Become a School Principal.

Elementary School Teachers (called Primary School Teachers in India) teach the foundational K-5 / Class I-V years — the section where literacy, numeracy, basic science, social studies, art, and core social-behavioural habits are formed. The Indian path is B.A./B.Sc. + B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education, 2 years), or 4-year integrated B.El.Ed (Bachelor of Elementary Education at Delhi University), followed by passing TET (state-level Teacher Eligibility Test) and CTET (Central Teacher Eligibility Test administered by CBSE) — both mandatory under the Right to Education Act 2009 for any government or recognised private school posting. Workplaces span elite private day schools (Doon, Mayo Boys/Girls, Welham, Modern, Sanskriti, Pathways, Oberoi International, Inventure Academy, Heritage Xperiential, DPS network, DAV network), CBSE/ICSE/IB/Cambridge-affiliated mid-tier private schools, state-board government schools (UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu state recruitment via TGT/PGT exams), and Kendriya Vidyalaya / Navodaya / Sainik School central-government chains. Pay scales widely vary — government teachers under 7th Pay Commission earn ₹35k-65k/month for entry-level primary section, plus DA/HRA/pension benefits; elite private schools like Doon or Pathways pay ₹6-15L/year for senior primary teachers; mid-tier private schools pay ₹2.5-5L/year. The DIKSHA platform, NIPUN Bharat foundational-literacy mission, and the New Education Policy 2020's foundational stage redesign are reshaping pedagogy nationwide.

JEE / NEET Coaches teach Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Biology to Class 11-12 students preparing for JEE Main, JEE Advanced, and NEET-UG — India's most high-stakes undergraduate entrance exams. The Kota ecosystem (Allen Career Institute, Resonance, Vibrant Academy, Bansal Classes, Career Point) anchors the offline segment, producing batches of 50-300 students with coaching institutes that turn over ₹100-500Cr annually; online platforms (Vedantu, Unacademy, Physics Wallah, Aakash-BYJU's) have restructured distribution without changing the core product: expert subject teaching, curated problem sets, and performance analytics. Top faculty at Allen or FIITJEE with a following of AIR Top-100 alumni earn ₹25-75L and above; star YouTube teachers like Alakh Pandey (Physics Wallah) operate at the ₹100Cr+ revenue scale. Regular faculty at mid-tier institutes earn ₹6-20L — still the highest-paid teaching segment in India outside management education.

Sports Coaches in India plan and deliver training for athletes across school PE programs, private academies, state sports associations, Khelo India centres, and SAI (Sports Authority of India) residential schemes. The majority of practicing coaches in India hold an NIS Patiala Diploma or Certificate in Coaching (issued by NSNIS — National Sports Institute) in one of 30+ disciplines, supplemented by sport-specific certifications from national federations (AFI for athletics, AIFF for football, Hockey India, Basketball Federation of India). Entry roles are school PE teacher-cum-coach or assistant coach at Khelo India District Centres; mid-tier coaches manage state-league squads, JSW Sports Academy batches, or Reliance Foundation Young Champs pipelines; senior coaches at SAI National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs) and Olympic-feeder programs touch ₹25-50L per year. The profession runs on periodization — planning macrocycles, mesocycles, and training blocks aligned to competition calendars — alongside real-time fitness monitoring, video analysis via Dartfish and Hudl, and athlete-specific nutrition and recovery protocols.

Special Education Teachers in India work with children with disabilities — autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, intellectual disability (ID), cerebral palsy (CP), and multiple disabilities — designing and implementing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that map each child's present levels of performance to measurable annual goals. In India through 2026, the role operates inside two ecosystems: inclusive schools (Inventure Academy Bengaluru, Heritage Xperiential Gurugram, Akshar School Ahmedabad, Indus International, Sancta Maria Hyderabad, Vidyasagar Chennai) and specialist institutions (Action for Autism Delhi, Sankalp Charitable Trust Gurugram, Latika Roy Foundation Dehradun, Tamana Special Schools Delhi) where sped teachers work alongside occupational therapists (OTs), speech-language therapists (SLTs), and clinical psychologists. Registration with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 is mandatory for practising as a special educator in India; unregistered practitioners cannot legally be hired in funded sped roles at recognised institutions. Evidence-based intervention approaches — Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), TEACCH, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Makaton — drive daily practice, and documentation quality (IEP files, behaviour support plans, progress-monitoring data) is as load-bearing as classroom delivery.

Preschool Teachers in India work with children aged 2-6 inside franchise chains (Kidzee, EuroKids, Bachpan, Mother's Pride, Treehouse, Footprints, Shemrock, Kangaroo Kids), Montessori-certified stand-alone schools, and the crèche/balwadi networks run under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. The role is rooted in play-based pedagogy — planning thematic units aligned with Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) developmental milestones or the NIPCCD (National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development) early-childhood framework, running Montessori three-period lessons or Reggio Emilia project-based explorations, and tracking each child's gross-motor, fine-motor, language, and social-emotional progress through anecdotal records and portfolios rather than formal exams. Unlike primary school teaching (Class 1 onwards), preschool work requires deeper knowledge of attachment theory, child separation anxiety, toilet training support, sensory play design, and developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) for the 2-6 age window — and a fundamentally different classroom management approach suited to toddlers rather than school-aged children.

Career Counsellors in India decode the gap between a student's aptitude, interests, and personality, and the 600+ career paths the Indian education system rarely explains clearly — using validated tools like the Holland Code (RIASEC), DBDA (Differential Aptitude Battery), 16PF, MBTI, and DMIT to map fit. The work runs across three delivery channels: school-employed counsellors (usually a single counsellor per large CBSE/ICSE private school), independent practitioners running private-practice from clinics or home-studios (50-200+ sessions per month, billed ₹1,500-8,000 per session), and platform-based counsellors on Mindler, Univariety, iDC, CareerGuide.com, and GrowMore. The parent-counselling burden in India is disproportionately high — 60-70% of sessions involve at least one parent with pre-set views on medicine, engineering, or civil services, requiring counsellors to simultaneously work with the student's data and reframe the family's script. Senior independent practitioners with 500+ client books and online content presence (YouTube, Instagram reels on career awareness) cross ₹35L per year; the Mindler and Univariety founders and personalities like Mahima Tendulkar represent the brand-scale ceiling.

Pediatricians in India look after infants, children, and adolescents from birth through age 18 — running OPD clinics for fevers and rashes, managing newborns in NICU, treating community infections like dengue, typhoid, and pneumonia, supervising vaccination schedules per the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) guidelines, and being the first call when a parent panics at 2 AM about a febrile child. The path is MBBS (5.5 years including 1-year rotating internship) entered through NEET-UG, then MD Pediatrics or DNB Pediatrics (3 years) entered through NEET-PG / INI-CET — a high-demand PG branch but easier to crack than Radiology / Dermatology / Medicine, with a structured ₹15-50L mid-career income window. Workplaces split four ways: large multi-specialty private hospitals (Apollo, Fortis, Manipal, Max, Medanta) running paediatric and NICU departments, dedicated paediatric chains (Rainbow Children's Hospitals, Cloudnine Hospitals, Motherhood, Surya Hospitals) which have been one of the fastest-growing healthcare verticals in metro India for the last five years, government / teaching hospitals (AIIMS, PGIMER, JIPMER, KEM Mumbai, Sir JJ Mumbai, IGICH Bangalore), and private OPD practice — usually a 1-2 doctor clinic in a residential neighbourhood with a 200-300 family panel, where established paediatricians clear ₹25-80L through OPD volume, vaccination revenue, and hospital visiting consultancy. The defining 2026 reality: parental anxiety has gone up sharply post-COVID, parents Google every symptom before the visit, and the paediatrician's role is increasingly equal parts clinical judgment and parent-communication — being the calm, evidence-based voice that pulls the family back from a WhatsApp-forward panic spiral.

Senior: ₹50.0L

Buying House Executives sit between foreign retail brands (H&M, Zara, GAP, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Target) and Indian garment manufacturers (Tirupur, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Noida), ensuring orders are produced to spec, on time, and within cost. They own the full sourcing cycle — from buyer inquiry and factory identification to costing build-up, sample development, T&A (time and action) calendar management, QA coordination, and shipment booking. Indian buying houses — Li & Fung India, Synergies Sourcing, Triburg, Modelama Exports, and Orient Craft — serve as the operational backbone of global fashion supply chains routed through India and Bangladesh. Entry into this role typically comes via NIFT, SDFI (Sourcing & Design Faculty of India), or Pearl Academy's garment merchandising programs; commerce graduates with factory-floor internships also break in at smaller sourcing offices.

Senior: N/A

Wedding Planners in India orchestrate one of the most emotionally and logistically complex single-day events a family will ever host — inside the world's largest wedding market, valued at ₹3.7 lakh crore. The role spans full event design (mandap aesthetics, floral, décor, lighting, draping), vendor ecosystem management (caterer, DJ, photographer, videographer, choreographer, priest, florist, transport), budget architecture from ₹25K mehendi ceremonies to ₹3Cr+ Udaipur destination weddings, and the human work of navigating two families' conflicting expectations in real time. Top-tier names — Devika Sakhuja (The A-Cube Project), Vandana Mohan (The Wedding Design Company), Vandit Khanna (Shaadi Squad), Geeta Khanna — have built businesses where a single wedding engagement runs 6-12 months and a lead planner's fee card exceeds ₹10L per event. India's diversity makes regional fluency essential: a Punjabi anand karaj in Amritsar has entirely different ritual sequencing, music traditions (raagis, dhol), and guest protocols than a Rajput wedding in Jaipur, a South Indian Brahmin wedding in Chennai, or a Christian ceremony in Kochi. Destination weddings — Udaipur lake palaces, Goa beach resorts, Jaipur forts, Kerala backwaters — require outdoor contingency planning, foreign vendor sourcing, NRI family coordination across time zones, and foreign-currency invoicing under FEMA. The entry path is typically an event management degree (NIEM, EMDI, Rizvi College of Hotel Management), agency apprenticeship as a coordinator, or lateral entry from hospitality. The professional ceiling is a boutique planner brand with a curated portfolio of 20-30 luxury weddings per year commanding premium fees across India and the diaspora market.

Senior: ₹80.0L

HR Managers run the generalist people function at Indian companies — covering hiring (in partnership with the talent-acquisition team), employee onboarding, learning and development, compensation and benefits administration, performance-review cycles, employee relations and grievance handling, and statutory compliance (PF, ESI, gratuity, POSH, Shops and Establishments Act). The role sits at the intersection of policy and judgement: writing the leave policy, then sitting in the room when an employee disputes a manager's PIP decision; running the appraisal cycle, then handling the difficult exit interview when a high-performer resigns. In India this is one of the most established mid-management tracks across IT services (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Cognizant, Capgemini), product companies (Tata, Bajaj Group, Mahindra, ITC), GCCs (Microsoft India, Google India, Amazon India, Goldman Sachs India), and growth-stage startups (Razorpay, Flipkart, Swiggy, Zomato). The role suits people who have a high tolerance for emotionally charged conversations, can stay neutral when the manager and employee disagree, and enjoy systems thinking around culture, compensation, and policy. It is NOT a back-office role — modern HR managers spend most of their time in business conversations with managers and employees, and only a small portion on compliance paperwork.

Senior: ₹50.0L

General Physicians are the front-line MBBS doctors who run OPDs, family-medicine clinics, urgent-care centres, and primary-care touchpoints across India — the first clinical contact for fever, pain, hypertension, diabetes, lifestyle disease, and the early sorting of who needs a specialist and who can be managed in the community. In India this is the post-MBBS path that does not chase NEET-PG: you finish your MBBS plus 1-year compulsory rotating internship (CRRI) at a Medical Council of India / NMC-recognised college, register with the State Medical Council, and either join government service via state PSC / CHO posts, work as a Resident Medical Officer (RMO) or OPD physician in a private hospital chain (Apollo, Fortis, Manipal, Max, Medanta), set up your own clinic, or migrate via PLAB (UK) / USMLE (US) / AMC (Australia). The work is broad, fast, and verbally heavy — 60-100 patients a day in a busy OPD, 5-10 minutes per consult, constant patient education, and the responsibility of being the doctor most Indian families actually trust and return to over decades.

Senior: ₹30.0L