A lot of young IT Professionals today are at cross roads of their career and usually come face to face with two opportunities and are unable to decide which one would best suit them. These two are
1) Higher Studies
2) On site Opportunities
Both these options have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. So which to choose against the other and why? The answer is simple – it depends on the individual’s career aspirations. We can walk you through the thought process to help you make an intelligent decision.
Career Aspirations
Ask yourself where you would like to be 5 years from now, but be realistic. If you are fresh out of college and into your first job, expecting to be CEO of a fortune 500 company in less than 5 years may not be a realistic goal. However, aiming to be a project lead or a junior account manager would be a challenge but at the same time achievable. It also lets you decide which track you would like to take – Technology Or Management.
Higher Studies
“If you wish to plan for a year – grow corn, if you wish to plan for a decade – grow trees, if you wish to plan for a lifetime – invest in learning”. Higher education is without doubt an investment with guaranteed results. But it comes with its bag of pros and cons.
Pros of Higher Studies
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Increase in competencies and skills. Higher studies will impart the knowledge to help you improve your current competences or acquire new ones.
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Better job opportunities. It is a no brainer for a recruiter while having to choose between a highly qualified professional vs. not so highly qualified professional. Higher studies will open avenues for better job opportunities.
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Change of Job. Lot of young professionals decide to change their current job once they get to know the “insides” about their profession. Change of job does not mean change of the company you work for. It means change in the type of work you do. You might currently be IT developer and wish to get into sales but have no prior experience in the desired field. This is where higher studies come to your rescue. A lot of young engineers aspire to do MBA for this very reason – change of job.
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Increased earning. Higher studies do promise a better pay since one would have acquired new competencies and or improved upon the current ones. (from 1st bullet point)
By seeing the above pros, one might jump to a conclusion that Higher studies is the obvious choice. Lets hold on before we infer anything more from the pros.
Cons of Higher Studies
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Opportunity Cost. Economists use this term very frequently. Wikipedia calls it – Opportunity cost or economic opportunity loss is the value of the next best alternative foregone as the result of making a decision. By choosing to study fulltime, we are forgoing the opportunity to work and earn. This may be a “costly” affair for a lot of folks
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Cost of education. “Overheard a parent talking to another parent – My daughter’s LKG fees is more than what I paid for the 4 years of my engineering !!” Education as a whole is getting more and more expensive each day and higher education is no exception to this. Planning to study abroad can be a serious financial burden to many aspirants, while planning to study in India too is not with-in reach for a few others.
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Timing is important. A lot of B-schools these days recognize the importance of work experience in their students. Many schools insist that the applicants have a minimum of 2 years of experience before applying for the courses. So one would need to wait for a couple of years before deciding to go for higher studies. Also schools may not accept admissions whenever you are ready. You might have to wait for their academic cycle to begin.
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Personal commitments. One might have certain personal commitments to fulfill and this might take priority over higher studies.
On site Opportunity.
Most young professionals see on site opportunity as an option to make a few quick bucks. Lets talk about the pros and cons of on site opportunity
Pros of On site Opportunity
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Exposure to a foreign work culture. This is a crucial learning experience in ones life. Learning about the ways of others and assimilating the good points in those cultures can really make a difference in one’s career and life.
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Client facing opportunities. Working directly with the clients can be a rewarding experience. Being closer to the client, helps one to obtain a better understanding of the business too.
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$$$. This point needs no further explanation I guess
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Travel and fun. One might argue that travel and fun can happen in one’s native country too, and I do not deny that. However, travelling across a foreign country is a memorable experience in itself
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If one is considering to pursue MBA, then overseas experience will add a great value to one’s profile. Thus, we must focus on the career aspirations and choose a path that helps us achieve the same.
Cons of On site Opportunity
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Opportunity Cost. Working on site might mean being away from family. For folks who have just started a family, being away might not be an attractive option.
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Client facing. While this is a part of the pros, client facing falls under cons too. These days there is an ever increasing work pressure, and working directly with the clients can add a ton to the pressure. While this can vary case by case, I would not rule out the option entirely.
Now that we have evaluated various pros and cons of both On site Opportunity and Higher Studies, we would be in a better position to decide what is good for us. However, if you feel that you have a unique situation and would like to discuss the same with us, please feel free to leave us a note and we will be glad to help you out.
Article by : Supreeth Kini,
US Correspondent.
GSG Team
Congratulations!!! Your site has come up really well. Hope to see more interesting articles on it.
Thank You!
amazing article giving insight to which path to choose from the options available..am sure will gonna help many who are confused which option to choose “career v/s Onsite”
Keep it up…!!
Thank You! Keep Visiting.
sir,
i am from india.i want know about the higher studiesin “videography & video editting”
i am so interested in that.
please guide me..
your’s faith fully…
@Shinu
Higher studies in video and video editing can be classified under 1) Journalism 2) Films
Both these streams fall under the Arts department of a college. Many colleges provide both undergraduate and post graduate courses for these streams. The courses cover both theory and practical aspects of the study and also cover related topics such as photography, history of art, and many other electives.
Please see a list of few colleges which provide degrees at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Undergraduate Degrees -
University of Florida Film and Media Studies http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog0809/programs/majors/alc/film.html
Harvard University Film Studies in VES http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/filmstudVES.html
University of Maryland Visual Arts http://art.umbc.edu/undergraduate/index.php
MIT MIT Media Lab http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/program-overview
Graduate Degrees
University of Maryland Imaging and Digital Arts http://art.umbc.edu/graduate/overview.php
Harvard University PhD in Film and Visual Studies http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/fvs.html
MIT MIT Media Lab http://admissions.media.mit.edu/admissions/program-overview
While the admissions criteria varies from college to college, some common items are as below
For Undergraduate Degree
• Statement of objective
• Recommendations
Graduate Degree
• GRE
• Supporting Portfolio
• Recommendations
Please write to us if you have further questions, we need to understand your aspirations in detail in order to provide further guidance
Can you suggest which will be better among MBA at DOMS IIT Madras and onsite opportunity….coz i have both of them now..and I am in real dilemna….
Thanks…
Hi Ashim,
Thanks for sharing your dilemma, many of us in our working life do face this dilemma, you have not given your total work experience and which country you say when you mean by onsite, so I am guessing you may have 2-3 years of experience and by onsite you mean US,Canada, UK or Australia.
Few things to consider in your decision making process, 1) what is your larger goal/purpose in life ? 2) Do you already have a masters degree in engineering, if so then MBA at DOMS IIT may not be adding much weightage in your CV. 3) What is your current Salary ? If your salary is quite high now, then remember , your total cost of potential financial investment = MBA total fees for 2 years + accomodation and food cost + cost of salary for two years. However if your current salary is not very high then going for an MBA may be a better option.
Advantages of a long term Onsite : 1) Better Role 2) Direct interaction with customers 3) Cultural exchange with global teams 4) Opportunity to improve your communication skill 5) Opportunity of learning new things etc. If the role you are oferred give you enough opportunity to develop these skills then going for an onsite is a better opportunity.
In summary, without the complete information , it may be too early for me to comment, I would request you to write to us at info@getsetgrow.org with your contact details and we will try to guide you in the right direction.
Warm Regards,
Rajat
Editorial Team
Hi Rajat,
I have some questions about choosing On-site for me.. please help me in
this..
I have completed my Diploma in computer science (3 yrs full time) and BSc IT
(evening college). I have total 5 years of experience in IT Support.
Currently am working on VMware (expnc on VMware is 2yrs). Also am planning
do the VMware certification on vSphere.
I’m looking for on-site opportunities in US/Oman/Singapore. Can you please
advice me which is the best place to work? Also please let me know the
expected compensation on each locations according to my education and work
experience. Will the VMware certification add any advantage in getting
on-site job and more compensation?
Awaiting your advice.
Kind Regards
Shreekanth. J
Bangalore
Hi Shreekanth,
Thanks for writing to us on this.
Firstly, regarding VMWare, it is the future of virtual server / utility computing technology. Guess you are aware of Egenera which is a server hardware manufacturer that builds blade and 1U modules that work together to form single virtual servers. If you combined EMC storage, VMware virtual server software, and Egenera virtual server hardware into a single solution from a single company you could build a datacenter that was 100% virtual. You would never have to buy extra capacity, because each virtual server would use exactly what it needs. If your data center needed more processing capacity or storage, you could add additional resources that would be used wherever they were needed.In summary the future of VMWare is promising, however my personal recommendation would be to follow the usual strategy for certification, get certified in one frontend technology, one middleware technology, and one database technology. In that way you de-risk yourself, even if one of the software becomes obsolete , you always have got other options to progress your career.
Secondly, Regarding onsite , my thought would be to try for US, however remember the US visa rules are tougher. My suggestion for you would be to do a part time MBA or MCA from a decent college which will make visa rules easier for you .However UK and Australia are good destinations to go ( as they are English speaking countries ).
I am not familiar with the job markets in Oman and Singapore but here are my general observations
1) Certifications definitely add value to one’s profile. But if the certification was obtained several years ago, then one might have to retake it (probably the latest version or the higher version)
2) US job market is slowly bouncing back but the visa regulations are stricter than ever. Visas criterion is for specialized labor only and the edu background mentioned – diploma plus BSc can pose a challenge to obtain visa. A masters degree (MCA perhaps) would help.
3) With a lot of visa frauds and body-shopping, it is advised to go for H1b through very reliable companies only.
4) payscale.com is a very reliable site to obtain salary details. It provides comprehensive results and we can select different countries too and obtain information about the salary ranges for jobs in those countries.
5) Distance to India is one factor affecting people’s consideration of on-site opportunities. Singapore (and Oman) has plus over US in this aspect.
I know the above points are quite discouraging but if onsite is one’s long term goal then I would suggest for higher studies in US or Singapore. Both countries have one of the best universities in the world for almost any field that one chooses to study.
Let us know if you need further details.
Warm Regards,
Rajat and Supreeth