Alice in Wanderland

(This post is for people who may want to be adventurous about looking at career choices, this helps with the how to)

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
Cheshire Cat: "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
Alice: "I don't much care where –"
Cheshire Cat: "Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”

.....except for a reserve few who know where they're heading & what their next stop would be, most of us drift with the current when we're on the look out for the next exciting assignment. Go where the wind blows sort of a thing. And that's ok too! If you don't necessarily bother yourself with defining the exact specifics of what you want, you may just go someplace more wonderful, too. The wisdom of the millennials, also known as the Peter Pan generation.

In some of my blog posts from a couple of years ago, I've definitely laid stress on 'knowing' what you apply for, understanding whether or not you fit the job description, doing career scripting to outline 10-20 companies that over the course of your career fit your vision / culture appetite / belonging-ness quotient (yet to be?'ed), risk profile, learning curve, & other parameters that decide where you should work.

But as we enter a brave, new world (resets every 5 years) we're thrown into a Crystal maze of a place where there is no saying which skills of yours would be tested & what new wins / learnings would you take home that day. Which changes quite a few parameters of 'How to choose a job/company/career'.

Some of my personal learnings/favourites outlined below:

Skill Mapping: Not leadership skills, not being a people's person, not 'My handwriting or my family are my strengths', :) by this I mean writing down on a piece of paper meant only for your eyes, things you not only excel at but are passionate about & can cause a serious impact with. You could be a finance guy with skills to get into HR, an architect that comes up with a mean copy for an ad agency (creative writing skills), an engineer who is brilliant at sales (yes, those I've seen many of. Tum log engineering kyun karte ho yaar?) :) etc & so on. With the advent of new age companies & last mile products/services there are millions of niches being created that can leverage both your skills & your passion. But if you don't know they exist or hone them, how would a prospective employer know? :)

Active Networking: I've always believed every employee in a company is an employer brand ambassador out in the market. An engaged employee will further the employer brand promise & invite great talent to join them. These days, it is not uncommon to see professionals from not only HR/Talent Acquisition but all other teams in companies..advertising career options available with the company. So engage with people working in areas that interest you & they may just reach out to you with an interesting opportunity! (although if you're an Arts major & want to get into Rocket Science, might I suggest a professional course before reaching out to a NASA employee) :)

Create your cave of treasures: After putting in the hours in your day job, if you moonlight as a career gypsy looking for the true meaning of a pay check & banking on your passion, you may want to create treasure troves of your passion / bankable skills. If you're a Social media business executive by day & a budding pastry chef by night (shout out to Riya Malik @ The Pink Truck!) pursuing your passion in one way or the other - having your own blog, YouTube channel, or Riya's case: Her own Zomato listing) will tremendously help you get the right attention from the right people. So go blog, photograph, bake, pin, create, do whatever you need to do to highlight your work, today. It takes time for these troves to fill with the right gems.)

Rostering the Randomness: Your career gypsy soul will have more of a chance to strike gold if you decide on a set number of alternate parameters/career choices you wish to pursue, only & only, to the advantage of being able to focus on those. So its great you've decided to give a platform to your passions but please don't let it get crowded & select a few that possibly compliment each other. I know nothing is impossible, but you cannot be a musician, a masseuse, a telemarketer, an extra on a soap opera, a surrogate, an investment banker, & an alternate healer. Only Phoebe Buffay can do that. Now go figure.

To conclude, knowing is great, but not knowing has its own advantages, which are beautifully captured in one of my all time favourite quotes by Gilda Radner (somehow comics always have a grip on the philosophical side of life);

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.”