The session of Illume, for this month was conducted on 7th October 2023 on Career Choice and Organisational Skills for Commerce students. The session was conducted by Dr. Atul Deshpande, an educationist at the core, an author, and a stage artist; he has total experience of 35 years in teaching, training and research. Currently he is a professor at National Insurance Academy, Pune.

The session began with a question to the students whether they have opted for commerce out of choice or by chance, which made them think about it and answer for themselves. The session then revolved around major headings like – Correlation of commerce with various other faculties; Structural changes in the field of commerce; career opportunities in Commerce (with Mathematics and without Mathematics); and some FAQs.

Dr. Atul Deshpande added a practical approach to his talk wherein, he spoke about the commercial value that is added to any product which is added by a Commerce student. He also briefed them about how the structural change is brought in by the technology to the field which results in its integration with the other streams. He further added how the field looks under national Educational Policy and highlighted 3 major aspects – holistic approach, multidisciplinarity and flexibility/ transferability of credits while opting for higher education in commerce.

While sharing the Career options for Commerce students with math, he talked about Careers like Chartered Accountancy, ICWA, Investment banker, Charted Financial Analysis, Actuarial Science, Cost Accountant, Personal Financial Advisor, Research Analysis, Economics, Finance, Bank Probationer Officer, Foreign Trade, etc. along with the pre-requisites, job profiles and salary brackets for the same. Similarly under the options without Mathematics, he quoted fields like, marketing, entrepreneurship, HR management, Certified public accountant, Retail Management, Product management, Sales management, Hotel Management, Tourism, Budget Analyst, Relationship Managers, Auditor, Stock Broker, Statistician, etc.

He summed up a session with Organisational skills that can be called as the 5 pillars, that are essential for any students which are Knowing your strengths; awareness of the market change, Your own likes and dislikes; Skillsets; and High work and time commitment.

The session was filled with a huge treasure of information what will definitely benefit our students. The session was well received by the students as they had one to one conversation with him as well post session.