Become a Set Decorator (Film).

Executive Chefs in India lead kitchen brigades ranging from 30 to 150 cooks at 5-star hotel chains (Taj Hotels, ITC Hotels, Oberoi Group, Marriott, Hyatt), standalone fine-dining restaurants, boutique properties, and cloud kitchen networks. The role spans menu engineering, food-cost management (keeping cost-of-goods at 28–35%), procurement, FSSAI compliance (Schedule IV Hygiene Standards), staff training, and the relentless standard-setting that drives guest experiences from biryani buffets to multi-course tasting menus. India's culinary recognition on the global stage — with names like Garima Arora (Asia's 50 Best), Manish Mehrotra (Indian Accent), and Gaggan Anand — has transformed the profession into a legitimate high-prestige career path. Entry typically runs through a 3-year B.Sc. Hospitality (or equivalent) from IHM Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, or Hyderabad — flagship institutes under the National Council for Hotel Management (NCHMCT) — followed by departmental training in kitchens, CDP (Chef de Partie), Sous Chef, and eventually Head Chef or Executive Chef. The NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India) estimates the organised food service industry at ₹5.5 lakh crore, creating strong sustained demand for kitchen leadership talent across every price point.

Flight attendants (cabin crew) in India are the frontline safety professionals and hospitality ambassadors of every scheduled commercial flight. IndiGo, Air India, Vistara (merging with Air India), Akasa Air, and SpiceJet hire heavily from tier-2 and metro India, as do foreign carriers — Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Lufthansa — which actively recruit Indian applicants via annual open days in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru. The entry path requires a DGCA Cabin Crew License, obtained after completing a 6-12 week airline-specific type-rating and safety training program; training institutes like Frankfinn, IATA-authorised AHA, and Sushma Industries provide pre-employment grooming. Age at entry is typically 18-27; airlines enforce height (MinIMum arm-reach ~212 cm for most carriers), BMI, and clear-skin requirements at the time of joining. Cabin crew fly 60-90 block hours per month on domestic/international sectors, operate in a strict FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) framework under DGCA CAR Section 7 Series O Part III, and are responsible for passenger safety briefings, in-flight service, emergency procedures, and crew resource management. Senior crew progress to lead cabin crew, pursers, and cabin managers; international carrier pursers can take home INR equivalent of ₹25-55L annually including tax-free allowances.

Hotel Front Office Managers in India are the nerve centre of guest experience at properties ranging from Taj Lake Palace and ITC Grand Chola to Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton. The role owns the full guest journey — reservations, check-in, concierge, bell services, night audit, and check-out — and operates through Property Management Systems such as Opera, IDS Next, and eZee. A typical 5-star FOM manages 20–60 front-desk staff, drives RevPAR and Average Daily Rate, handles VIP and VVIP protocols (including Bollywood and political arrivals), and ensures C-form filing for foreign guests per the Foreigners Act. The standard entry path is a 3-year B.Sc. Hospitality from an IHM (NCHMCT-affiliated institute in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, or Hyderabad), followed by a management trainee stint at a Taj or Oberoi property. Bilingual fluency in Hindi-English, and regional languages, is a strong differentiator. FHRAI (Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India) membership properties follow shared industry standards on room rates, cancellation policies, and statutory compliance. Demand for experienced FOM talent remains strong as India's hotel pipeline adds 50,000–80,000 branded rooms per year.

Animal Trainers for film and TV prepare dogs, horses, birds, and exotic animals to perform on-cue behaviours for Bollywood, regional cinema, OTT productions, and commercial shoots. In India, the trade is anchored by a small network of established trainers — Sundar Bhatti's legendary work training dogs for iconic Bollywood roles (Moti, Tommy) defined the craft's standards for a generation. Every production using live animals requires an AWBI (Animal Welfare Board of India) No-Objection Certificate per shoot, compliance with the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (PCA Act), and a vet on call under AWBI norms. Trainers typically own or co-own their animal stable, negotiate per-day rates through informal CINTAA (Cine & TV Artistes' Association) conventions, and handle welfare logistics that the production unit has neither the knowledge nor the liability appetite for. Entry is entirely through apprenticeship — usually under an established trainer in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Mysuru, or Jaipur.

Track and field athletes in India compete under the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and World Athletics in disciplines spanning sprints (100m-400m), middle and long distance (800m-10,000m), hurdles, relays, throws (javelin, shot put, discus, hammer), jumps (long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault), and combined events (decathlon/heptathlon). The Neeraj Chopra era — Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 and World Championships gold at Budapest 2023 — fundamentally shifted how India treats track and field: AFI central contracts, Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) support, and Diamond League appearance fees are now accessible to India's top eight to ten athletes. Training hubs at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) Patiala and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centres in Bengaluru and Lucknow provide national-level coaching, sports science support, and international competition funding. Below the national elite, athletes navigate state athletics associations, Khelo India University Games, and junior National Championships on self-funded or state-government scholarships.

Archivists in India acquire, appraise, arrange, describe, preserve, and provide access to records of enduring value — from 16th-century Persian manuscripts at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library to born-digital corporate governance records at Tata Central Archives. The statutory backbone is the Public Records Act 1993, which governs the National Archives of India (NAI) in New Delhi and its regional repositories in Bhopal, Jaipur, Puducherry, and Bhubaneswar. State archives (UP State Archives Allahabad, Maharashtra State Archives Mumbai, MP State Archives Bhopal) operate under parallel state-level acts. Private and institutional archives — Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Godrej Archives, TIFR Archives, various university libraries — follow the same international descriptive standards (ISAD(G) General International Standard Archival Description; DACS Describing Archives: A Content Standard) but with greater flexibility. Day to day means accessioning incoming record transfers, constructing finding aids in EAD (Encoded Archival Description) XML, running preservation assessments (monitoring RH 45-55%, temperature 16-21°C, IPM pest trapping), supervising digitization workflows (TIFF master at 400 dpi, JPEG2000 access copy, PDF/A for text records), and handling researcher access and RTI requests under the Public Records Act and the RTI Act 2005.

Jewellery Designers in India conceptualise, CAD-model, and bring to life pieces in gold (22K, 18K), silver, platinum, and gemstones — spanning bridal kundan and polki sets for Sabyasachi Jewelry, everyday 18K diamond solitaires for CaratLane, meenakari bangles for Tanishq, and lightweight silver designs for GIVA and Melorra. The role bridges design craft (gemology, metal engineering, stone setting) with industrial production (BIS hallmarking, 916 purity certification, karigar management, costing against live gold rates). Workplaces range from the in-house design studios of Titan-owned Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, and PC Jeweller to D2C-first brands CaratLane (Tata subsidiary), Bluestone, GIVA, and Melorra, to heritage high-end houses like Birdhichand Ghanshyamdas (Jaipur) and Sabyasachi Jewelry, to independent jewellers and export studios supplying gold and diamond jewellery to Europe, the US, and the Gulf. Entry salary ranges from ₹3-7L (design trainee); mid-level brand designers at Tanishq or Bluestone earn ₹8-18L; Head of Design at Kalyan or Tanishq clears ₹20-50L.

Senior: N/A

2D Game Artists produce every visual asset players see in a mobile or casual game — character sprites, environment tiles, UI chrome, HUD elements, and the animation frames that bring them to life. In India, the role sits at the intersection of the mobile-casual explosion (Moonfrog Labs, Junglee Games, Octro, Nazara Technologies, Mech Mocha) and a growing indie freelance economy on ArtStation. Day-to-day work oscillates between high-craft concept art that defines a game's visual language and production-line sprite-sheet assembly that must hit precise performance budgets — texture atlases packed under 2048×2048, mipmaps verified, PVRTC/ASTC compression tested on actual Android devices. The path in is almost entirely portfolio-driven: a tight ArtStation book of game-ready character sprites, one Spine 2D rigged character, and a packaged UI kit outweighs any formal degree in most Indian studio hiring rounds.

Senior: ₹35.0L

Visual Merchandisers in India control the physical retail experience — from the window display on a Zara India or H&M high street storefront to the planogram governing every fixture inside a Westside, Lifestyle, or FabIndia outlet. The job sits at the intersection of spatial design, consumer psychology (AIDA framework), and brand storytelling: a VM translates a seasonal brief into mannequin styling, prop arrangements, signage hierarchy, focal-point architecture, and in-store navigation that drives footfall conversion and average transaction value. In India the two strongest employment tracks are brand-side in-house (Reliance Retail's Trends/AJIO Offline, Tata Trent/Westside, Shopper's Stop, FabIndia, Anita Dongre, Apple BKC) and international fast fashion (H&M India, Zara India, Mango India). Senior Visual Merchandisers own regional rollouts — executing identical festive theme windows across 60+ doors in a Diwali push — while Heads of VM at national chains shape the in-store identity across hundreds of SKUs and store formats. Entry runs through NIFT or Pearl Academy graduates with 2-5 years of floor-level experience; the craft itself is learned on shop floors, not in classrooms.

Senior: N/A

Artisanal ice cream makers formulate, batch-freeze, and sell craft ice cream and gelato at the studio, single-store, and multi-store scale — a segment that in India spans Natural Ice Cream (1984, Mumbai's Juhu; the Raghunandan Kamath legacy brand that outlived its founder in 2024), Apsara Ice Creams, Bachhubhai (Surat), and Hocco, as well as a new generation including Minus 30, Frozen Bottle, and Mumbai gelato studios like La Folie Patisserie and Drizzle Gelato. The maker controls the full chain: sourcing Alphonso mangoes (Feb–May), sitapal, jamun, and cheekoo at peak ripeness; preparing dairy bases to FSSAI dairy norms (MSNF thresholds, pasteurisation at 85°C/15 sec); aging the mix 4-12 hours; and batch-freezing on Carpigiani or Bravo continuous-freezer or batch-freezer. Gelato (6-10% butterfat, 25-30% overrun) and premium ice cream (14-16% butterfat, 50-100% overrun) differ in formulation, draw temperature, and serving temp — knowing this distinction separates artisans from hobbyists. Entry requires hands-on training; Italian certification (Carpigiani Gelato University, Bologna or its India partner workshops) is the recognised professional bar.

Senior: ₹50.0L

Art Directors (Film) are the execution arm of the Art Department — translating the Production Designer's visual concept into physical reality on the studio floor and on location. While the PD owns the design vision and interfaces with the director and DOP, the AD runs the department's day-to-day operations: briefing set construction crews (carpenters, painters, plasterers, ironworkers), coordinating the swing gang for overnight set strikes and turnarounds, sourcing and tracking props, supervising the set decorator, and maintaining visual continuity across shoot days. In India, experienced ADs work under Production Designers like Sabu Cyril (RRR, Baahubali, KGF Chapter 2), Subrata Chakraborty (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Devdas, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham), and Shashank Tiwari (Gangs of Wasseypur, Mirzapur) — learning to execute at scale across single-camera dramas, action spectacles, and OTT originals for Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar. The AD-to-PD career path is clearly defined and entirely craft-driven: there is no shortcut around the years spent on the construction floor.

Senior: N/A