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DISCLAIMER: Individual experiences in various job 'micro-markets' and companies vary a lot. So this comment may be statistically incorrectWARNING: If you are from a moderately wealthy family and immigrated here when you were just 4 years old, your experience probably is going to be a lot different. A wealthy background can shield you from all sorts of discriminations including the racial ones.CONTEXT: Have robust software product engineering (& entrepreneurial) background, with experiences of working in Couple of US/SV product companies. PR-holder. Living in Sydney for last couple of years.Australia is wonderful country with beautiful beaches, great pub culture, fantastic outback adventure journeys, warm & friendly 'mates', great food diversity & restaurants, tropical weather (Melbourne weather is a bit mercurial :), great transportation (For example, Sydney has four modes of transportations) and road networks etc. I find Sydney as a wonderful city to live in (we'll come to macro-economic aspects of housing affordability in a minute). For people with entrepreneurial & creative bend, Melbourne may be a better option.However, IT culture and recruitments prevailing in Sydney seems a bit depressive. Yes, there are some fantastic companies (Atlassian is a great workplace), but I've seen enough bad ones. Successful immigration to a new country like Australia (esp. if you are married w/o kids) is not just about it's IT-environment. It's a complex interplay of following aspects -1. Local Experience: 'Cultural Fitness' is important for employers, but I think this whole 'Local Experience' thing have been played a bit too much. Without any racial connotation, I've seen this rule being bent often for people with European descent. While attending an interview for SDE position (from a pan-Asia recruitment) in Seattle, Microsoft never stressed on having 'local American experience' as a criteria to see 'cultural fitness'.As a fellow Quora-reader correctly pointed out, there exists an issue about quality of English spoken or practised by Asians. To some degree the complaint is justified. For example, I've observed extremely poor English (both spoken and written) standards while working with an Asian colleague holding Masters in IT from an Australian University. Again this observation mayn't be statistically significant enough to represent the entire Asian population (don't have data to justify). Understandably, Australian universities are under immense "selection pressure" as majority of the talented Asians typically choose US for their higher education due to a multitude of reasons, forcing most of the local Universities to keep the selection bar low enough to remain sustainable. Even then, at the very least, they should raise the minimum requirement (for students) of IELTS to 7. Although this suggestion may have a huge economic impact on Universities (difference between IELTS 6.5 to 7.0 may be few million dollars) and may crush dreams of many Asian students, this will certainly help to ease the communication gap, paving the way for better Cultural Integration.But unlike the innate IQ, English skills can be improved quickly as long as you spend enough time with native english speakers. Unfortunately, due to greater socio-cultural integration issues and subsequent asian-clique-formations, English skills do not improve for many Asians (even after a decade of residency).On the other side, I've worked with a Python (programming language) developer from one of the Eastern European countries. Though an excellent team-member, he didn't possess very good spoken English skills. And without having any "local experience", has been absorbed straight into a technical leadership role demanding expertise in a completely different technical stack.Technical folks (unless it's a client-facing IT consultancy or sales engineering or senior executive leadership role) typically works at back-office. And worldwide, programmers and technical folks are known to be introverts, focusing more on technology as opposed to human interactions. So quality of English doesn't matter too much as long as you communicate well in technical terms (in GitHub/BitBucket comments, algorithms, optimisations etc.) within the team. Interestingly, on average (there are outliers always), I've seen more extroverts dominating the tech-scene here as compared to other tech-hubs across the world. This dominance of extroverts in tech-scene, poor English skills observed among Asians (on average) and cultural stratification perpetuates that "local experience" requirement, perhaps.2. IT Market (Macro Economics): The overall IT market (dominated by service companies, consulting corporations) is shrinking and I know several 'Aussies' who are sailing for greener pastures elsewhere (Singapore, Valley etc.). One of the main reason for this dilapidated condition is lack of start-up funding (esp. in the Angel region of 1-10 million $) and increased tendency of bigger/mature Australian businesses to outsource IT to Asia. As a consequence, job creation (or opportunity creation) has been stalled.3. Work-Life Balance (WLB): With this economics, it's not too difficult to see why many businesses or business units have skewed the 'work-life balance' to the other, more "stressful" end of the spectrum (This again may depend heavily on the specific company or the group you are employed with). If you are into Enterprise Systems (Adobe CQ, BizTalk, Oracle etc.) WLB should be lot better as compared with roles in Application Development (.NET, Ruby Rails). But it's important to remember that too-much-WLB and tendency to "laid back" work culture serves as a fantastic breeding ground for "Mate-o-cracy" (reverse of Meritocracy)4. Recruitment Practices: Barring some exceptional companies & startups, I found the technical recruitment process has a long way to go to catch up US (& even in some cases - Asian [Flipkart, Infosys, Baidu etc.]) standards. Believe it or not, many times recruiters conduct the 'First Round' of technical interviews with an understandably rigid structure. A joke often goes like this -One door never shuts down for an unsuccessful bloke - IT recruitment in Sydney :)Most of the companies will not ask any algorithms/puzzles as part of tech interview, as the popular belief is - "Anyway you are going to develop some Web apps with some stack/framework. Why bother?", as meritocratic practices are often limited to pedantic topics like - TDD patterns, design patterns, OOP etc, number of Github repositories etc. Just because you've spotted a suitable advert in SEEK, it doesn't necessarily mean you will be given an opportunity to appear for the interview, based on merit alone. It's all about the credibility of the channel through which you are approaching to the recruiter who will represent you to the company. Except few companies like Google Australia, recruiters often have deep relationships with your future direct manager or L+2 manager. Some companies have 'preferred' staffing vendors and only way to get a 'call' for an advertised position is to get represented by a recruiter from one of those preferred staffing vendors (ex. Robert Walters). The prevalent practices rest highest faith on the maxim - "It's who you know matters more than what you know". This poses new challenges in the form of "Cultural Integration" (see below - #11) issues.May be a bit sweeping generalisation, in Australia, especially at big corporations, jobs often do not end up at company's public job portal only to be manipulated by a section of managers who have their own 'preferred' recruiters and 'preferred' candidates without actually conducting interviews - pretty horrible recruitment practices. Also racial discrimination is pretty common in recruitment (over the years racism has moved from being explicit to subtle) industry. Checkout - The confessions of a Recruiter MUST READA recruitment agency's definition of screening is.... hit "delete" with Indian / Asian applications. Sad but true!For a more quantitative approach to labour market discrimination -‘After completing TAFE in 2005 I applied for many junior positions where no experience in sales was needed – even though I had worked for two years as a junior sales clerk. I didn’t receive any calls so I decided to legally change my name to Gabriella Hannah. I applied for the same jobs and got a call 30 minutes later.’...To get as many job interviews as an Anglo applicant, an Indigenous person must submit 35% more applications, a Chinese person 68% more, an Italian person 12% more, and a Middle Eastern person 64% more applications (Source).Ref: http://andrewleigh.org//pdf/AuditDiscrimination.pdfBesides racial discrimination, according to interactions with multiple recruiters there exists another perspective which may be a bit uncomfortable to digest. It's about quality of asian students opting to study here. If you are talented enough, on average, it's hard to justify an expensive Australian university degree (There are exceptions as always. ANU, UMELB, USYD ranks pretty high. Sometimes high CoL plays a decisive role) over a quality US one. During the absorption of these students into local workforce, thus, an obviously biased impression gets formed - which in turn feeds into the prevailing racial discrimination issue, making it particularly challenging for other asian (mature-age) immigrants (especially for those having a darker skin and without an Anglo-Saxon-looking name. In fact, have been made specially aware of my darker skin-tone multiple times, since I landed here).5. Minimum Jobless Tenure: Because of the mix of above and other factors, often MJT is random. Expect it to range anywhere from 20 days to a year.6. High Tech Market Maturity: Although 'hard'-engineering is highly paid (at least through the mining-boom days) and respected, software/tech market is yet to reach to a acceptable level of maturity. Without big successes (Atlassian is an exception rather than rule) at home (successes which are also scaled to other parts of the world), software engineering is often viewed as just another commodity expenditure, unlike Sales & Marketing. In fact many multi-national companies (Including Microsoft and others) has only sales & marketing front-end here without any significant software development.7. Attire: This is strange, but attire culturally plays a strong role in schmoozing the recruiter / hiring manager, ultimately getting a job (esp. in big companies), sometimes even in career progression. As long as meritocratic practices are not completely abandoned, this is probably an 'interesting' experience. This poses specific problems for software engineers who usually rests more weight on algorithms, coding, system architecture & performance as opposed to extrinsic attire.8. Business Culture: Business Culture usually represents a microcosm of the society in general and Australia is no exception. Here, it's a deeply class-based, un-meritocratic, discriminatory culture with a gigantic display of Peters Principle, utterly ignoring any modern management practices. Interestingly the prevailing business culture affects not just immigrants (by a greater degree), but pro-innovation local talents as well. Fuelled by mining-boom-driven complacency, singular focus on "leave office by 5" and "how to avoid office work" gestated a toxic work-culture with an alarming level of corporate politics, analysis-paralysis, stupid and convolutional policies, multi-layered decision-making, nepotism and an unfounded fear towards innovation-driven technological disruption. I've heard some corporate folks here literally whingeing - "Evil Google AdWords is killing our 'golden goose' - classified business - where we used to rob our users by charging an exorbitant price. 90s, where are you ?". With total sympathy for workers who have lost their jobs, I rejoiced when many un-innovative and arrogant local businesses (talk to Sydney people about how happy they were when they discovered Uber to dodge highly arrogant and unionized local Taxis) have to give up at the advent of ruthlessly meritocratic American capitalism and entrepreneurship. It will be much more fun when the oligopolistic Australian banking sector have to forgo a substantial part of their lucrative brokerage revenues (brokerage fees are unbelievably expensive here like pretty much everything else) at the face of brilliant execution from Robinhood (Loyal3 on its way as well. Although brokerage arms of big banks are lobbying against Robinhood in order to continue to rob retail Australian investors with insane brokerage charges). Another example of encroachment - Google and Fairfax playing a different tax gameThe paradox is that Fairfax shed so many staff that it found itself sub-letting the entire second floor of its Darling Island headquarters to none other than Google.A leading bank reported following concerning statistics regarding their Directors’ credibility -less than 3 per cent of our directors have a technology background and only 19 per cent have operational experienceSomebody or something has to wake up undeserving Australian corporate leaders (and plutocratic boardroom incumbents) that world has moved on since Office Space and corporations can no longer be run by an elitist group of bankers, lawyers and privileged class (Why Australian workplaces need much better leaders). Innovators, engineers and DO-ers rule now ! It's an age of technological innovation and entrepreneurial thinking (both intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship). Much-touted Australian Work-Life balance has to have its cost, after all. Yet, focus is still on cost-cuts and BAU (Business As Usual) as opposed to new value or business creation.In a risk averse socioeconomic setup, crowded by an army of institutional and individual consultants, it’s not surprising to observe the feeble presence of production or manufacturing segments (As a Blackmore shareholder I was taken aback when some investors toured the Blackmores facility on Sydney’s northern beaches — all they could see was packaging rather than manufacturing. “It’s just a bottling operation,” one investor told The Weekend Australian) of the economy (as the massive economic dependancy to China continues). Interestingly, among these consultants, I’ve observed a strange form of institutional collusion usually seen only at the upper echelons of management or executives. Before immigration to Australia, never heard (never encountered in US directly or through various casual interactions with numerous friends and contacts) of the term - “milking company X together” - a reprehensible practice where a ‘gang’ of consultants all hired as contractors (often high value, 800$-1000$/day) to the company X, intentionally defer a specific project by months in collusion with a management executive, against the interest of the company X. Without a whistleblower this type of corruption is extremely hard to catch and particularly flourishes in a ‘laid-back’ culture where almost everything is contracted out (see. agency problem) without giving much importance to transparent corporate governance, meritocratic recruitment and fair capitalism (and it’s usual motivational bells and whistles like - Employee Stock Options Plan etc.). In fact, based on my subjective observation, ESOP seems like a “mystical” remuneration here unless you belong to the Executive Management or C-suite.9. Housing Price: With Rent-to-Income ratio close to 50%, and Affordability Ratio (median house price divided by median income) close to 12x (unaffordability is defined at 6x), Sydney housing market is in a bubble. When it will burst, no body knows. (Housing 'severely unaffordable' as Sydney price to income ratio worsens) It's difficult to bear CoL expenses with your income alone, unless you have a partner/spouse/wife working. Raising kids is a whole different story altogether. My heart goes to many middle-class Australians who can't afford houses/units of their own, without taking staggering amount of debt for a house that have a high chance of being depreciated, if the bubble finally bursts.Median US house price is almost half of median Australian house ! (even after accounting for currency conversion).At past, many had purchased multiple investment properties with LVR (Loan-to-Value ratio) as high as 90% (and above) before government made a change in regulation. Government deserves accolades for this. Sydney house prices have surged 50 per cent in just three years, sending Australia’s total real estate assets to GDP upwards to 3.8 times. This is higher than experienced at the peak of the Ireland and Japan housing bubbles. Australia now have the highest level of household debt to household disposable income in the world and the country is expected to lose more jobs and opportunities as it prices itself out of the global market. It's too expensive to take risks and too unaffordable to build startups or buy apartments. Big 4 banks of Australia are neck-deep in their exposure to property loans (Australia's banking regulator is worried about the big four's level of exposure to property). Many greedy (and rest of the bystanders are trembling under FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out) investors are still banking on the demand fuelled by steady inflow of international immigrants like you to defer the inevitable - Great Australian Property Crash.Australia needs to diversify its economy, boosting services exports - primarily tourism, education and health - rather than continuing to depend on resources and debt-fuelled property growth10. Career Progression: Compared to US, xenophobia here runs deeper and manifests often in career progression (especially higher management) subverting meritocratic practices. Barack Obama (President of US : 2009-2017), Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), Indra Nooyi (CEO of Pepsi), Shantanu Narayen (CEO of Adobe) - all are glorious examples where meritocratic practices has been honoured dismissing any discrimination based on race, look, cast, creed or religion. I will be interested to know how many big Australian corporations or companies have a CEO with an Asian origin (preferably 1G). Overall statistics portrays a dismal picture -Australians of Asian cultural backgrounds account for nearly 10 per cent of the country’s population but they only account for 1.9 per cent of executive managers, 4.15 per cent of directors and 1.3 per cent of federal parliamentarians.Forgot to mention that, for a majority of cases, your previous Asian (technical/IT) experiences and job-seniority will be discounted no matter how relevant or awesome those experiences were. Most probably, you have to literally start from scratch or accept a demotion at the least. One smart way would be to have a - "test the waters before you sail" strategy. Conduct a reconnaissance before leaving that secure job back home.Keeping racial discrimination aside, there is another interesting aspect of career progression - 'Mate-o-cracy' - where meritocratic practices are completely disregarded. Without passing a judgement on their unfathomable diverse skill-sets, I've observed a journalist promoted as Director of Software Engineering, a successful real-estate salesman working in a High Tech Patent Firm sifting through technical RFPs (Request For Proposals) and many such blatant labour market aberrations.11. EducationOne of the obvious ways to rise above discriminations and attain greater social mobility is Education. Australia has some top-class Universities (ANU, UNSW, USYD, UMELB - to name a few) with world-class research facilities and faculties. But the problem is - absorption of these students into the mainstream local industry utilising their massive talent-pool, focusing on innovation and job-creation keeping all sorts of discriminations (which cost a lot of money to the country, BTW) at bay. Over-focus on mining and few other ancillary industries, did not help to flourish other areas of the economy especially the High Tech market. This makes talent absorption difficult (a far-cry from US). In general, based on my observations, historically education had NOT been perceived as important (social aspect of "tall poppy syndrome" is partially responsible for this) by the local industry (ignore super-niche areas like Finance and Medical Research - which are tiny in size) focusing more on work-experience and on-job-learning. Although this seems meritocratic at first glance, because of rampant discriminations and 'Mate-o-cracy' syndrome described earlier, it hinders social mobility. Although some initiatives by government (National Innovation and Science Agenda) are indeed encouraging, social perspective will take longer time to change.12. Cultural IntegrationUnless you love to stick to your own specific Asian community, it will going to be extremely challenging to integrate or "fit in" (An example - Jason Yat-Sen Li: Being Australian is not about the colour of your skin ). Probably it will take an entire generation. Children of 1G immigrants suffer more to "fit in" compared to what I've seen in US. Bullying is like an epidemic here at school level (Schools 'should be ranked on bullying' to prevent mental health problems, psychiatrist says). Of course, like everywhere else, you can teach your kids to be tough on such circumstances. A good portion of those school bullying is racial in nature and let's accept that sustained bullying is pretty bad for kids.It's shocking to discover people, psychologically, still living in the Victorian era basking in the glory of mining boom days, ignoring all sorts of disruption and democratization technology is creating. Irrespective of endless denial (denying racism is a form of racism - which is pretty common here) institutionalized by public media, you will be repeatedly judged according to your British dining etiquettes, your attire, your skin-colour, your name, your origin etc. Australians place high importance on "humour" (which is great), but often the boundary is pushed too far, bordering with the tradition of "British dark humour" and "racist funny jokes".Chronic underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in public media has justified the existence of NITV (Home | National Indigenous Television | Australian TV | NITV). However, this is not unexpected from a country which upheld highly discriminative policies like White Australia policy till 1973. By the enforcement of Racial Discrimination Act 1975, there has been an effort to declare racial discrimination unlawful, but since then it has morphed into a "subtle" form (ex - police treatments, career progression, social interactions, faux interviews, property renting etc.). Hopefully scenario will gradually improve over time. Empirical evidence validates this. Based on my own Data Journalism study (data from: http://data.gov.au/dataset?q=discrimination), here is a heatmap of the trend in racial discriminations complaints as received by Anti-Discrimination Board NSW. Even though things are getting better holistically, much more improvements are needed in the crucial Employment and Good & Services sector.(Please keep in mind that these are just numbers of complaints serious enough to be reported to ADB-NSW, a tiny sample compared to the unreported ones).BTW, Sydney is the most multi-cultural and least racially discriminative city. Melbourne < Brisbane < Perth < Adelaide is my own subjective ordering (ascending) by racial discrimination. In general, smaller population and high crime-rate do correlate with increased racism. http://alltogethernow.org.au/racism/Observed strong Intra-Asian racism especially from my 2G (second generation) or 1G (immigrated at their early childhood with predominantly wealthy parents) Asian brothers and sisters. A little bit of forgiveness, empathy and tolerance can do wonders against all such hypocrisy. Intra-Asian racism is significantly stronger in comparison with US. Because of lack of importance of meritocracy at the foundation of the society, many racially diverse but talented folks regularly gets evicted out of the country perpetuating some kind of ‘Artificial Selection’, strengthening the myth of white supremacism. Akin to the social dynamics of colonial days, you may observe many (more than what I’ve seen in US; it may change now under Trump) situations of unjustified (and downright foolish) ‘worship’ of Caucasians and exploitation of Asian folks by their own elites. This, IMO, stems from the same root issue of lack of collective belief in meritocracy.The funny part is - all these silly discriminations are causing the country a lot of money - the economic impact of this is massive, especially when Australia is standing at the edge of an impending multi-year recession. As Haas Institute has found out -Of course, you can ignore all these with a typical banter. Unfortunately you will be overpowered (depends on your sensitivity OR how much you care about cultural integration beyond Asian cliques), unless you are lucky or retract back to your Asian community. Many asians dodge these discriminations with a combination of - clique-formation, "fair" skin, wealthy background/entrepreneurship and an Anglo-Saxon-looking name. Darker-skinned asians with a non-affluent background (including me) are not so lucky.US has it's own racial discrimination issues, but over the years it has been structurally weakened by a combination of - Civil Rights Movement (1954–68), "economy-of-scale", meritocracy, diverse job opportunities, true free-market capitalism, top-notch universities, vibrant StartUp culture etc.Update:Motivated by Brexit and resurgence of other extreme (far) right-winger parties across Europe, in the aftermath of Trump’s election, right winger parties are gaining traction here as well. So, it remains to be seen how the drama unfolds across the spectrum of world politics. Interestingly people here with strongest denial of racism are turning out to be biggest supporters of Trump. Hypocrisy unveiled ! It’s extremely frustrating to observe that the repackaging of old colonial technique of “Divide & Conquer” is winning.Overall ImpressionThough Australia (executives, entrepreneurs in particular) believes - Asia and an appropriate strategy for Asia is of utmost importance to its future economic growth prospects, there exists various invisible "glass ceilings" & "glass walls" (some of them are insurmountable) thwarting career progressions of Asian people (mostly 1G, less for 2G) residing here. Check this forum thread - http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1936071If Australians, on average, would have embraced meritocracy and capitalism more than racism & socialist-tendencies, the economy could have been much much more prosperous as opposed to the current state of affairs. If you are of European descent, have an Anglo-Saxon name and suffering from winter depression this is a great country to build your career.It may be possible to focus on your hourly pay-rate while ignoring the entire spectrum of socio-cultural issues described above. Personally, I've decided to go back. Thanks to Australia, I've attained a renewed vigour to combat racial discrimination and social inequality back in my home country. Slightly digressing: we all can do better than our hunter-gatherer ancestors by declaring a crusade against racism. This Human Migration map is so unifying and inspiring -Source: The Human Journey: Migration RoutesBottom line: If you have a H1B, go to US. But having travelled to Bangalore & Singapore recently, I believe, as long as you handle the smog and congestion, the best place to be during 2015-2020 would be Asia, especially in Bangalore (lots of startups, lots of opportunities including social entrepreneurship, massive consumer-base hungry for innovative products and solutions, lots of funding from Asian and American Venture Capitalists/HNIs. Please refer to this excellent Quora answer - Siddharth Pathak's answer to What is going to be the next "big thing" in the next 5-10 years? ). West had their time; It's time for the East :) Anyway that's the content for another post.

Wasting a year isn’t worth anything to be honest, obviously people have their own opinions but during one year you can literally do so many things probably join a college and start studying while preparing for your main goal and there are countless diploma courses that you can do in 1 year directly after your 12th boards.Here are a few courses along with their duration :-Diploma in NursingWhy choose nursing as a career?You are interested in helping and comforting sick people.You are calm and empathetic.There is a shortage of trained nurses in India. Thus, job opportunities are plenty.What will you study in the nursing course (some topics)?Basics of nursingEnvironmental hygieneBiosciencesBehavioural sciencesAdministration and ward managementWhat work can you do?Apart from hospitals and nursing homes, you could be employed in schools, companies and houses of the rich & elite. Typically, you will be assigned to a ward—emergency rooms, intensive care units, etc. You would work with doctors & nurses in a team to monitor patients’ condition and execute the daily treatment plan. You could also work as a surgical nurse in the operation theatre and assist surgeons. Private nurses are also in demand. Depending on your education and skill, you could also work as a midwife.Course duration: One year course after 12th.2. Diploma in Physiotherapy:Why choose physiotherapy as a career?You are interested in helping sick people get back to normalcy.You are emotionally strong, empathetic and responsible.You are willing to work in rotational shifts.Physiotherapy is in demand today.What will you study in the physiotherapy course (some topics)?General anatomy and physiologyPsychologyPathologyNeurologyElectrotherapyExercise therapyWhat work can you do?You could work in hospitals, nursing homes, health-care centres, gyms, sports centers, multinational companies, old-age homes and NGOs. There are opportunities for training as well. In hospitals, your patient profile would be diverse. Patients from departments, such as orthopedic, cardiology, cancer, surgery, gynaecology, etc. require physiotherapists to reduce their stay in hospital and recover quickly. Physiotherapists are in demand globally.Course duration: Two years course after 12th.3. Diploma in Medical Lab Technology:Why choose medical lab technology as a career?You are interested in medicine and biological science, especially diagnosis of diseases.You are meticulous.You are research-oriented, patient and hard-working.You have good communication skills.What will you study in the medical lab technology course (some topics)?Basics of medical laboratory technologyGeneral anatomy and physiologyPathologyClinical biochemistryHaematologyWhat work can you do?Medical lab technologists (MLT’s) carry out tests and investigations in labs to diagnose a disease. An MLT’s report helps the doctor to start the patient’s treatment. MLT’s test samples of blood, urine, stool, body tissues, etc. They work in hospitals, clinics and labs. Common job profiles are lab technician, lab technologist, lab manager, tutor, etc. You could also consider training as a career option. MLT’s work domains include blood banking, immunology (study of immune system), microbiology (study of disease causing organisms) and drug efficacy tests.Course duration: One year course after 12th.4. Diploma in Radiological Technology:Why choose radiological technology as a career?You are interested in medicine and technology and looking for a career that is a blend of both disciplines.You are meticulous.You have good communication skills.You are empathetic towards patients’ condition.What will you study in the radiological technology course (some topics)?Radiation physicsAnatomyPhysiology and pathologyRadiotherapyMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI)What work can you do?Radiological technologists use X-rays to assess the internal parts of the body and assist doctors to diagnose illness and injury. They run tests, such as CT scan, sonography and MRI, etc.Radiological technologists explain procedures to patients, relax them for the tests, carry out tests, maintain equipment and document records. Radiological technology is significant in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and ulcers. Radiological technologists can find jobs in labs, hospitals and diagnostic centres. Job profiles are X-ray technician, radiologist assistant and ultrasound technician.Course duration: One year course after 12th.5. Diploma in Electrical Engineering:Why choose electrical engineering as a career?You have aptitude and interest in engineering, particularly electrical engineering.You must have a problem solving attitude.You must be willing to learn throughout your career even after completing your course.You have good communication skills.You can work well in a team.What will you study in the electrical engineering course (some topics)?Basics of electrical and electronics engineeringMathematicsPhysicsCommunication skillsElectrical machinesControl systemPower system analysisWhat work can you do?As an electrical engineer, you could work in government, public or private sector. You could find jobs in atomic/hydel/thermal power plants, railways, aviation, electricity board and consultancies. Your job would be related to designing, developing, testing, supervising and maintaining electrical machinery. You may also need to work on issues and concerns related to distribution of electrical energy. Areas of specialisation are power generation, energy transmission, energy distribution, communication, etc.Course duration: One year course after 12th.6. Diploma in Mechanical Engineering:Why choose mechanical engineering as a career?You have aptitude and interest in engineering, particularly mechanical engineering.Nearly all sectors of the engineering industry require mechanical engineers.You are interested in knowing how machines work.You have good communication skills.You are a team player.What will you study in the mechanical engineering course (some topics)?Basics of electrical and electronics engineeringMathematicsPhysicsCommunication skillsEngineering graphicsManufacturing processesEngineering metallurgyWhat work can you do?Mechanical engineers design and build manufacturing units, and simple and complex machinery.They are trained to be skilled in various domains. They are trained in computer applications, electricity, structures, etc. They find jobs in government, public or private sector. Industries employing mechanical engineers are power, oil & petrochemicals, agriculture, education, steel, aerospace and automobile, etc.Course duration: Three years course after 12th.7. Diploma in Civil Engineering:Why choose civil engineering as a career?You have aptitude and interest in engineering, particularly civil engineering.You don’t mind working in outdoor locations and under difficult conditions.You are comfortable working with people of different designations and types.What will you study in the civil engineering course (some topics)?MathematicsPhysicsCommunication skillsConstruction materialsEngineering graphicsMechanics of structuresRoad and bridge engineeringWhat work can you do?Civil engineers design, develop, build, test, supervise and maintain infrastructure. Their work also includes designing and building structures, such as dams, waterways, airports, buildings, tunnels, bridges, pipelines and sewage systems. Specializations within civil engineering include structural, environment and transportation. A civil engineer can find jobs in private & consulting companies and government organizations. Usually, work takes place at construction sites and manufacturing plants.Course duration: Three years course after 12th.8. Diploma in Chemical Engineering:Why choose chemical engineering as a career?You have aptitude and interest in engineering, particularly chemical engineering.You have a problem-solving attitude.You must be willing to learn throughout your career even after completing your course.What will you study in the chemical engineering course (some topics)?Basic chemical engineeringApplied chemistryEngineering materialMechanical operationsThermodynamicsChemical technologySafety and chemical hazardsWhat work can you do?As a chemical engineer, you could work in any of the three domains: Research, production and designing. Researchers carry out studies and investigations to design and/or improve processes and equipment with respect to safety and economics. Production jobs can be found in chemical process industries, oil exploration & refineries, pharmaceutical companies, etc. Such jobs involve materials production. Designing jobs can be found in engineering, procurement and construction organizations. In general, you can find jobs in private companies, consulting firms and government organizations.Course duration: Three years course after 12th.9. Diploma in Biotechnology:Why choose biotechnology as a career?Biotechnology is an old discipline, but in India, it is evolving gradually. Biotechnology is a multi-disciplinary subject. So, a career in this discipline opens up doors to research and job opportunities in any biological science. Scope of employment widens too.You are interested in biology and related sciences.You are methodical and like doing laboratory work.What will you study in the biotechnology course (some topics)?MicrobiologyGeneticsMolecular biologyCell biologyImmunologyEnvironmental biotechnologyWhat work can you do?This diploma is a stepping stone to job in laboratories and opportunities for further education. With experience & higher education, you can find jobs in the government and private sector. Employment opportunities are available in biopharmaceutical companies, research institutes and food supply companies. If you have good theoretical knowledge of concepts, but don’t enjoy laboratory work, you could work as product specialists in companies dealing with laboratory equipment and supplies.Course duration: Two or three years course after 12th.10. Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics:Why choose nutrition and dietetics as a career?India is a hotbed of lifestyle-related ailments. There is an ever increasing need of nutrition experts and dietitians.You are interested in paramedical work.What will you study in the nutrition and dietetics course (some topics)?Basics of nutritionChemistryBiotechnologyHome sciencePsychologyWhat work can you do?As a dietician, you will work in health & fitness centres, hospitals, hotels and weight-loss clinics. You will help people to plan and monitor their diet. You can also be sought by clubs, schools & colleges to conduct training on food nutrition, eating habits and diet. With higher education and experience, you also stand a chance of working in research projects and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies.Course duration: Two years course after 12th.While preparing for your main goal if you try to complete even one of these courses parallelly, you’ll be way ahead of others.source - https://www.cedp-edu.com/diploma-degree-courses-after-12th-commerce-science-arts/

Let me take the role of a myth-buster here.Myth #1: There were no poor people in USSRThe truth is that in USSR there were no rich people, all were equally poor. But I cannot say it better than Churchill:Material life was miserable throughout the whole Soviet history. Out of 70 years of brief Soviet history, some 35 years represent a horrible poverty, starvation and pain:1917–1922: Rapid de-industrialization, driven by the policy of 'military communism'. The policy included expropriations of property, prohibition of private entrepreneurship. By 1922, Russia traveled back in time to 1880-ies with most railroads closed, electricity and any meaningful production shut down. In agriculture, the military communism and civil war had frozen all the production. The result was an epic hunger in Volga region and South Urals, with 90 million people affected and 5 million dead.Picture (above): Volga regions children, 19211929–32: After a short economic recovery of 1923–28, mostly driven by New Economic Policy (in short, a return of the market economy to the agriculture sector of economy), the communists decided to engage in Industrialization and Collectivisation. Industrialization was needed desperately as by 1928 Russia had been so thoroughly de-industrialized that it more resembled medieval Moscovia than the Russian Empire.Graph (above): Industrial production in Russia. Notice the fall in 1920–21 to the level of 1880-ies.So, the communists chose to industrialize the country by robbing farmers and converting them back into serfs. In effect, they were made slaves of city population. Collectivisation brought sharp decline in agriculture production, destruction of equipment, houses, cattle. Hunger followed. Number of victims is still debated, but it seems that it was anywhere between 3 and 10 million people (1929–32).Picture (above): Communists ‘expropriate’ grains from peasants.1941–47: WWII and post-war famines. Food was rationed during this period by cards. Number of hunger victims is impossible to count, anyway it pales in comparison with the war butchery machine victims.Picture (above): Bread ration card, Leningrad 19411947–52: rebuilding the industries. Again agriculture resources were pulled to finance the re-industrialization and military upgrades. Population remained on subsistence levels everywhere (both in cities and in countryside).Picture (below): Novocherkassk meeting. In 1962, the working class in Novocherkassk protested against price inflation and effective decrease in salaries. Soviet Army shot 26 workers on the spot, then another 7 were sentenced to death.1965–91: 'Deficit' economy spiralling out of control. I wouldn't like to expand here on arguments why 'deficit' is an integral part of any central-planned economies (there's no shortage in scientific argument about that). What is important to say is that deficit problem in USSR had three serious boosts:In 1967, when Liberman/Kosygin economic reforms were rolled back;In 1974, when peasants were given the right to leave their collective farms and move to cities. In the following 2–5 years, the rural economy came to almost complete stop: villages deserted, agriculture imports sky-rocketed and city dwellers were mandated to participate in 'the battle for crops';In 1983, when after short relief brought by the surge in crude oils prices, oil price returned to normal, stripping USSR of hard currency which by that time was already vital (grains were purchased from this to feed the whole country).In reality, unrolling deficit meant that from 1970-ies, most of 'luxury' food items went off the shelves to the black market (meat, sausages, fresh fish, caviar, etc); from mid-1980-ies, deficit expanded to almost every food item (except for bread and milk products) and closer to 1989 even the bread and milk products were off the shelves.Central government tried to keep the distribution channels in order at least in big cities: these have fallen victims much later than the rest of the country. But as they fell, it seemed like the problem came out of nowhere: just a couple of years ago (1984) Moscow and St Petersburg knew nothing of deficit and then… Boom! All of it has gone.To this day some Moscovites believe that the deficit problem was brought by Gorbachev’s Perestroika and blame CIA for destroying the rock-solid Soviet economy.Myth #2: USSR was the land of social justiceNew Serfdom (1929–74)Tell about social equality to the peasants (kolkhoz workers) who from 1929 to 1974 couldn't leave their collective farms under the risk of criminal prosecution and did not get any salary (until 1966). As a payment for their serfdom, they were given a small part of agricultural products that they themselves produced.Soviet peasants did not have passports. This might seem a trivial thing today, but in USSR it meant these people could neither move, nor go to study, nor travel, nor search for other job outside their farm other than with permission from their master (collective farm director).It was serfdom, fair and square. And there were 58 million of them by the time this serfdom was abolished in 1974.Picture (below): Trudoden-stamp, i.e. the ‘currency’ which could be exchanged by a peasant for food in a village grocery storeNew MastersTell about social equality to the Communist party elite, who isolated themselves from the rest of the country with luxurious accommodation, exclusive shops, clinics, Crimean recreational facilities, spacious dachas, free transport and security, cash in envelops on top of their official salaries, etc.Somehow they, being communists, didn't have problem with social inequality even in the hardest periods of war and hunger.Moreover, through shameless propaganda they implanted the myth of their asceticism in the heads of Soviet people. Even today, whenever Stalin personality is discussed, 8 out of 10 Russians would tell you this outrageous nonsense that he owned only a pair of boots and a military uniform. They would forget to mention that he personally owned everything and everyone in USSR, making life and death decisions at his will.Picture (below): An example of Stalin’s asceticism, Vorontsovsky Palace in Tbilisi where Stalin’s mother lived from 1920-ies to the time of her death in 1937Picture (below): Notorious ‘Dom na Naberezhnoy', the house where the early Soviet nobility isolated themselves from regular folks. Prime location, furnished apartments, all-inclusive services (private cinema, restaurants, laundry, tailor, etc, all closed for general public). Residents did not pay for either food or transportation. The first place on Earth were communism truly existed. Pity it did not expand much outside of the house perimeter.SlaveryEarly Soviet economy ran on slave labor. Slaves were the engine of Stalin's industrialization, they continued to be a significant economic force up until late 1950-ies.Mostly criminals were used as slaves. What's important to understand, you would be a ‘criminal’ in early USSR for such things as your origin (clergy, noble, business owners' descendants were considered criminals). Peasants who protested their lands expropriations were criminals too.In late USSR, you could be considered criminal for reselling your property with profit, for buying or selling currency, for not being able to find job, etc.By some estimates, Soviet slavery camps used as much as 3 million people at the pique (1935–40). As the regime cooled down, the number of slaves fell to 700–800′000 people.Picture (below): Labor camp workers in Kolyma, 1930-iesPicture (below): Slave labor on construction of Belomorkanal, 1930-iesMyth #3: There was no unemployment in USSRThis is like saying that headless bodies don't have headaches.There’s no unemployment in any slave camp by definition. You were legally forced to work, it was NOT your choice. If you didn’t, you got a slave labour sentence and worked anyway (Soviet Russia Criminal Code, article 209).One might say: people have to work under any other system to survive. So what’s the difference? The difference is that the State never asked YOU whom you want to be. Your choice was artificially narrowed by what the state needed in the place where you were registered. If you didn’t chose something, it meant you broke the law and would go for slavery in labor camps (or ‘public works’ as this was put mildly by the communists).If you are born in countryside, you don’t get any passport and you effectively found yourself an ‘employer’ for life, tell me about luck.All other Soviet people were tied to the places of their birth by registration system. You could not just decide to move and move. You had to be allowed to move.The beautiful story is the one of a poet Joseph Brodsky (Nobel Prize winner) who was sentenced to labor camps for not being able to find permanent paid job as a poet. The judge ruled that there’s no such profession as a poet and sent him for 5 years of slave labor.There were tens of thousands of such people who didn't become Nobel prize winners and whose stories you could never hear.Picture (below): Brodsky in Labor campMyth #4: USSR was the land of optimism and happinessIf there was any persistent mood applicable to all citizens, it was neither optimism nor happiness. It was the dynamic mixture of Fear and Cynisism.The fear to be prosecuted for wrongly understood joke, for telling something to somebody that the State would consider a treason, for showing your religious beliefs, for siding with wrong party in whatever strange dogmatic discussion is going on…Even in the 1980-ies, I remember my parents shushed us every time anything remotely related to politics was discussed with the words ‘Do you want us all to rot in jail’?The Cynisism over time has become widespread as a form of protest against the system: elites didn't believe in what they say, took the rest of the country as ignorant idiots, and the rest of the country demonstrated compliance with absolute secret resistance and mocking.Picture (below): a car nicknamed ‘Black Raven’. Used by secret police to detain 'enemies of the people' so extensively, that to this day the very sight of this auto masterpiece makes blood chill in your veigns.Myth #5: In USSR, apartments were given for freeFirst of all, those apartments have never been given to be owned. They remained the property of the state and technically you could have been kicked out any time.Most of those apartments were actually privatized AFTER the USSR broke down, it was the act of Yeltsin administration. People had to pay for this (not much, but, again, it was Russia who gave the apartments, not USSR).Ask the emigrants from USSR what happened to ‘their’ apartments. The answer is that they had to return them for nothing, moreover, they had to pay for basic repair so that those apartments would be ‘accepted’.Second, in large cities people had to wait for their free apartments for 5–10 years. The queue was long and complicated by a range of documents you constantly had to bring to prove your right to remain in this queue. Where did they live all this time while awaiting for 50 sq.m. paradise? Barracks, work hostels, ‘communal apartments’ (where 2+ families live in one apartment).Workers’ barracks:Workers’ hostel:‘Communal apartment’s’ kitchen:Typical Soviet residential block:And last but not least. It was not like barracks, communal apartments and work hostels were an unusual way to live. In Leningrad, by 1989 some 450′000 people lived in communal apartments, another 300′000–400′000 people lived in work hostels (population was 4.5 mln). The rest were lucky to have 2–3 rooms apartment in the block similar to the one in the picture above.Myth #7: Not only USSR had the best medicine, it was for freePersonally, as someone who spent a lot of childhood time in Soviet hospitals, I find that claim so outrageously false that I don’t even know where to begin.First, if it was so great, why even now, 30 years after the break up of the USSR any Russian person with money prefers to go for health services to Germany, Israel, and wherever else, but not to local hospital?Second, do you even remember how your hospitals looked like? I do not mean 3–5 best hospitals that Soviet elite built for themselves and kept regular citizens away. I mean an average district poliklinika with its lines, poorly educated doctors, lack of free medicine, constant bribes for everything, beds in the corridors, anesthesia queues?Third, if you don’t like the general discussion, let’s take dentists as something specific. Do you remember people with golden/metal teeth? Teethless mouths? Do you know that almighty Soviet doctors did not even manage to fix Mr Brezhnev’s mouth: his speech impediment was mostly the result of constant toothache?Now, do you seriously believe all of the above qualifies for the world best?Forth, about ‘for free’ premise. Take a look at this differently. You WERE NOT PAID enough salaries to afford medicine. The State could have done it differently, as with utility bills (make you pay a little and subsidize the rest), for example. Or they could go for insurance payments. But they just preferred to underpay workers and pay for clinics from state funds. Not because they cared, because it was easier. What’s there to be proud of? What’s there to cherish?Picture (below): Line to doctor reception (very likely post-Soviet times, yet that’s exactly how I remember my local Poliklinika)Picture (below): District Hospital Room. Unknown period, yet again, it’s how I remember itMyth #8: Unlike in capitalism where people compete with each other and hate each other, in socialism people love and help each otherThe very nature of socialist distribution system makes you hate each other as you effectively compete with other ‘comrades’ for perks and distributions from the State.a. non-Moscow residents universally hated Moscovites, because Moscow was kept in better order in terms of food, housing and public facilities. Moscovites were never shy in showing arrogance to the rest of the country;Picture (below): thousands of people would take trains from suburbs and villages to Moscow and back on weekends to shop. The train earned the nickname ‘sausage train’, because people traveled to buy meat products, absent outside of Moscowb. It was hard to love your brothers who stand in queue with you for whatever deficit item is on sale in retail shops:c. It was even harder to love your neighbor in communal apartment: the regulation was that if a resident in such apartment lives alone and dies, other neighbors effectively could take over his/her room. It went down to poisoning, writing anonymous forged accusation of neighbors in political crimes to KGB, in extreme cases. Constant quarreling was modus operandi.d. ‘Free apartments’ were provided by the state enterprises as much as the local authorities. So you can imagine how the relationships between the colleagues in the state enterprises developed as they all competed for limited number of flats to be distributed. Bribes, nepotism, false accusation, forged disciplinary measures were all in play against fellow colleagues.e. Colleagues working for state owned enterprises fought with each other not only for the apartments. On top of what you can find in companies in capitalist societies (salaries, promotions, nice business trips, etc), they would fight for places for their kids in kindergartens and summer camps, for spots in recreational facilities funded by the state companies, for possibility to shop in closed shops maintained for company managers, for closed medical facilities access and many other in-kind benefits/perks that the socialist distribution system provided.f. Everybody in USSR universally hated retail shop workers: in constant deficit conditions for most of consumer goods, the workers in retail shops and logistic centers had a closer access to retail goods and could effectively resell them on black market. The state wasn’t short in blaming the soviet retail workers in the deficit too. From time to time the communists entertained the public by throwing some managers of ‘soviet trade’ system under the bus.Picture (below): In 1978, Deputy Fish Minister Vladimir Rytov was sentenced to death for ‘organizing a criminal trade’, i.e. reselling fish products on black marketg. Residents of national republics within USSR hated the whole russification campaign unleashed on them heavily from Moscow: Russian as a language in most cases replaced the local languages, without speaking Russian you couldn't effectively make any sort of meaningful career anywhere.The list of these hate-generators is truly endless, and all of them were created by the system. You could not blame people for behaving as they did.But you certainly could not describe the relationship between citizens in USSR as brotherhood and love. It was the opposite of love and brotherhood. Much farther away than what you can observe today in evil capitalist Russia.Myth #9: Unlike in capitalist societies, in socialism people worked better because they knew that they worked for themselves, for the society and not for evil bunch of capitalists who steal from workers their profitsWhen the communist government expropriated property from small and medium business owners, they faced immediately the problem of ‘alienation of workers from means of production’ as described by Karl Marx. Working for the government is never the same as working for yourself. And they faced all the consequences in full.a. Neo-Luddism (intentional breaking of machines and equipment, stealing of state property)Even Stalin recognized it talking to Churchill in 1943: ‘when we gave tractors to the peasants, they were all spoiled in a few months’. The Communists had to respond in their usual way, i.e. violence and propaganda. The criminal code was amended to include death sentence for this.That did not stop people much: they were actively stealing from work whatever could be stolen going to unimaginable levels of creativity in the process.b. AbsenteeismOnce people figured there’s no correlation between your work and your remuneration, naturally they tried to find workplaces with less work to do or closer to goods distribution systems. Or as these were called ‘Теплое Место’ (literally - a warm place).Food storage cargo worker could have more power in the system than industrial plant engineer and, usually, lived far better material life. In every city, the meat shop director was a dream job for everyone.The other type of job would be some meaningless office work where the actual job would take 2–3 hours a day and the rest could be used for whatever private life you had. People were actively searching for such places.c. Rampant alcoholismFar too many people drank far too much. Some people called it ‘inner emigration’. For some, it was just a quicker way out of otherwise miserable life.On the graph: Alcohol consumption per capita in USSR. Notice the drop in 1985, when Grobachev initiated ‘Anti-alcoholism Campaign’ (which actually led to sharp increase in moonshine production, not shown on this chart)Many people here on Quora wouldn’t stop asking why the Soviet Union collapsed. Personally, I believe this broken correlation between your work input and your personal wealth is to blame.In conclusionHaving written all this, I do not pretend to give you the full 3D picture of life in USSR. There was much more, both on the positive and negative sides.I just hate when people distort the reality and paint USSR into something it had never been.Yet, my personal opinion (not pretending to be the only objective truth) completely coincides with the Churchill's: