Wednesday 10 January 2018

What next after College?




In a few months, a lot of people will be out of college. Some may already have a job in their pocket and others are so scared because they have no idea what they want to do with their life.  There is no reason to be stressed out about the same as most people are in the same situation. The next few years are very crucial because you learn the essentials of life in the most independent way. Don’t ever listen to people saying that your best days are over, as you could make the next few years the most exciting ever. Let’s just list out the options and see which works well.
                           

Step 1 - Find job in a big company and make money - Most of the talents would be recruited from campuses and if you are pretty good at what you have studied in college, you are good enough to work in any big companies and get settled.
Step 2 - If you are not able to get to Step 1, try find a course which has the best demand in the industry and try Step 1.
These steps are good good enough for people who just want to make money and get settled in life. But if you really want to make something extra ordinary out of your life, Try Step 3.
Step 3 - Start your own Business.
This is a tough call, because most of you along with your friends might have an idea of startup, but do not know anything about starting up.


Try a Business Incubator - "Business Incubator concept have acquired a lot of popularity in recent times. Most of the Business incubators offers you cost effective co-working spaces, Mentorship, Training sessions, Community access, cloud space, Investor and industry connects and more importantly an ecosystem of like minded people which is necessary for your business growth."



Why Starting up is a better option?
A lot of people may think about few facts before considering starting an enterprise.
  • Startups have very less success rate - A vast majority of them fail, why should I rather try?
  • If I am a good technically talented person, I could be hired anywhere with high salary. Why Startup?
  • Getting to big companies can offer you to travel abroad and earn big. Why take risks?
There are lot many reasons to mull over startups but lets consider some reasons for you to start one.
  • Immense opportunity to finally do what you love to do or what you have always wanted to do rather than working for someone to do what they wants you to do.
  • Learn things the most unstructured way. You have all your life learning from school and college. These are organisations with structured curriculum to learn and going to a big company to work isn’t different.
  • Improve your personal and business skills like leadership, decision making, finance management, communication, technical skills, etc much better than working in a company.
  • Don’t get stuck with any particular skill set - With technology trends frequently changing, you have the complete freedom in a startup to learn and migrate to any technology that is trending and futuristic.





"Fact File:
- Only 50% of graduates in India are employable.(Source: NDTV.com) 
- Only 17% techies are employable. (Source : The Asian Age)
- Less than 11% of hotel management graduates 'employable'. (source: Economic Times) "








  • Nothing is lost - If your startup idea clicks, you make a lot of money and name for yourselves. If it does not work well, you still have a lot of learning experience which is good enough for you to get a job in a startup where they could use your experience to help them grow.
  • Your Academic performance does not matter - There is a huge gap between what you learn from college and what industry needs. So getting straight A’s or failing subjects are quite not benchmark for how good you could be as an entrepreneur.
  • Current Scenario is favourable for anyone to be an entrepreneur as we have a vibrant ecosystem of incubators, accelerators, angel investors and even government is offering support for starting and scaling of new startups.
  • Your opportunity to change the world - Only entrepreneurs with great passion have changed the world it is today. Startup gives you opportunity to contribute to the economy and more importantly your chance to contribute for the betterment of the society.



Getting Certified Vs Starting Startup
Considering the weakness of startups in terms of success rate, you may consider joining any company certified course that has high industrial demand can land you a good job. But the important fact to understand startups is that, startups are not just money making business, it’s an immense learning opportunity as well. Let’s consider some criteria which makes starting a startup better than joining any certification course.


  • Pay a lot of money for a highly demanded industrial course which may or may not land you a job with high salary.
  • With technologies getting updated every month, there is a high risk of getting your certified course out of market soon after you complete it.
  • For doing a certification course, you have to pay to learn but while in a startup you earn while you learn.
  • Getting a course certified at any institute is again like learning in a college, you have no idea of what you are studying with zero practical knowledge. Unlike in startups you really have an output end product where you put your efforts in and that can help you learn quickly.
  • Starting a business with your friends / partners could really cost you less in an incubator program compared to the high cost of certification program.

Being all this said, startups are still considered a high risk activity considering the success rate of startups in India. As said earlier, those who love to have a settled life and make good money, taking a job could be the best route. But those who dream big and wants something extra ordinary out of their life, try startup.Also considering the immense learning exposure a startup can provide, the best option after college is to experiment in starting a startup and the next option to consider would be to work in a startup, so that you learn and understand much better than getting hired to big companies.


- Nithin Madhavan
Managing Director - Kannur Technolodge
+91 9746 241 399
www.kannurtechnolodge.in