Ranjan K Baruah
COVID 19 pandemic has directly impacted our education and also jobs. At present academic institutions are closes and people are returning from outside to their own states. Many young people from different states of North East are working in different parts of India and abroad as the job opportunities are limited in our region. At the time of present crisis many have come back to their own places and many other might come . Our recent graduates or job aspirants are going to face more challenges.
More works are happening in digital mode now. Online classes, online discussions, online meetings as people cannot come and meet face to face due to coronavirus issue. Well, digital entrepreneurs are thinking of new opportunities and others are trying to learn digital medium to for livelihoods. One of the area which is not popular amongst our youths is share market or investment in shares and stocks.
To learn more about share market one may do online research. Students coming from commerce or management background find it easy to understand and they can easily get associated with share market directly or indirectly. Most of this are available online and I would request our readers to do online research. We must be aware of various terms and processes if we want to be in this sector directly or indirectly. Two most options in the market is stock broker and mutual fund distributors. We can also see advertisements related to mutual funds on television.
Stock Broker: A stockbroker is a regulated professional individual, usually associated with a brokerage firm or broker-dealer, who buys and sells stocks and other securities for both retail and institutional clients through a stock exchange or over the counter in return for a fee or commission. Stockbrokers are known by numerous professional designations, depending on the license they hold, the type of securities they sell, or the services they provide.
Most brokerage firms in India look for at least a bachelor’s degree in a related filed – accounting, finance, business or economics. An applicant with a master’s of business administration can receive higher-level positions and compensation than an applicant with a bachelor’s degree. On-the-job training is provided by the hiring firm. Having natural decision-making skills, math skills and taking initiative are important qualities in a successful candidate.
Mutual Fund Distributors: In simple, they advice people on various mutual funds and where one may invest. Usually, when people select a scheme themselves, they do so based on its performance. They don’t judge that past performances may not be sustained. Evaluation of schemes is a function of various attributes of the schemes, e.g. scheme objective, investment universe, the risks that the fund is taking, etc. This requires the investor to put in time and effort. The investor also needs to have the requisite expertise to be able to understand the features and nuances as well as the ability to analyse and compare from among many options. A distributor of mutual funds or an investment advisor would be qualified and trained for such a job.
There are more options apart from these two. Young people who are having knowledge about market and economy and digitally literate may get into this profession as it needs less investment. One may work with other broker firms or may work independently for which aspirants must have effective communication skills apart from other skills . Lock down is a good opportunity to learn more about trading and market and later we may choose to get associated with this as our career option.
(Ranjan K Baruah is a career mentor and can be reached at
[email protected] or 8473943734 for any career related queries)