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| TIPS: EDUCATIONAL LOAN |
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1.How do I plan my career?
2.Developing a Career Plan
3.How will a Career Goal Help Me?
4.Steps needed to select a school/college/institution?
5.How do I plan for the cost of my studies?
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How do I plan my career? |
There are various steps in planning a good career:
1. If you can afford to use the services of a career guidance center, you should do so, and use the opportunity of getting expert counseling when you are still in secondary school. Even going otherwise is highly recommended. Career counselors evaluate you on a personal basis, using different scientific tools, before coming to a conclusion. Hence, go to a career-counseling center is always a fruitful exercise.
2. You need to develop a good career plan. You should think about the kind of training, education and skills that you will need to achieve your career goals.
3. Assess your skills and interests. You need to be sure about what you will truly enjoy doing, what are you good at, what your personality type is, and what values you hold.
4. You need to research areas of occupation. You need to find out about the nature of the jobs that interest you, such as defense, manufacturing, management, etc. Find out more about the job profiles, salaries and their trends, potential, and anything else that can help them narrow down the focus.
5. Then you need to compare your skills and interests with the occupation that you have selected. You should then go for a job or career that matches, or is very close to, your skills, interests and personality.
6. After you have chosen the occupation, it is time to formulate a career goal. You need to develop a plan to reach that goal.
7. Then you need to select a few colleges that will offer you the required degree or training program that best meets your goal and financial needs.
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Developing a Career Plan |
With so many possibilities available, how does one make a wise decision? Once you know the career path you want to follow, how do you get there? These are some of the questions that your career plan should answer. Here are some tips that will help students and parents to develop a career plan:
1. To find a satisfying career, develop career plans in line with your interests, skills and personality.
Pen down your interests and each of the things that you have enjoyed during the course of your life, like social work, accounting, volunteering, teaching, assisting parents in their businesses, part-time work or any other project that you might have undertaken. Extensively evaluate your likes and dislikes. Write down what you liked, what was more challenging in that particular activity, and ultimately what you learnt from it. Can you make that your long-term career? Make a list of such activities that you have undertaken in the last couple of years.
2. Draw a list of skills that you possess and would like to develop to the fullest extent possible. Your skills may include training, vocational courses, hobbies, etc. that you might have undertaken over the years, and are really good at. Compare your skills with interests. Are there any activities common to both the lists? If yes, find out if any of those can be converted into a professional career. For example, if you took tuitions and enjoyed teaching, then you should probably think of a career in the educational field, as a teacher or a professor.
3. Find out the various types of career options available to you. Research careers, as more often than not, you may not know the best occupations that may fit your skills and interests.
It is very important to actually find out whether the career you are considering is really what you expect it to be, and whether it offers the long-term prospects, salary and other benefits that you expect. The best way to find about all these is to talk to people around you. Call up people in the industry, take appointments, meet them personally and seek their advice.
4. Once you have decided about the career that you want to be in, then the next step is to decide how to get there. Ask yourself: What special training do I require? Which school, college or institute do I need to join? All these questions need to be answered properly. List the top colleges you would like to attend, and start preparing for their entrarends. Once you choose a career, think again, and talk to senior and experienced people how to accomplish those goals.
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How will a career goal help me? |
A career goal will help you focus on what you want to do for a living. This could be a very specific job that you would like to do, e.g. being a doctor or a management consultant, or it could be a particular field of interest, such as medicine or general management.
Rather than limiting your future, a career goal will help you to discover possibilities that you would not have thought of otherwise. There are several job possibilities for any chosen career. For example, if you opt for advertising, you may have options like client servicing, media planning, business development, choreography, computer animation and graphics, production and directions, copywriting, etc.
A career goal will guide you in what to do in life, taking care of your interests, skills, personality and job trends. Once you choose a career, think again, and talk to senior and experienced people how to accomplish those goals.
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What are the steps needed to select a school/college/institution?
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The following are some of the steps that will help you choose better:
1. Clearly establish your goals and interests.
2. If you are clear about the career you want to get in, find out what kind of education or training is required to excel in that field.
3. You need to find out about various schools/colleges/institutes conducting those courses, and important factors like faculty, location, course offering, facilities, distance from home, religious affiliation, area of study, campus environment, social activities, etc.
4. Rank the above characteristics according to your preferences and choices.
5. Make sure about the qualifying admission criteria for the required college/institute, and find out more about the entrance and other exams that you may have to pass to secure admission. Lots of books are available in the market that provides you the institutes' past question papers, to help you master their pattern and style. Prepare well before you appear for the exams.
6. Gather information about the schools from various sources like the Internet, friends or by talking to industry people.
7. Request information from the college/institute about their admission dates, fees and other related matter.
8. Apply on time to avoid later confusion and hassles. Try to keep a photocopy of all forms sent to various colleges/institutes.
9. Apply to the top half a dozen colleges, in order to avoid disappointment.
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How do I plan for the cost of my studies? |
1. Firstly, you need to find out as much information as possible about the college/institute that you plan to get into. Buy their prospectuses, and get details of fee structure and other related costs.
2. If the college/institute is not in your hometown, check for hostel accommodation and mess facility, etc., as, ultimately, these costs will also be borne by you.
3. You can look out for scholarships and grants. Finding them in the Internet age has become really easy. So do not forget to check for scholarship and grants on the Internet before you decide on the loan amount. There are a lot of companies and trusts that give scholarships and grants to deserving students.
4. Check with the college/institute about any financial loan facility and the procedure for availing it. Usually, in such schemes, you are given a fixed period to pay your fees.
5. Enquire with the institute if it has any tie-ups with banks or whether it assists students in applying for educational loans. Most of the reputed colleges/institutes have a tie-up with certain banks for educational loans. The main criterion for these banks is confirmed admission. Hence, checking this out could be worthwhile.
6. Check with different banks, well before the results are announced, whether they finance the course that you are interested in, and find out other things like interest rates, loan amount, margin, documentation, etc. Most importantly, you need to find out the processing time that the bank requires sanctioning the required loan amount. This is important, as you have a fixed number of days to claim your admission.
7. So shortlist a few banks, and keep the documentation ready.
8. One thing that has to be kept in mind is insurance. In India, banks usually require a student to have his/her life insured for at least an amount equivalent to the loan amount. Hence, do not forget to take out a policy before applying for a loan.
9. Now you need to see how much you or your family can afford, or is willing, to pay for your education. It is advisable that you take a loan only for the amount that is really required, and not for the entire cost of your education. Hence, the issue should be discussed with your family members.
10. After filling out the bank loan forms, it would be advisable to photocopy them, fill up the photocopies, show them to the bank and get approval, before filling out the final forms. This will help you avoid cancellations or corrections that may unnecessarily delay the loan sanction period.
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