The results of UPSC Civil Services Examination were declared last week and a mood of celebration was prevalent among the successful candidates. All these successful candidates deserve the celebration as they had achieved this hard earned success and we wish all of them heartiest congratulations and best of luck for their bright future!  However, those who had reached to the final stage of Interview test and missed the final rank by just a few marks are nowhere less in their potential to be an able administrator. There have been a few candidates who have missed the final selection by just a few points and the overall competition has kept them in the list of ‘Non Qualified’ candidates. There is a silver lining to this phase of temporary failure for the UPSC examination aspirants as plenty of opportunities would be available to all these ‘Not Qualified’ candidates. The recent NITI Aayog policy on declaration of online scores of all the UPSC candidates so as to be picked by the corporate sector can turn to be a game changer for the talented youth of India. This article tries to throw light on various career opportunities available to the competitive examination aspirants despite being failed in the UPSC examination.

In India, every year a million odd candidates fill the form of UPSC Civil Services Examination with an aim to become a civil servant in Indian Government. Approximately half of them appear for Preliminary Examination and ultimately around 1000 odd candidates get qualified for various types of civil services appointments at the end of the total recruitment procedure. Those candidates who make it to the final list of qualified candidates get the opportunity to serve the nation as a civil servant, but the candidates declared as ‘ Not Qualified ’ by the UPSC feel depressed and find it difficult to tackle this phase of failure. The fear of failure drags the feet of many of such eligible candidates from achieving what they deserve. The stiff competition in UPSC examination makes the candidates sceptical about their future career prospects. Despite of all these risks, there are certain inherent advantages of UPSC examination preparation process for every aspirant. The UPSC examination preparation process expands the analytical thinking capability of the candidates and make them think in a balanced and a comprehensive manner.

A serious UPSC examination aspirant automatically gain an additional advantage in – preparation of a variety of other competitive examinations including the advantage for interview or aptitude test of various departmental examinations; advantage in preparation of MPSC civil services examination; advantage in various professional career options including journalism, law, management and so on. In case, a candidate is ‘Not Qualified’ in UPSC civil services examination despite of being given his best efforts over a period of time, there is nothing to be worried as recent changes in the examination pattern as well as recruitment rules are becoming favourable to these aspirants related with the alternative career options. The recent changes in UPSC and MPSC examination pattern after year 2012-13, finds many overlapping areas in the syllabus of both these exams and hence provides a good opportunity for the aspirants to crack the MPSC examination and become a Deputy Collector or DySP or Tehsildar and so on. Secondly, the all round personality development of an UPSC aspirant as a by product of  a systematic preparation of various subjects and current affairs issues during UPSC examination preparation, gives an edge to them in various other fields of career like journalism, law, management jobs and so on. The various types of recruitment and promotion examinations consist of assessment of knowledge related to aptitude tests, English communication and the Interview skills and here the serious UPSC aspirants gain an advantage over their peer groups, courtesy their systematic UPSC examination preparation. Many of the unsuccessful candidates in some stage of UPSC examination venture the option of coaching to competitive examination aspirants. Many of the successful coaching institutes at Delhi as well as other Metros are run by such ‘Not Qualified’ candidates only.

Apart from the above mentioned career options for the UPSC aspirants who could not qualify all the stages of the examination, the corporate sector job opportunities at mid level and senior level executive posts would be opened up by the recent proposal of NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). The central Government of India has approved the proposal of NITI Aayog for making available publically scores and ranking of candidates in recruitment examinations through a portal for increasing access of the unemployed to job opportunities. These details will be linked to the Integrated Information System for Public Recruitment Agencies -a dedicated website being developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). It would be a win-win formula for the talented aspirants of competitive examinations as well as the corporate sector. The fear of failure and the related consequences is one of the major obstacles in attracting the best talent for the elite UPSC civil services examination. The latest reforms in personnel management by the Government of India including the above mentioned policy by NITI Aayog as well as serious discussion on lateral recruitment policy of personnel from corporate sector to the bureaucracy would go a long way in order to provide quality Human Resource capital for the new age Governance of India. The Government of India is focusing on tapping the demographic dividend of our manpower resources and the above mentioned policies would certainly minimise the problem of ‘brain drain’ and instead would lead to ‘brain gain’ in India.

It is worthwhile to mention here that cracking the civil services exam is not an end itself but the whole process to crack it is more important than the final destination. The process would not only enrich your overall personality but also prepares you for various challenges in your career ahead. The variety of alternative options available to the UPSC aspirants, despite of being ‘Not Qualified’ in UPSC examination, makes a strong case for the youth of India to appear for and crack the most elite examination in India i.e. UPSC civil services examination. So just believe in yourself and aim for the best.

(The author of this article ,Lt Col (Dr) Satish Dhage, is an ex Army officer and has been qualified for IPS (Indian Police Services) through IPS LCE 2012. Presently, he is Director, MGM Institute of Competitive Exams Aurangabad. For any queries or feedback, he can be contacted on email id : drsatishdhage@gmail.com)