While preparing for internships and placements, students face two crucial problems – not being aware of different career avenues and lack of interpersonal or soft skills.
More often than not, students are unable to express themselves during group discussions or interviews and as it goes for such selection procedures – the lesser you express, the lesser you impress. Also, a good chunk of student community is clueless about what an analyst does, what does the job of a consultant look like or what the FMCG sector is – and this even includes the ones who plan to make a career out of these.
Background
Students at IIT Kanpur spend a good amount of time in hobby groups, clubs and various other student bodies. But ironically, there was no body that addressed the issue of career, which is of paramount importance to students. Acknowledging the lack of a platform for students to hone their skills, to become more employable and more importantly, counselling students for career, the Career Development Centre (CDC) was constituted on the 14th of August, 2015.
The objectives of CDC, as outlined by the Director, are:
- To conduct sessions on career counselling.
- To enhance skills for analytical/employment tests and group discussion.
- To develop a resource centre/library for career development.
- To develop a career development calendar in coordination with placement calendar.
- To help students improve their communication and comprehension ability and soft skills through various types of career guidance workshops.
History
CDC was in the pipeline for the past 4 years and was envisioned in 2011 by Sanchit Singhal, the then President, Students’ Gymkhana. A lot of ideation went into the making of CDC, along with a lot of formal approvals. The Chairperson of Students’ Placement Office was kept in the loop during the entire process. A total of five Presidents have contributed during their respective tenures to make this body a reality today.
Tentative structure
The CDC would constitute of the following people holding said positions:
Students will be introduced to CDC in their very first year but participation won’t be mandatory. Later, it would be compulsory for students to be affiliated with CDC, who intend to sit for internships and placements. Speaking to Vox Populi, Gautam Pratap Singh, President Students’ Gymkhana explained the rationale behind this: “When students apply to a company, they not only act as individuals but a s representatives of the institute. CDC would equip the students with necessary skills to be able to improve their personalities and represent the institute in a better way.”
CDC will also help students aiming for higher studies and research, by providing requisite information and know how on writing formal pieces, along with making available relevant resources.
A body like this was essential for the campus community and let’s hope that the efforts that have gone into setting up CDC would bear its fruits in the near future.
Written by Rishabh Anand
