The summer is almost here and so are the holidays. What are your plans?
When you visit the U.S, it is fairly common to see college students doing all kinds of jobs — waiting tables, selling goods and services, and so on. Through such work, they learn to appreciate the dignity of labour and also the value of hard-earned money. Beyond that, such part-time jobs and internships bolster the CVs of the students and help them land highly sought after jobs. Demographically, we are a lot younger than the U.S. India has a massive college-going student population, but large chunks of it appear to spend the summer and winter breaks unproductively. There are numerous opportunities to be productive, learn new skills and earn money.
Your road to financial independence should start with understanding the value of hard-earned money. The only way to know this is by trying and making some money yourself. When you see what it takes to earn, you will start developing a sense of respect for money.
Be proactive
Do an internship or a part-time job this summer. There are internship portals such as intershala.com and twenty19.com, which showcase several internship opportunities across a variety of roles, from graphic design to sales and marketing. You can also email or cold call your neighbourhood startups and ask them for internship opportunities. Instead of “dreaming” about dream companies and dream offers, why don’t you volunteer to work for them for free for a month or so? If they are happy with your work, they will compensate you and even make you a job offer. The point is, you have to reach for opportunities on your own rather than waiting for college placement officers to bring you internship or part-time job opportunities.
At Money Wizards, we have several young people working for us. I am amazed at the maturity level of these students who manage their academic workload, internships, commuting, and so on, at such a young age. Some of our interns are as young as 18 years old! These are confident people, who are comfortable seeking internship opportunities on their own and building their skill set. By the time they graduate from their college, they would have explored their own professional likes and dislikes, identified their strengths and weaknesses and earned decent money. Just about every “dream” company would love to hire them.
For some of you, you may have to educate your parents so that they allow you to pursue these opportunities. While things are slowly changing, our society still values “office jobs” over field sales and so on. What many do not realise is that a fast track sales career is one of the surest ways to become a CEO. So, start your money education this summer by actually earning some money.
Feel free to share your successes and challenges at money-thoughts@money-wizards.com
The writer is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and the co-founder of Money Wizards. chari.venkatesh@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment