Finally GPAT & NIPER exam is over. Your teachers will be seen congratulating and taking interviews of toppers. In India we lack the social thoughts for guiding students who failed. But rather people always praise who topped just an exam. Even the colleges don't focus on such issues. With Pharmatricks, Let's focus on the career opportunities of maximum students who tried and failed passing their exam. No worries an exam can't change your life.
Opportunities for Non-Qualifiers
#Advice: 1
Don't waste time in doing M.Pharm from local colleges until the college have good record of placement. You will end up wasting time without learning anything.
But, if you want to pursue your career as an Assistant professor after doing M.Pharm then better you can opt for it. But, remember you can't grow much higher in academics with a Masters Degree.
Instead opt for colleges like BITS Pilani/Jamia Hamdard/JSS Mysore/Manipal which comes under Top 10 NIRF ranking with good placement records. But, their fees are very high and they are even better than some NIPER colleges. Being a NIPERIAN, I have attended few classes of faculty from BITS. They also focus on personality development instead of studies.
#Advice: 2
I have seen students who entered into industry just after B.Pharm and accelerate their growth after getting two years of experience. Majority of Freshers passing out from NIPER will get the same salary as you guys with two year of experience in Industry. I mean majority, don't count those few students who got 10 LPA from NIPER colleges. Such students are very rare.
#Advice: 3
You have opportunity to prepare for exams like Govt. Pharmacist/Drug Inspector/Drug Analyst which gives you job guarantee and stability. As you have already prepared for GPAT. So, it would not be extremely difficult for you to get selected. If you have such plans, then join a D.Pharm college as faculty to remain in touch with academics and give every exam regularly. However, this option is not that much beneficial because the jobs posting from government side for pharmacist comes with only few seats with high competition.
#Advice: 4
Try hard to take entry into consultancy jobs like RA/PV/CDM/SAS/CI etc. Within 2 years of experience, you will accelerate your career with good salary. Masters degree don't work everywhere, People in consulting companies with two years of experienced are more valued then a Fresher with a Masters degree.
#Advice: 5
Take experience as a pharmacist in hospital and prepare for Abroad pharmacist exam conducted by UAE, Australia, USA like countries. After cracking such exam go to abroad because Pharmacist are more valued in Abroad countries and get a decent salary compared to India. Opt for this only if you have plans to do jobs in Abroad.
Tips for GPAT/ NIPER Qualifiers:
#Advice 1:
Even after taking admission in top-tier colleges, students still have to compete among themselves to crack interviews and get placed in a good company. Competition will become more tough as you have now top rankers around you from the country to crack Interviews at the time of placement. The first year of M.Pharm feels like more enjoyable but, as soon the final year comes things becomes worst as you need to focus both on your research project and job.
#Advice 2
GPAT/NIPER like exams would only help students for 2 years to get good industrial skill. No doubt, students gets exposure from NIPER Colleges but, not all students succeed to the best. Also, choose wisely how to spend your GPAT fellowship. If you didn't get placed from college. Save some money from your expenses. Because if you don't get placed then you have need enough money for travelling across different capital city of the country to attend job fairs and interviews. The cost of surving in Tier-1 cities are expensive.
#Advice 3
You need to build strong connections with your seniors, PhD holders and your Guide. They are the one who can help you to get placed in a good industry. I will advise you to create a LinkedIn account and keep posting updates about what you learned in your lab. May be some of your friends may make joke of you. But, it will build an online presence of your contents. Your profile will come under insights of Recruiters and help you in landing into a good job. Getting 1000 followers on LinkedIn in much better than getting the same in Instagram. For any reason, if you don't get selected for interviews in final year of M.Pharm, at that time your single post on LinkedIn will create a greater impact than your college placements. Surround your profile with connections of HR from Pharma companies to get update about any vacancy.
#Advice 4
Being a NIPERIAN, I have seen some of my seniors getting 15LPA in a span of 3 years of experience and some still struggles with mediocre salary. It's all depend on the students. How someone explores the job market and work on themself to sustain in the healthy competition. I don't claim that Indian Pharma companies don't have jobs. But, going into the top Pharma companies can help you grow faster.
#Advice 5
The right place for NIPERIAN are R&D sector in Pharma industry. But, growth accelerates in R&D if you have a PhD degree. So, students working on industry after M.Pharm has to either drop their job or proceed doing PhD to get higher salary.
Therefore, few students after M.Pharm don't remain in R&D and switch their profession to desk jobs like regularly/ pharmacovigelence/ medical writing/market research/business executive etc. like jobs. At present these consulting companies help students for a decent growth.
#Advice 6
With a M.S. degree from NIPER, getting fellowship from Abroad countries like USA/GERMANY/IRELAND etc. becomes easy only if your guide can provide you reference and you have good research publication. Students doing PhD from abroad gets monthly fellowship of Rs 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh per month based on their project. You need crack IELTS/GRE like exam to be qualified to study in abroad countries.
Final Words
After an experience of 2 years in Job. The above mentioned thoughts are totally based on my experience of being a working professional. Whatever I mentioned above are TRUE as per my experience. Hope this might have helped you and added some value.