Career mistakes which we all make and still do not learn from!

When we are children and when elders ask us what we want to be in life (and mind you, this question is popped to us when we have just joined kindergarten. At least in middle class Indian homes, this is how it is), we give our fixed answers - mostly pilot, engineer for boys and teacher, doctor for girls (at least 95% of my generation had these as replies. Current generation is much aware (about far more career options) and clear, I so feel.

A ‘padha likha’ person on a well-paying job (in which integrity is maintained) is a barometer for success and settled life – this is another thought, which is seeded into us as we grow.

With the pressures of middle class and under the guided aspirations of parents, we keep building onto these notions until we reach secondary and then high-secondary school. Time comes for choosing (that is if we are lucky and/or intelligent enough to crack an entrance) science/commerce/arts stream and subsequently a college and a career line.

And those child-hood notions take a back seat.

Looking at market trend, peer group (mostly of parents with thoughts like what will Mr. Gupta say and what will Mrs. Verma think), availability of seats, so called higher career prospects or other family circumstances, we enter into a vocational stream or I can say, are pushed into one. (There is no space or time to reflect on what interests us? What are we actually good at?)

What is the result?

A big confused lot of graduates who are by qualification engineers, B.Scs, B.coms, B.A.s, NDA graduates, B.pharmas but who don't know whether this was what they wanted.

We become ‘padha likha’ in societal norms. Some of us try our lucks in jobs. We get hired at very basic salary and all the childhood euphoria (if any is left after the grill of not getting into top-of-the notch colleges) evaporates in a puff.

Sooner than later another question stairs at us. What should be done to elevate the salary level? Job-hopping or further education. For lack of anything, most of these graduates find out that may be MBA is the answer.

Without any thought on what should be done or can be done to pursue a career in what interests oneself, we again take the plunge into another rat race of bettering the salary and with that thought process, we start preparing for GMATs and CATs of the world.

Not all of us are good enough at cracking these prestigious exams and end up eventually doing MBAs from B-grade MBA institutes. These B-grade MBA institutes do not fetch us the dream salaries. Dreams still are far away. We are back to square one.

By this time, we are in our mid-twenties.

M.B.A is again followed by a grind of finding a good job (criteria of a good job being a reputed brand, good salary to start with). We get into whatever job comes our way.

We still do not know what we want to be. We still do not know what our interests are. We just feel that getting a 'decent salary' is good enough. We are formally inducted into the rat race.

We start having short term goals and do job-hopping sometimes looking for the right salary (right salary is determined by peer comparison, by the way), right designation. We never chase job satisfaction. Most of us resign to the fact that practical life is this much ONLY. (I am not even talking about the rigmaroles of parallel personal life which is marked by important life events till this stage – marriage, children, expectation of settling down and so on).

Many of us do not question the status-quo and are happy with whatever we have achieved. There is a good job, good car, good house. What more to expect from life.

But there are many of us who start feeling restlessness, an emptiness especially when the reality dawns around mid-life when we start realizing that is not what we wanted to do in life. This is not how we wanted our careers to pan out. We start questioning that why do I dread going to work every day? Is it boss? Is it nature of work? Is it salary? Why am I not at peace? We keep looking for answers.

Some of these thoughts are provoked by movies like ‘3 idiots’ which preach that chase your dreams and may be you would be more satisfied. But if we were to think of it, how many of us who are good at playing cricket can become MS Dhoni. How many of us who sing well have the courage to take up singing as an option knowing that out of 135 crore Indians, there is only one Lata Mangeshkar.

We agree and resign to this well-rehearsed logic repeatedly.

Then what is the right way to look at our careers, our professional lives which command 50% of how happy or sad or satisfied we are.

Some of us who are lucky get to identify that one skill or that one interest area which can be practical enough to be turned into a corporate career.

Need is to think what interest us and what are we good at and what can be put to good practical use. For example, if we are very creative and life sketching and painting, then maybe we can’t be MF Hussains of the world but can definitely explore a career in marketing or designing. Need is to look at career as a long term plan. Need is to plan those steps very carefully to get to atleast near to what you dreamt off. We take so much effort in deciding who we want to spend our personal life with. We need to spend some energy in deciding and planning our career paths as well. Steps need to be well thought off and we need to be patient. A good salary (but in a domain which is not of your interest) in short term should not be chosen over a right career move (may be less paying). The dots need to connect for a beautiful career plan to stitch together.

How many of you have gone or are going through this struggle and still have not identified what interests you? Please do share.