Thursday, July 19, 2007

THE 'IT' FACTOR



INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS NO LONGER SOLELY ABOUT DEVELOPING AND TESTING, BUT HAS MADE ITS PRESENCE FELT IN MANY DIFFERENT FIELDS. REHAB CHOUGLE COMPUTES THE NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR IT PROFESSIONALS

Afew years ago, a degree in pure sciences would have brought you very meagre options in terms of placements and was considered a 'less prestigious' degree. An engineering graduate would, no doubt, have acquired a better profile and pay packet back then. Not anymore.

Riding on the wave of high economic development, most multinational companies are finding that skilled resources are hard to come by and are flocking to degree colleges in full force. It's a known fact that the duration of the course or the subjects chosen by the students, hardly matters, if a company is willing to invest in a three-month training period. And the leaders among the pack are IT and outsourcing companies, who are hiring in bulk. This has led to a host of job profiles and increased remuneration in the fields of information technology and IT-enabled services. There are a number of unconventional areas that have developed recently, with IT as the focal point.

TESTING

According to Pradeep Soundararajan, a test manager in TriVium Systems, Bangalore, the testing has thrown up some nteresting career profiles.

Independent test consultant Software testers can find tremendous opportunities in India by joining a testing firm or by having an independent test consultancy.
Independent technical writer Documentation, wasteful or otherwise, rules the IT industry.Products and services companies depend on talented technical writers who are brought in to write user manuals, technical specifications and design documents.You could work from home, provided you sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Language translation services

All software that needs to be sold worldwide, needs to be translated in local languages.Almost every product company is looking for people with a specific foreign language skill to get their manuals and documents translated.In markets like Germany and Japan, where a large number of technical documents are published, it is important to read the fine print. Aspirants need to have a BSc (IT or Comp Sci) or engineering degree.

BIOLOGY AND IT?

With India touted to be the next major research hub, biology and pharmaceutical related startups are headed to India in a big way - and they are bringing wonderful job profiles with them. Computational biology research is an area of biology that started a new trend after the new genome was discovered.The research involves experiments, maintaining databases, reading through technical literature and applying the results obtained.The good news is that these experiments could be tested and researched by skilled personnel in India too.Most research companies are hiring biology graduates to test different modules and develop or apply changes to experiments that are affecting the working of economies or major research projects. Biostatistics or biometry is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology.It has particular applications to medicine and agriculture. Almost all educational programmes in biostatistics are at the postgraduate level.Schools of public health, affiliated with schools of medicine, forestry, or agriculture, offer this course, or it may be the focus of application in departments of statistics.

Applications of this field are:

Public health,including epidemiology, health services research, nutrition, and environmental health

Design and analysis of clinical trials in medicine
Genomics, population genetics, and statistical genetics in populations, in order to link variation in genotype with a variation in phenotype, used in agriculture to improve crops and farm animals. In biomedical research,this work can assist in finding candidates for gene alleles that can cause or influence predisposition to disease in human genetics

Ecology

Biological sequence analysis Candidates with a master’s degree in biology, biotechnology and biomedical engineering are preferred.

MEDICAL CODING

Medical coding is the process of assigning codes to diagnoses and procedures, which help in financial reimbursement from insurance companies and government agencies, software firms and consulting firms.In this field, coders convert the physician’s notes into codes that are utilised by the insurance providers. The medical coding industry has seen the cutting edge of information technology due to which, several channels have opened up for placements in the health information field.These open doors has diversified and created platforms for the aspiring generation, who have laid their career in the health information field.The involvement of microcomputers and bigger databases has made it possible to outsource work.This field has extensive application in the insurance claims sector and companies outsource these jobs. To qualify for this field, you could have either done medicine and branched out into IT or you could have a certification from the company itself, even if you have a BSc degree. You could also have had a career in the insurance sector and then branched out into coding.

AERONAUTICAL DESIGN AND CODE OUTSOURCING

Ever seen the engines of the Airbus A380? Or the design of the latest car from the Porsche stable? Chances are, both these modules have been developed in India. Most mechanical engineering companies are outsourcing large modules of their codes and designs to skilled Indian engineers to develop feasible designs for their new products, while these modules are tested by American engineers. Skilled professionals have been associating the outsourcing boom with entrepreneurship ventures and setting up new companies that function primarily in the outsourcing field. Pay scales at par with most multinational company jobs, and developing and adding designs to a product that is more or less a luxury, has added to the lure of this skilled area. You need to be an engineering graduate with a specialisation in aeronautical/ civil/ mechanical engineering.

LEGAL PROCESS OUTSOURCING

With associate lawyers in the US carrying a price tag of $225 per hour in their first year and $450 an hour in their eighth, it was only a matter of time before law firms sought to outsource some of their more mundane tasks to cheaper locations like India.With paychecks ranging between 10 to 15 per cent of that of US lawyers and a turnaround time of 24 hours for outsourced work, Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) is catching on quickly. Most firms are outsourcing legal jobs to India at a cost advantage.A law student, who would otherwise have struggled with options for suitable career growth, will hit a jackpot! A career path would involve a law degree and placement at an LPO firm. Some law firms have also started having separate departments for outsourcing in a bid to cash in on the new phenomenon.The educational requirements for a beginner are a law degree and country specific specialisation in law.

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