common measures for comparing the qualifications of applicants. NATA measures aesthetic sensitivity, critical thinking, perception, observation and architectural awareness. 

                Entrance to architecture programmes at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT's) is through the national level Joint Entrance Examination (JEE). Private institutes conduct entrance exams of their own. Different states also hold separate entrance exams for admission to architecture and engineering colleges in the state. 

Duration & Course Content : The B.Arch degree programme is of 5 years duration and includes a period of practical experience. The apprenticeship (usually for one semester) has to be done under a practicing architect. The B. Arch degree prepares the theoretical foundations and gives some practical insight on which a student later develops proficiency and functional accuracy. 

                 Subject content of B.Arch course includes architectural design (drawing and painting), acoustics, surveying and leveling, estimating and costing, methods of construction, materials management, history of architecture, draftsmanship, environmental planning, applied mechanics, structural designing, computer applications etc. Some colleges teach architecture-related software packages such as AutoCAD and 3D Studio Max.

                Apart from the degree course in B.Arch, Diploma in architecture are also available in some institutes as either full time or part time. It will take seven years to complete the part-time diploma courses.

After completing B.Arch, the candidates if they wish can go for post graduation i.e Master of Architecture (M.Arch.) which is of 2 to 3 semester duration. At the postgraduate level one can specialise in areas like construction management, town planning, interior design, naval architecture, landscape designing, building engineering and management etc. 

                    Doctoral programmes (Ph.D) can be pursued after M.Arch or with a B.Arch plus five years experience in professional practice or teaching or research. 

Personal Skills : A successful architect requires special qualifications like designing talent, business aptitude, social awareness and legal knowledge. They must have excellent communication and drawing skills, keen observation, vivid imagination, creativity, ideas and the ability to visualise. Other qualities includes leadership, managerial qualities, resourcefulness and ability to work as a team. They must also possess sufficient grasp of all aspects of building technology to be able to design for various needs under different conditions. Computer literacy also is required for writing specifications, two- and three-dimensional drafting, and financial management. Knowledge of CADD is essential.

Basic training makes an architecture graduate to design and execute any type of building or complex. 

Job Prospects & Career Options

The main task of an architect is to design and execute the plan for construction of any building or area. The job scenario include site selection, field research and supervision, safety management, quality control, environmental planning, estimating and costing, supervision of construction work, interior decoration etc. The architect is the overall in charge for construction- his responsibility begins right from the designing and planning of the structure until the same is erected. They must be able to communicate their ideas visually to their clients. The work of an architect starts with the layout and sketches of proposed structures according to the requirements as well as the objectives of the client. Once the plans are finalised and accepted by the client, the architect has to obtain the approval and permission of the local authority for construction. Apart from this, it is the architects who co-ordinate the participation of all the specialists involved in the building process.

              With the country's current growth in industrial and economic activities, there exists wide employment opportunities for architects, both in the public and private sectors. A qualified architect can work with government organisations like central and state public work departments, housing and urban development corporation, municipalities, city development authorities, state housing boards etc. They are also employed in industrial ventures, consultancy and private architectural firms, teaching institutions, real estate development firms etc. The most privileged scope in the field of architecture is private practice. With some years of experience in an organisation, the architects can set up their own business. Architectural practices or individual architects may choose to specialize in one of a number of areas such as housing, hospital or educational facilities.

                   A qualified architect, to work as a consultant or to set up private practice, must register with the Council of Architecture before starting their profession. The Council of Architecture constituted by the government of India is charged with the responsibility to regulate the education and practice of profession throughout India besides maintaining the register of architects. This body along with the Indian Institute of Architects- the national body of Architects in the country, lays down the guidelines for working hours, work environment, fees etc. 

Remuneration

                        A fresh architectural graduate working as a trainee with established architects, starts with a salary of Rs. 4000 - 7000 per month. With in a short span of time, the earnings can rise up to Rs.10,000- 20,000 per month depending upon the experience and the work involved. In the government sectors, the pay scale is not as lucrative as the private sector, since it is set according to the rules by the government. The Council of Architecture has laid down a standard scale of remuneration for services.

                In this field, individuals practicing through their own firm could earn a lot, and this could be from thousands to lakhs. Consultants charge anywhere between 4 and 10 per cent of the total cost of construction in case of apartments and multi storied buildings. They charge 15-20 per cent of the total cost of construction in the case of independent houses and bungalows.

Institutes

IIT's  or Indian institute of Technology in New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur are the most prestigious Engineering institutions in India.  Other main Engineering colleges include Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) - (Pilani and Ranchi.), Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi., University of Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh etc and the various NIT's (Formerly Regional engineering colleges) in different states.   

Institutes offering Architecture engineering courses can be had from the following link.

• Architectural Engineering institutes in India

Details and contacts of Polytechnics in different states, conducting Diploma courses is available at the following link

• Diploma in Architectural Asstt.
• Diploma in Architecture
• Diploma in Architecture Engineering
• Post Diploma in Microprocessor Architecture & Applications
• Post Diploma in Naval Architecture

Indian Air Force (IAF)

The Indian Air Force (IAF) the youngest of the three defence services, was commissioned on October 8, 1932, with four single-propeller engine Wapiti aircrafts, six pilot officers, two airmen and 19 Hawai Sepoys. The first Indian Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee one of the founding members of the Air Force took over on 1st April 1954. Today, the IAF is the fourth largest Airforce in the world with its forty-five squadron strength and some of the most sophisticated fighter air crafts like Mirage 2000, MIG 29, MIG 27, Jaguar, MIG 25, MIG 23 and MIG 21. The transport wing has the huge IL 76 (Gajraj), AN 32 and other smaller aircrafts. 

         

            Armed Forces offer excellent career opportunities to the adventurous young candidates. Its a career that offers immense facilities, a privileged lifestyle and of course, honour in serving the country. The major activity of the air force is that of flying combat air crafts and helicopters. Other activities include technical work such as aeronautical engineering, electronics, and computer engineering, as well as administrative, financial and planning duties.

          

            One can join the Air Force either as an Officer or Airman. The officer cadre provides opportunities for men having 10+2 (Intermediate), graduate, engineering and postgraduate degrees, in their three different branches. Women who are graduates, engineers and post graduates can join as an Officer in the Air force. The officers will be posted either as a Pilot, or a Navigator, or a Technical or a Ground Duty officer in any one of the Air Force bases. Women have opportunities only in the Officer cadre of the Air force. 

           In the Airmen cadre, there are opportunities even for class tenth pass (Matriculate) and below candidates, 10+2 (Intermediate), Diploma, graduates, postgraduates etc in their technical and non-technical trade fields. 

Advertising

Advertising is the means of informing as well as influencing the general public to buy products or services through visual or oral messages. A product or service is advertised to create awareness in the minds of potential buyers. Some of the commonly used media for advertising are t.v., radio, websites, newspapers, magazines, bill-boards, hoardings etc. As a result of economic liberalization and the changing social trends advertising industry has shown rapid growth in the last decade. 

Advertising is one of the aspects of mass communication. Advertising is actually brand-building through effective communication and is essentially a service industry. It helps to create demand, promote marketing system and boost economic growth. Thus advertising forms the basis of marketing.

Advertising plays a significant role in today's highly competitive world. A career in advertisement is quite glamorous and at the same time challenging with more and more agencies opening up every day. Whether it's brands, companies, personalities or even voluntary or religious organizations, all of them use some form of advertising in order to be able to communicate with the target audience. The salary structure in advertising is quite high and if you have the knack for it one can reach the top. It is an ideal profession for a creative individual who can handle work-pressure. 

               Today, new areas are emerging within advertising like event management, image management, internet marketing etc. Event management wherein events are marketed, Image management wherein a a particular profile of an individual or an organisation is projected. Internet marketing has also brought about a lot of changes in advertising as Internet means that one is catering to a select group of audience rather than a mass audience.

Eligibility: Most advertising agencies recruit candidates with a formal management or advertising/mass communication qualification.

Eligibility & Course Areas

Educational: Most advertising agencies recruit candidates with a formal management or advertising/mass communication qualification. Preference is given for MBA's for posts in the market research, client servicing and media planning departments.
In the creative department, on the other hand, a general BA with a command of the language of communication plus knowledge of designing packages like Photoshop, coral draw or fine arts is the requirement.

             There are also specialised courses in advertising/mass communication at diploma level and post graduate level for which basic qualification is graduation. However, advertising is also offered as a subject for the graduate degree course in mass communication studies at certain institutions for which minimum qualification is 10+2. In addition there are also certificate courses for which 10+2 is enough. 

Personal attributes: Basic qualities like creativity and flair for writing or ability to translate ideas into a visual format are required for making a successful career in this field. They should have insight into the interests of people from all walks of life, ability to work as part of team, mental and physical toughness to be able to withstand high pressure and criticism, must be sociable and have calm temperament. Market and media researchers should have an analytical and logical brain. Those in creative field should possess artistic abilities to make the ad appealing to the masses. 

Job Prospects and Career Options: Advertising field offers a range of lucrative, interesting careers. The job in this field is categorized into two, executive and creative.

Job Prospects & Career Options

Job Prospects

          Career opportunities in advertising include openings in private advertising agencies; advertising department in private or public sector companies; in advertising sections of newspapers, journals, magazines; commercial section of radio or television; market research organisations etc. One can also do freelancing. 

Career Options

           Advertising field offers a range of lucrative, interesting careers. The job in this field is categorised into two, executive and creative. Executive side includes Client Servicing, Market Research and Media Research. Creative side consists of copywriters, scriptwriters, visualisers, photographers and typographers.

The executive department understand client needs, find new business and retain existing business, selects the appropriate media, analyses timing and placement of advertisements and negotiate the financial aspects of the deal. Creative department creates the advertisement copy. They verbalises and visualises the specific need of the client.

As ad films are also a part of film making career options of film are related to this field. 

Executive Department 

Client Servicing

     The Client Servicing department is the link between the client and the agency. It is an important part of any advertising firm like what the heart is to the body. This department is responsible for meeting prospective clients and getting business for the company. It involves a study of the client, the product and the market; an analysis of consumer behaviour and marketing; a knowledge of all available media and their cost effectiveness, and a strategic plan to be presented to the client. Those in client servicing must therefore interact with clients, gather information, oversee research where necessary, gauge consumer attitudes and based on this, work along with the various departments of the agency to formulate the most appropriate and effective advertising strategy within the specified budget.

To be an effective client-servicing person, the candidate has to have a thorough knowledge of the client's business and also know his weak points so that, through advertising and communications, the gap can be minimised.

      An accounts executive who works in the client servicing department takes care of all the monitory dealings. He should know the most effective way to advertise clients product or service i.e the media and their cost effectiveness. Account executives should also have an idea about market research and target audiences.

Market Research

        Every good ad plans, start with research. This is the department which surveys the market and analyses and studies consumer behavior about a product or service. They are involved with collection of data- information about the consumer, the market, existing competition and so on. The research studies provide basic information to the manufacturer, for planning a new product.

If you are a MBA or hold a degree in statistics/operations research, you can go for market researching jobs.

Media Planning/Research

         Responsibility of media planning department starts at the point when the ad is complete. Media Department is responsible for the planning, scheduling, booking and purchase of space and time (in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV, and outdoor hoardings). The media department must therefore devise the most effective use for an advertising budget to effectively and economically transmit a campaign message to the target audience. This department consists of the following:

Media Planners who decide the different media where the ads would be featured in order to get maximum viewership.

        Media Buyer has to negotiate to buy space in the Press, or time on electronic media at the best rates for which he has to understand the buying as well as selling trends.

Creative Department 

        The Creative department designs and conceptualizes the advertisement. This consists of copywriting department and art department. Copywriting department works on text for the ad and themes for campaign. Art department visualises the campaign.

Copywriters

             The Copywriter evolves a theme for the campaign and provides the text for advertisements. He is responsible for making the ad look attractive and delivering the message to the point. They work out the campaign slogan, jingles, scripts and promotional literature of the product or service as well as proposals, concept notes and film treatments. They are also expected to edit all textual matter for factual, syntax and typesetting discrepancies before it goes into production. Some times specialists called Typographers are appointed for making the format of textual matter who give advise on fonts, lettering etc.

Copywriters need to have a flair for writing backed up by the knowledge of advertising and oral communication skills, to become successful. They also need to have skill in analysing clients' needs, and research skills for finding out about the products and services they are helping to sell. Problem-solving and time-management skills are important. 

Visualisers

The Visualisers work on the visual concepts and decide how the ad shall eventually look. They do the overall layout of message including graphics, sketching etc.
Must be artistic. A degree/diploma in commercial arts or fine arts as well as the knowledge of designing software like Photoshop, Pagemaker, Corel Draw etc. are often the required qualifications.

Photographers

Photographers should have an idea about angles and lighting effects. Good technical ability and knowledge of cameras and lenses is essential.

Remuneration : Job positions and earnings in an agency vary with its size and turnover. Accredited agencies have a large set up while small agencies..

Remuneration

                 Job positions and earnings in an agency vary with its size and turnover. Accredited agencies have a large set up while small agencies may have just a handful of employees looking after all the various jobs. The earnings range from 7,000 for production mangers to 8,000 for copy writers up to  35,000 for General Managers plus perks.

ACTURIAL

You must have seen, heard and read about companies which provide insurance cover to policy holders in case of any eventuality like accidents, hospitalization, household hazards, thefts or death and still others who look after investment schemes, employee benefits, retirement benefits and pension schemes. The policy holders are required to pay a fixed amount as installments at regular intervals and they get this money back in the event of any untoward incident or upon the maturity of the policy. Have you ever wondered who decides as to what amount of money a policy holder should pay as premium or what sum should be given as pension amount or returns by the company?.

Well, this exactly is what an actuary does. They calculate insurance risks and premiums. Technically speaking the job of an actuary is to assess the financial impact of an uncertain future event. Roughly speaking they look at the financial aspect of disasters, sarcastically speaking they are financial astrologers.

An actuary has to combine the skills of a statistician, economist and financier and employ techniques of probability, compound interest, law, marketing, management etc to predict the outcome of future contingencies and design solutions to lessen the financial severity of such events.

Actuarial profession was formally established in 1848, with the formation of Institute of Actuaries, London. In India, traditionally actuaries were found only in the life-insurance sector but now with the opening up of the economy they are wanted by non-life insurance companies, banks, stock exchanges, private and government agencies and this is one field where demand exceeds supply.

The Actuarial Society of India (ASI), the only professional body of Actuaries in India was formed in 1944 and was admitted as a member of the International Actuarial Association (IAA), an umbrella organization to all actuarial bodies across the world, in 1979. It was registered in 1982 under registration of Literacy, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act XIII of 1960. Its objectives include the advancement of Actuarial profession in India, providing opportunities for interaction among members of the profession, facilitating research, arranging lectures on relevant subjects and providing facilities and Guidance to those studying for the professional Actuarial Examination.

The Institute of Actuaries Of India (IAI or formally ASI) was initially started as a non-examining body when Actuaries used to get qualified from Institute of Actuaries or Faculty of Actuaries of UK. The Institute of Actuaries of India started conducting Entrance Examinations in India for students of Institute of Actuaries, UK, in 1975. In 1989, it started conducting examinations for its Indian qualification up to Associate ship level, and in 1992, it started conducting Fellowship level exams. The IAI has been following the UK pattern of examinations since November 2000 with an eye to be a part of global standards set by the International Actuarial Association (IAA). 

To become an actuary one must be a Fellow of a recognised professional examining body like the Actuarial Society of India (ASI), Mumbai or the Institute of Actuaries, London. The work of an actuary involves a lot of number crunching and the nature of work is quite tedious, nevertheless it offers rewards in terms of intellectual challenge, status, job satisfaction and earnings. As their judgment is the basis of decision making for many business activities, their career paths often lead to upper management and executive positions.

Eligibility: The Actuarial Society of India and Institute of Actuaries, UK are professional examining bodies which conduct certificate, associateship

Job Prospectus and Career Options : Traditionally actuaries have been associated with insurance sector but in present scenario with the economy opening up actuaries are needed in sectors like...

Remuneration: If you can survive the grilling tests, there is a payoff - the median annual salary for an actuary is handsome...