Monday, November 6, 2000		Lead Article

IT'S like the Californian gold rush. Everyone is after the "golden careers" being offered by various computer institutes. Undoubtedly, computer education and computer careers are in vogue these days, but the big question is: "Has everyone made a fortune here?"

Having a vision and a concise idea of what needs to be done sets apart a modern day entrepreneur from a common man in the IT world. Contrary to the approach of IT icons, like Narayanamurthy, Azim Premji and Vinod Dham, a common man seeking a career in computers does not use either his or other’s vision and has no clear idea of what he or she wishes to do. All they know is that career in computer today means e-commerce. No doubt e-commerce offers great career opportunities, but that’s not all.

Computer world offers tremendous opportunities and it is up to you to choose the correct career. The IT world is not kind to mediocres, so choose your course carefully. If you wish to join a computer course, the first step should be to probe and explore the world of information technology.

Regarding computer education, one should understand clearly that computer education is basically divided into 2 parts:

1) Application-based computer learning

2) Programming-based computer learning

For application-based computer learning, one is not required to obtain programming skills. For a beginner, who wishes to have computer-orientation for his own purposes, which could be related to business, profession or other uses, some basic courses are more than sufficient. Here in this case, the high-end programming courses could create a mess for such a person, as the requirement is limited. Similar is the case with the housewives and retired persons. Computer education institutes like NIIT, APTECH, CMC, SSI have different course capsules, which primarily concentrate on most common application software, like Microsoft Office. These course modules also cover the basics of the Internet and do not include programming.

Such courses are aimed at learning computers right from the basics. They are also the foundation for further learning and thus the first milestone in the process of making a career in the IT world.

One should not think, that only programming-based computer learning has career options. There are several specialised courses in application-based computer learning that offer good career opportunities. For example, one may pursue a course in desktop publishing and rise to the extent of setting up a publishing house. Here programming skills are not essential. Other careers, where application-based computer learning could play a major role are, journalism, medical profession, including medical transcription, civil engineering and architecture, multimedia applications, teaching and training, fashion designing, textile designing, jewellery designing, exports and imports, accounting jobs, consultancies, GIS and host of other professional careers. These careers involve extensive use of computer and a capsule course specific to this career may help.

For career in programming, application-based computer learning may be rendered irrelevant. Since programming is a wide term therefore, before pursuing career in programming, one needs to go and explore the career options.

As mentioned earlier, one should not join the bandwagon and follow the beaten tracks. In programming-based computer learning, there could be several options like 1) learning multiple languages 2) specialising in a few languages, which are inter-related to each other.

Choosing the best option is subjective and depends from person to person. If you think your capacity allows assimilating a number of languages and that too with a reasonable degree of perfection, then the first option may prove useful. However, if you have a career in mind and you know exactly where you want to go, then it is always better to concentrate and specialise. If you choose to go for a few specific languages and career option, then join a course specific to the requirement. For specialised courses and learning one should not just depend on the course contents and limited study materials.

If you think that the first option of learning multiple languages suits you, then set your priorities first. Remember you cannot simply learn and specialise all computer languages with equal degree of perfection. For example, if someone feels e-commerce is the right option, then one should lay more emphasis on the languages and courses involved in e-commerce. The approach should be to make the base sound.

Also set a time frame in the learning phase, when you decide on career finally, as this helps in giving a good shape to career. Generally speaking, one should try and attain the highest level of perfection in some basic yet important computer languages like C, C++ and Visual Basics, besides the language needed in one’s career.

These languages find universal application in the programming world and may give you a cutting edge over others. These find use in client-based software development and thus, give a good option in career.