Personal qualities required to be a successful Food Technologist.

What are the personal qualities that I must be equipped with to make a career in this field?

There are two sectors that you can opt for as a food technologist, first is the corporate and the other is research. The corporate sector involves you working in companies as an engineer on the technologies and procedures that are already being used in the market. You will be asked to monitor those techniques and its smooth functioning. You have to check for the processing, manufacture, quality control, preservation and dispatch of the food item and also sometimes its supply.

Research on the other hand is innovation of existing technologies to obtain new techniques to make the tasks easier. It is the development of new applications and methods to accelerate the rate of productivity and reduce the cost of production.

Apart from a graduate degree in science (B.Sc., B.E., B.tech in biotechnology or food technology) from a recognised college\university or M.tech\Diploma\Post Graduate Diploma\PhD \ in
Food Technology from a recognised college\university following are the skills that you require In corporate and in research areas respectively:

To pursue your career in corporate, you must have the following:
• Good inter-personal links
• Good communication skills
• Knowledge of subjects
• Eye for detail
• You should also be Up-to date with current affairs especially those related to food industry.

To pursue your career in research, you will need:
• Hard work, patience, dedication: all three are a must because research might be time consuming.
• Another important factor is concentration and good observation powers.
• Your statement of purpose should be very strong as it reflects your thoughts and ideas behind the research work that you want to carry out.
• You must have few publications or research papers of your own.
• You must do a thorough research about the university or department you want to work at and its facilities.
• You must have a scientific bent of mind
• Know your motive: you should be focussed on your work and should always have a pre- defined goal so that your research doesn’t go waste.
• You should be able to adapt well according to the requirement of your project.