New Age career trends and opportunities--April 21, 2008

A look at all the New Age career trends and opportunities
Rai Umraopati Ray
There was a time when everybody wanted to become an engineer or a doctor, but the norm has changed today with youngsters now looking for more creative and unique fields of expertise. Call it the western influence or the education hunger of innovative Indian minds, there are a horde of options available today for people who want to try their hand at something unique and different.
In the hustle bustle of everyday life, where a majority of time is spent in commuting, Radio or FM as is called today, has become the favourite companion of many. So how about becoming a Radio Jockey? The popularity of the FM radio in the metros and the proliferation of
radio stations have also made careers in broadcasting attractive. You can now work for a FM station as a RJ, marketing executive, sound engineer or correspondent.
Talking about communications, there is no dearth of opportunities here and the field uniquely has something in store for everybody. The proliferation of satellite television channels and the entry of multinational media networks have resulted in a wide spectrum of job openings for Directors, Producers, Engineers, Technicians, Journalists, Script Writers, Researchers, Computer Animators, Performing Artists, Actors, Video Jockeys, Anchor Persons, News Readers, Script Editors, Video-film Editors, Set Designers and many more!
Close behind, the sector of Public Relations and Event Managers is also fast catching fire. With the trend of specific job being handled by a particular person settling in, the mammoth task of conceptualising, planning, organising and finally executing events is not anybody's cup of tea anymore.
Once considered redundant, the law profession is once again catching fancy of many. All legal system needs trained people who can understand and interpret it. Apart from practicing as a civil lawyer or criminal lawyer, you can specialise in Business Law, Environmental Law, Patent Law, Tax Law, International Law, Real Estate Law, Labour Law, Cyber Law, Genetics, Human Rights Law etc. The expansion of Internet has created the demand for cyber lawyers. Another emerging and potential area for specialisation is genetics law.
Earlier the Science stream would always be associated with Doctors and Engineers thankfully, not anymore. Biotechnology has emerged as an upcoming and interesting outlet of Science, wherein, the field of genetics has already achieved significant breakthroughs in agriculture and human health care. Biotechnology could eventually eliminate food shortages and improve health and life expectancy. Bioinformatics, the convergence of telematics and micro-genetics will be a basis for a major jump in evolution. The Biotechnology sector will be the driving
force of the markets.
Some other field under this include Robotics, which involves the automation of all dangerous and dull work in surgery, security, health care, space, mining laboratory and the fast food industry. Close behind, Nanotechnology is also gaining speed wherein machines whose
parts are measured in millionths of a millimetre promise to lower unit cost and spread the benefits of technology. Neuroscience is another one of the new interdisciplinary fields, which combines cellular, and molecular biology with physics, chemistry, psychology and physiology.
If scientists are considered the 'brainy' people, people who go up in space are surely a step ahead and with the name and fame given to the space researchers these days, the field is truly becoming popular.
Space research is mainly carried out in the areas of astronomy and astrophysics, planetary atmosphere and Aeronomy, earth sciences and solar system studies and theoretical physics etc. Up next, Cognitive Sciences is less about brain biology and more about reasoning, behaviour, language and logic. In a scenario where great emphasis is given to quality of life of which health is a vital element, Environmental Science will emerge as quite a relevant field.
We all work for a price but when the price is against some good deed come, it's truly becomes satisfying. Thus, for those who are looking at similar such satisfaction level, working for an NGO would prove ideal for them. Social work as a career requires specialised skills in
optimising a community's development with people's participation and in catering to the more vulnerable groups in society such as elderly people, those with physical or mental handicaps, children at risk and people who are mentally ill. Other areas of specialisation are labour welfare, industrial relations, family welfare, counselling services etc. Social workers are also involved in conducting research studies, data evaluation, project formulation, training activities as well as programmes of awareness raising, gender sensitisation etc.
With almost every field in our country touching its peak at the moment, the tourism industry is also making headlines. In the present escalating tourism scenario, there is a growing need for travel professionals, agents, guides and people of similar such nature. Close to tourism is the concept of Medical tourism and with the upsurge of a health conscious generation, the need for personnel in the hospital management is quite high. Health managers, administrators, nurses, ward boys, all are required in plenty. Up next, the recent expansion of the insurance sector has resulted in a demand for many more personnel in this field.
Last but not the least, IT enabled 'outsourced' services like tele-shopping centres, medical transcription, maintenance of data bases, insurance claims processing and records for multinationals require thousands of English speaking, computer literate graduates.