Muslim youngsters pick management consultancy as their industry of choice ahead of Medicine and Engineering.

Today there are many job opportunities, but the issue is which sector to select. The choice is that much tougher for the Muslim girls who are taking to education in big way.

To find out what are the latest career preferences amongst Muslims, Islamic Voice and Trends Research and Analysis Centre (TRAC) conducted a survey in Mumbai. The survey was conducted among the city’s five colleges having fair number of Muslim students. Total sample size was 264.

Muslim students picked management consultancy as their industry of choice, ahead of Medicine, Enginnering, IT and Software, and Foreign Banks. Many consider consultancy jobs as unique in their ability to be universally attractive to students, irrespective of their functional specialisations.

Many prefer marketing job for its easy entry and fast promotion, but overall, consultancy is viewed as being very high paying with benefit of upward mobility. “Evidently, management consulancys ability to position itself as both versatile and to an extent recession-proof may well have something to do with its ranking,” says Prof Basheer Khan ,a management consultant. “The networking and analytical expertise can be applied to a wide variety of industries and corporate strategies,” he said. “In addition, even when industries face a downslide, the possibility of turning around corporate, whose future is in the doldrums is likely to be entrusted to a management consultant”.

However, among women, Medicine loses ground to Information Technology, which was ranked as the top industry of choice among women Muslim respondents. The perception of long working hours and travel appears to work against consulting firms with this group.

Why will a Muslim girl choose the IT field? 73 percent of the women respondents who opted for IT technology chose it as it gives them the flexibility. Sabana Surti who is doing B.Sc (IT) said, “even if I do not intend to work full time, IT provides enough opportunities to work from home”.

Zareen is in the final year of Masters in Computer Application (MCA). She said that Flexi time and project based work attracted her towards the IT field. She plans to start her own consultancy. Another area which is attracting the Muslim girls is Mass media. Broadcast journalism and Advertising are the hot favourite amongst 19% of the women respondents. Tasneem is in the final year of Bachelor in Mass Media and completed three months internship with one of the News channel. “Initially my parents were apprehensive about me appearing on air, but later watching my presentation, they appreciated”, she said.

Copy writing and art designers job in advertising agency attracts Muslim girls as it gives independence from male interference in their work as Sameera opines. “Working in the advertising agency in the creative department is most satisfying for me. I was accommodated in the all women’s team, so my parents stopped being apprehensive.”

Overall, working for FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Group) was the second most favoured industry. It was followed by software and IT consultancy, which raised a rank to overtake foreign banks. The emergence of Indian IT majors as global players and the continued focus of MNC technology majors on India’s manpower has propelled it ahead of competing sectors. Financial institutions rounded up the list of top 5 favourite industries, followed by smaller recruiting sectors like telecom of, auto and consumer durables. 92 % respondents said they do not consider working with banks or financial institutions unIslamic. Asif Baig, final year student of MMS (Finance) said, “ I know Islamic scholars have difference of opinion on this issue, but many scholars have analysed about the interest banned by Islam and Banking.

Companies that have managed to promote themselves and their products and services have managed to create an impression of progressiveness. BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) has gained preference over traditional sectors because of its aggressive marketing and also because it offers good package. 23% of the respondentS said that they will put in couple of years into BPO industry to raise their standard of living and then migrate to other sectors.

“Salary is definitely a factor with BPO companies,” says one student. A number of BPO firms offer packages above three lakhs. Students acknowledge that these firms do reward employees well in the long-run, but the campus horizon is short.