Economics As A Career

What is Economics and why IITs offer this course?

Economics is an exciting field of study and a challenging profession. Degree in Economics or Bachelor of Science (BS) or social science degree will start by introducing students to the core economics topics. It covers microeconomics and macroeconomics, calculus, quantitative skills, econometrics, etc. It leads your career options extremely wide open. You can end up working in a government job or private sector to research or academic. Though, skills are important than a master’s or a Ph.D. degree. If you want to go particularly in research, go for organizations where you can get in with a master’s degree. IIT’s have other programs, other than the famous B.Tech courses. One of such is a four years BS course. Some IITs have dual degree (BS+MS) programs.

Admission information

IIT JAM (Joint Admission Test for M.Sc) is an exam conducted by IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), through which you can take admissions in a master’s program in economics. It is an exam for admission to top colleges. 20 IITs take JAM scores for admissions. Any bachelor student from physics, chemistry, social science, and mathematics background and any degree student with B.A, B.sc, B.com, B.E., B.Tech, or equivalent degree with 55% aggregate can apply. And with the JEE exam score, you can take admissions in B.Sc, M.Sc integrated program in IIT. For studying in the top college in India or abroad, it is indeed compulsory to have mathematics in class 12th in school. For eg- studying at the London School of Economics.

Admission In BS & MS And Integrated Course

IITs have a good infrastructure, placements, and industry-related course curriculum. Colleges have facilities like good classrooms, Wi-Fi, library, labs, canteen, hostel, medical, sports, and so on. All the teachers are Ph.D. holders and are knowledgeable. The total student fee for the course varies from 9 lakhs to 10 lakhs. The average package was 13 LPA and, the highest was 36 LPA. 

• IIT Kanpur: Five years M.Sc course was started in 2005. Later, it was transformed to Bachelor of Science (BS), which is four years course.
• IIT Kharagpur: IIT Kharagpur has a dual degree five years M.Sc course. B.Sc is a three-year program, but if you want to pursue it from IIT, you have to do an integrated program. If you want to go with the economics subject, then this post-graduation is a beneficiary program.
• IIT Bombay: Bachelor of Science (BS) in Economics, a four years course started in 2017 in IIT Bombay.

Job profile and role

Aspirants need to be good with data because mostly they will be working on it. If you are working in a bank, you will be doing economics research for a bank. Your job will require looking at data across economies and, making projections as to the sorting of GDP growth rate for a particular economy. Or working on micro-level job profiles like markets and, you will be looking at stocks, currencies, and projects where they are going.

Opportunities

In terms of a corporate career, if you are not hired as an economist or become a CEO, then there are job roles in industries like investment banking, consultancy, marketing, etc. Different economist has different job roles. An agricultural economist can work in universities, research ICAR, in a private agricultural firm, in the government sector. Development economists work on national survey sample data, senses data, or any other surveys of programs. They tell how policies can be improved. If you do not want to study after under graduation degree in economics, then you can go for the job overall, it is an excellent career option. Anything outside natural sciences has job offers for you and, you can get opportunities in sectors like management consultancy, strategy consultancy, banking, journalism, law, etc. After completing M.Sc from IITs, Byju’s Unacademy, etc. also, hire students for subject expert roles. If you want to go for UPSC preparation with this branch, then it is also a good choice.

Important Tips for students

• More than anything else, you should have an interest in economic events around. If global crises and deprivation do not interest, you then it will be hard to study economics.
• You can take a couple of years before going for a master’s if you are not sure.
• If you want to be a full economist advisor or policymaker, then you should do a Ph.D.
• Teaching is a fantastic option, but students should put it as a last option.
• College economics is far different from what is taught in schools.
• Remember a master’s degree is a complementary thing rather than a requirement or necessity.
• If you like economics but don’t like maths, then opt for combinations of economics with management or other less quantitative subjects.

:By- Priya Panwar

Also Read:

9 Jobs with an Economics Degree.