Parth Vira, Senior Consultant at EY Singapore and a Jai Hind alumni shares the journey of his under-grad days and some insightful information on how the curriculum has helped him in various walks of life and further advices us to make use of it the most.
One of the most important skills that are relevant for students from commerce background is MS Excel. “Students from commerce background should develop MS excel skills as it is most widely used by organisations. In many interviews, interviewers test candidates based on excel skills. Apart from that students should also develop communication and presentation skills. For this, they should take presentation projects by college seriously. When I was in Jai hind, every semester we were asked to give at least 1 presentation. That definitely helped me enhance my presentation skills”.
When asked about his career decision in Actuarial Science, Parth recalled that he was testing the waters before finalizing it. “I loved maths since school times. I learned about this course in college and thought of giving it a try. It turned out to be one of the best decisions”.
About any advice he would like to give out to anyone pursuing Actuarial Science, he emphasized the mindset one needs to develop when pursuing such courses. “Those who are pursuing actuarial science would have to be determined and never give up. It is not necessary that you’ll always pass on the first attempt. It’ll require a lot of patience”.
Moving forward, choosing the right institution will always give better returns in terms of networking, making decisions, and getting proper guidance from faculty and this fact has been acknowledged by Parth who emphasized how particularly Jai Hind paved the way for where he is today.
“Jai hind taught me to be unconventional. Before planning for actuarial science, I thought of a very mainstream career (can’t disclose that option :p). However, in Jai hind, I saw everyone making very unconventional choices and excelling at that. That made me think to pursue something new. That’s when I researched and got to know about Actuarial science. Further, support and guidance from professors, HODs; the projects, presentations helped me develop my soft skills and succeed in my career”.
In terms of building a CV that is acceptable at the corporate level, he says that Internships surely help while staying in college; they give you a glimpse of how the corporate arena works. “A student can find internship opportunities during their college time. Especially during their vacations. As the experience gained while working will help in learning to understand how corporate works. That can’t be learned by reading books and listening to others. Even if it is an unpaid internship, it’ll earn you invaluable experience. Apart from that, one can try learning new-age software, be a part of extra-curricular college activities, etc.”
In all, students should focus on skill development and gaining experience throughout their college life. Some soft skills that might be handy for commerce-based students are- presentation skills, MS Excel, and other new-age softwares. Parth has also emphasised networking and seeking guidance from the faculty members who have always been happy to help. Getting internships, especially during vacations can help in building the CV, and give a valuable experience of the working style of the corporates.
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