Mohammed Zeeshan is the CEO and Co-Founder of MyCaptain, an online mentoring platform. His vision has always been to impact Education and bring a societal mindset shift when it comes to Careers in India and all across the World, and MyCaptain is a step towards this. He comes from a B. Tech Mechanical Engineering background and has a keen interest in Policy, Education, and Impact.
I do not believe that it is necessary for a student to become an engineer or a doctor to be successful in life. I think that is a dated, invalid notion that has been engraved into so many young minds that the possibility of a career in a field of their interest has become, at best, an afterthought.
As a student in India, one oftentimes hears that a degree in engineering will give you a decent job with a good salary in reputable companies. Or that medicine is a highly respectable career that pays back in vast amounts over the years. Such preconceived notions with little to no statistical backing are probably the reason a huge chunk of all engineering graduates are unable to find a job.
A recent article mentioned an employability report that found that over 80 percent of engineers in India were unemployable, as they lacked the technological skills required by employers in today’s day and age. It is time that India realises it cannot cast the vast entirety of its young, creative minds into the same moulds set years ago by our society.
Multiple individuals and organisations felt the need to take matters into their own hands. A NSRCEL IIM-Bangalore incubated start-up, MyCaptain is also one such organisation. Its co-founders are all engineers who realised midway that they were mindlessly pursuing an engineering degree, as was everyone else around them.
They sought to make a difference in the youth and the way they think, inspiring them to think outside the box. Their first few courses- Entrepreneurship and Creative Writing, became instant hits. The crowd they had gathered had finally started breaking down the shackles that held them.
At long last, a generation taught to follow in the footsteps of their parents, had begun to stir and had started to fulfil their dreams. An increasing awareness about offbeat fields such as photography, marketing, and even writing was beginning to create a demand for mentors that could assist them with understanding their passion.
This increasing interest led to an opportunity for courses like the ones MyCaptain offers to come up to the forefront. Students were beginning to test-drive these fields with the help of such courses that gave them an overview of life in that profession.
These courses also often take the help of young professionals in the field who can inspire and advise the students about the benefits and risks of approaching the career of their dreams.
Traditional favourites including medicine and engineering are now being put on the back burner with more and more students choosing to explore fields like Social Media Management, Game Development and Digital Marketing. These unconventional career paths have found their space in the foreground, with some of these fields having seen a 400% increase in demand over the last few years, according to LinkedIn.
Lastly, I think it is important for Indian Parents as well, to understand that their child was not born to fulfil the dreams and aspirations of the parents, and that they are their own individual with a personality and traits of their own. Maybe then it will dawn upon them, that they might be the ones hampering their child’s future.