Students Urged To Become Job-Creators, Not Job-Seekers

NSOJ Bureau

Given the current economic climate in India, students need to focus on becoming both job seekers and job providers, Richa Khandelwal Bhat, Creative Director, Keshava productions, said on Wednesday at the Atria Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangalore.

Ms Bhat was addressing first-year Engineering students at the World Entrepreneurs' Day celebration at the institute. She urged students to not be limited by a degree. Just because they are Engineering students, it did not mean they could not pursue other skills, she said. Ms Bhat herself is multifaceted, being a filmmaker, producer, director, and screen writer. "Broaden your entrepreneurial skills," she told the students. She focused on rising unemployment in the country and stated: "Don't just look for jobs, create your own".

Anyone can be an entrepreneur

To help the students understand that they can excel at many things, she showcased a presentation on people who were not afraid to push the boundaries in any field. "Mechanical engineer Filippo Brunelleschi is regarded as the father of Renaissance architecture and is the man who figured out how to create the dome shape. Leonardo Da Vinci is famous for the Mona Lisa but he was also a pioneering inventor and scientist. Alfred Hitchcock and James Cameron studied engineering too but today, Alfred Hitchcock is a legendary director whose films are required study in every filmmaking textbook. Hollywood director James Cameron is famous for the movies The Titanic and Avatar, but did you know that he is also a deep sea explorer? He has even gone in an underwater vehicle to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench!" To succeed, you need to be passionate about what you do, she said.

She concluded her speech with a line from a Hindi poem: "Sabse khatarnaak hota hai sapnon ka mar jaana; ghar se kaam pe jaana aur kaam se ghar laut ke aana" (the most dangerous thing in the world is the death of our dreams; to settle for a routine job). She urged students to never to give up on their dreams. "Write down your dream daily, bring it to life in your spare time. Now is the time, don't waste what you have or you will regret it later,” she added.

The program included a prize distribution for four events held as part of the celebrations. The prizes were distributed by AIT principal Dr K V Narayanswamy.

Box: The Student Who Runs a Start-up!

Sanchith Anand is not just a regular college student; he is also an entrepreneur! The first-year ISE (Information Science and Engineering) student at the Atria Institute of Technology runs ETC Foods, a food chain in Basavanagudi. “College students like me don’t have a large amount of spending money, so I wanted to start a place that provides good food and ambience but is also affordable.” Currently, he does all the conceptualisation for the food chain: “I handle the look of the place, keep an eye out for trends, take care of social media and also, come up with new dishes that are as reasonably-priced as possible.”

ETC Foods has been operational since March 2019 and Sanchith describes it as an eye-opening experience. “I got to know the logistics of a business. In college, I try to relate some concepts to this so that I understand better and become the best entrepreneur,” he adds.

His presentation about ETC Foods won him several awards at the World Entrepreneurs' Day Celebration organised by Atria Business Incubation Centre at AIT. He described the event as a chance to come out of his shell, saying it helped him gain more confidence. “While running my venture, I do face a lot of problems, so events such as Crisis Management proved to be very informative for me,” he added.