Starting from the outside

Options for careers in pubic administration apart from the Civil Services

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eing a highly coveted profession — and notoriously hard to get into — the Civil Services are the most sought-after career path for lakhs of young as

pirants. To illustrate, in 2024 alone, over 13 lakh aspirants appeared in the Union Public Service Commission Civil Service exam’s Preliminary round, but only about 14,000 qualified for the Main paper.

Of these, only a few thousand candidates make it to the interview round, and only 600 clear it.

With such low chances of success, several candidates fail to clear the exam in one go and make multiple attempts to do so — dedicating years in preparation for the CSe. However, several candidates do not realise that Civil Services is not the only career option for candidates wanting a career in public administration, public policy, or governance. EdexLive speaks to Jigyasu Agarwal, political consultant and Founder of Rebounce, a platform that helps ex-UPSC aspirants land careers in administration and gover nance, to understand these pathways better.

UPSC aspirants bent towards public administration''