Breaking the stereotype

Throughout my life I've experienced, at times as a passive spectator and some time as a victim, the limitations in your growth through stereotypic behaviour or in simple word ‘labelling’. And I am just talking about education and job.

It all starts at the very beginning of your life. In India, if you are a convent educated you are ‘labelled’ as ‘smart’ and in case you are a state educated one, then strong in maths and reasoning. In case you have taken science as elective in your intermediate in some states, you are labelled as ‘above the rest’ and in some states ‘commerce’ and ‘humanities’ are considered ‘the stream of gifted ones’.

The height of stereotypic behaviour accentuates when you enter the job market, especially at the entry level. People from ‘Marketing’ background are often perceived to be ‘happening and cool’ and ‘Finance’ all about grey cells. However, the key to growth in any organisation lies in breaking the stereotype, first in your mind and then in the ecosystem in which you operate.

Fortunately, I've experienced the merit of breaking the stereotype in the very beginning of my career. From an agricultural graduate to an underwriter in an insurance firm to a marketer in a credit rating agency has not only added a valuable facet to my experience, but has also provided me an acumen to understand and appreciate the criticality of various functional domains in an organisation. While the conventional wisdom will continue to drive the way marketing happens in most of the organisation, at an individual level my quest will always be to break the stereotypes associated with the my adopted functional domain called 'Marketing'.