I wish I knew this in my 20's- Vol. I

I wish I knew this in my 20's - your first job wont determine your career.

At 23 when I sat for placements after MBA, I was conditioned to believe that a career in FMCG is the secret sauce to the ultimate success in Marketing. Every other sector would come a cropper to the baptism by fire that FMCG companies offered to diamonds in the rough. Armed with this absolutely flawed notion in 2009 when recession had resulted in few jobs I opted out of companies that were non -FMCG. In hindsight I would want to go back and talk some sense into my 23 year self as to how flawed the decision and the logic behind it was .

For everyone who might be passing out of college ,looking for their first foray in the corporate world, I wish for? you to make an informed decision. Here are a few nuggets from my side that hopefully help in some way.

1. There is a new sunrise sector every decade- if it was FMCG in the 90's ,Telecom in the 2000's,E-commerce in the next decade or D2C now. Sectors don't define careers. Career is a period of 30-35 years where you would work in one, two or more sectors and hopefully learn something as you go, eventually experience in multiple sectors enables diverse learning and works advantageously.
2. There is more than one route to the same destination- In college if someone landed a branding stint they were considered to have received the golden pass. Those who were assigned sales stints lamented at the agony they encountered while their peers sat in AC cubicles hobnobbing with celebrities right out of college. Some of those very friends chose Sales later, while some envy the fast growth their sales counterparts witnessed yet most ended up just where they deserved to be- irrespective of where they started.
3. Working on a small Brand will ruin the CV forever- I remember applying to the dream company half thinking my CV wont even get shortlisted because of the brand I was working on. No, the small brand didn't ruin my CV, it offered a larger role, responsibilities and challenges which was sought after by the bigger brands as they constantly look for hustlers who change the game instead of just playing them.

These are my personal experiences and I am not suggesting that these are rules to live by, if at all ,I would say there are no rules in Careers. So don't worry about what your first job is, enjoy it, extract maximum learning and try to have fun while you are at it.

Welcome to the Corporate World.