Saturday, December 13, 2008

Career Choices: After Class XII, what?

Dr Ananya Ghosh-Dastidar is carrying out a study on Occupation Choices among High School and College Students in Urban India. She is at the Delhi University (South Campus) and this study is jointly undertaken with Dr Soumen Sikdar of Calcutta University.

Their objective is to study an important aspect of labour market trends, namely occupation choice in an era of globalisation and economic reforms in a developing country like India.They would like to focus on final year school and college students in two metro cities (Delhi and Kolkata) and try to

  • characterize the nature of career choices being made by them
  • analyse some of the reasons underlying these choices and
  • analyse the implications of such occupation choices, especially for the education sector in the economy.

An important objective of this study is to specifically analyse the implications of students' career preferences, for the education sector and therefore for human capital formation in India. In this context the question we would like to pose is: Are the best students in schools and colleges today, willing to take up academics (teaching and research) as a profession?

I thought this would be a good thing to try to find out. What do the students at MIS think? Through this blog I would like to request Class XII students to spend maybe 10-15 minutes to answer the following questions. You can cut and paste the answers into an email which you can send directly to Professor Ghosh-Dastidar at agdastidar@gmail.com

Here it is:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Respondent,

This 4-page questionnaire is part of a study, funded by the University of Delhi, on “Analysis of Occupation Choices among High School and College Students in Urban India : A Case Study of New Delhi and Kolkata”.

As you are aware, since Economic Reforms were introduced in the 1990s decade, there have been many changes in the Indian economy, especially in the sheer range of available job opportunities. The number of alternate options open to job seekers has simply exploded over the past decade or so.

Given this dynamic scenario, we are trying to get an idea about the career preferences of youngsters like you. Your feedback will be a vital input in our understanding of occupation choice issues. The information you provide will be used solely for research purpose and kept completely confidential.

Kindly provide all the details requested, by either ticking a given option or ranking the options given in order of preference. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Please put an x in the brackets like (x) to indicate your choice.

1. Name of School

2. Name of Student (optional)

3. Gender Male ( ) Female ( )
4. Subjects / Stream Chosen in Class XII :
Science ( )

Commerce ( )

Humanities / Arts ( )

5. A number of career choices appear below. We would like to know about your preferences about these career options. Consider the given list of occupations and rank them according to your choice, on a scale of 1 to 10 in the space provided below. Give Rank 1 to your best choice, 2, to second best, and so on..
  1. Executive in Private Sector (e.g., Corporate job in MNC with MBA degree)
  2. Bureaucrat (Govt. sector job, eg. IAS/IPS etc., other than Defence)
  3. Defense Services (Army / Navy / Airforce)
  4. Teacher
  5. Businessman
  6. Independent Professional (Doctor / ‪ Lawyer / ‪Chartered Accountant / Architect /Stock Broker etc.)
  7. Media and Entertainment Professional (Journalist / TV Anchor etc.)
  8. Airlines Industry Professional (Pilot / Air Hostess etc.)
  9. Sportsperson (Cricket / Tennis player etc.)
  10. Fashion Industry Professional (Fashion Designer) or Creative Designer (e.g. Interior Designer)


6. If there’s an occupation you’d prefer which is different from the ones above, please mention the occupation and the Rank (out of 10) you’d like to give it :
Occupation :
Rank :
7. Suppose you did not have to think about earning a living. In that case, which occupation would you prefer the most ?

Same as the Occupation Ranked 1 above (

Some other Occupation (e.g., Singer, Dancer, Painter, Writer, Social Worker, Human Rights / Environmental Activist etc.) ( )


8. What do you think are the highest paid occupations among the following ? Consider the given list of occupations and rank them on a scale of 1 to 10. Give Rank 1 to the occupation you think is the highest paid, 2 to second highest and so on.

  1. Executive in Private Sector (e.g., Corporate job in MNC with MBA degree)
  2. Bureaucrat (Govt. sector job, eg. IAS/IPS etc., other than Defence)
  3. Defense Services (Army / Navy / Airforce)
  4. Teacher
  5. Businessman
  6. Independent Professional (Doctor / ‪ Lawyer / ‪ Chartered Accountant / Architect /Stock Broker etc.)
  7. Media and Entertainment Professional (Journalist / TV Anchor etc.)
  8. Airlines Industry Professional (Pilot / Air Hostess etc.)
  9. Sportsperson (Cricket / Tennis player etc.)
  10. Fashion Industry Professional (Fashion Designer) or Creative Designer (e.g. Interior Designer)


9. If there’s an occupation you’d prefer which is different from the ones above, please mention the occupation and how you would Rank (out of 10) income from it:
Occupation :

Rank :

Now we would like to ask you about your preferences regarding a specific profession - Teaching


10. Would you like to be a Teacher ? Yes ( ) No ( )

11. Where would you most prefer to teach? School ( ) College ( ) University ( )

12. For you Teaching is : your most preferred or first best career option ( )

a career option you would consider in case other options did not work out ( )

13. What do you think needs to be done to make Teaching a more attractive career option ? Rank the given options in order of importance.

Give Rank 1 to what you consider is the most important step, Rank 2 for second most important step that needs to be taken.

  1. Teachers’ salaries should be increased
  2. Teachers’ job should be made more interesting (e.g., by giving Teachers more freedom over teaching methods and / or curriculum design)


14. Is there anything else that can be done (other than the points mentioned above) to make Teaching a more attractive career option ? No ( )

Yes, (Please mention what can be done) ( ) :




We would like to know about your main sources of information (on nature of job, salary etc.) about different occupations.

15. For you which of the following are the most important sources of information about various occupations ? Rank the given options in order of importance.

Give Rank 1 to the most important source, 2 for second most important and so on.

  1. Parents and Relatives
  2. Friends and Senior Students
  3. Media (Newspaper, Television etc.)
  4. Internet

To help classify your responses, for research purposes, we’d like to know some details about you and about your family background – your responses will be kept strictly confidential.

16. Marks you had secured in

Class X board
Examination (CBSE / ICSE) :

  • Less than 50% ( )
  • More than 50% , but less than 75% ‪ ( )
  • More than 75%, but less than 90% ()
  • More than 90% ()

17. Your Father’s Education :

  • Has No Formal Schooling ( )
  • Completed School but does not have a College Degree ( )
  • Graduate (BA / BSc / Bcom / B Tech / MBBS etc.) ‪( )
  • Post Graduate (MA / MSc / Mcom / MD / M. Tech / PhD‪) ( )

18. Your Mother’s Education :

  • Has No Formal Schooling ( )
  • Completed School but does not have a College Degree ( )
  • Graduate (BA / BSc / Bcom / B Tech / MBBS etc.) ‪( )
  • Post Graduate (MA / MSc / Mcom / MD / M. Tech / PhD‪) ( )

19. Your Father’s Occupation :

  • Employee in Private Concern /NGO (other than Teacher) ( )
  • Teacher (in School / College / University) ( )
  • Bureaucrat / Govt. Employee (except Defence) ( )
  • Defence Personnel ( )
  • Businessman ( )
  • Independent Professional (Doctor/Lawyer/Chartered Accountant etc.) ( )
  • Other (Please Specify) ( ) :

20. Your Mother’s Occupation :

  • Employee in Private Concern /NGO (other than Teacher) ( )
  • Teacher (in School / College / University) ( )
  • Bureaucrat / Govt. Employee (except Defence) ( )
  • Defence Personnel ( )
  • Businessman ( )
  • Independent Professional (Doctor/Lawyer/Chartered Accountant etc.) ( )
  • Housewife ( )
  • Other (Please Specify) ( ) :

21. Your Family Income (approx.) :

  • Less than Rs.10,000 per month ( )
  • More than Rs.10,000, but less than Rs.20,000 per month ( )
  • More than Rs.20,000, but less than Rs.50,000 per month ( )
  • More than Rs.50,000, but less than Rs. 1,00,000 per month ( )
  • More than Rs. 1,00,000 per month ( )

No comments: