On poverty, skills development and what it is like to work in this sector...
It has been a month since I moved to the social development sector after nearly 17 years in a large for-profit enterprise environment. Thought I should share my key takeaways from Month 1:
1. Poverty is a complex subject. After years of research, experts haven't agreed on something as simple as measurement - yet talking to people - true experts, armchair sociologists and everyone in between - everyone has strong views. This whole discussion on poverty is moot. Far more important than agreeing on the theory of poverty, is to act, and solve for it, even if the path is experimental at best.
2. Working in this area is an endurance test. No matter what your role, whether you work in the field, or in an office... you will fail far more than you will succeed -- by traditional definitions of success. The more emotionally invested you are, the harder will it be to learn from failure and move on to refining and reinventing. Clinical problem solving is a better tool in the arsenal of a worker in the social sector than empathy.
3. Poverty is proof of administrative and governance failure. Yet, the market economy has done more for poverty alleviation than welfare. If both work in tandem (and they are, increasingly so), the offensive, abject poverty that exists today, can be solved in our lifetime.
Lastly, the most reassuring realization is that the ingredients for success in this sector are not that different from those in for-profit businesses. Principles of problem -solving and informed risk-taking apply just as well. A strong work ethic and commitment will take you far. The rewards, of course, go beyond compensation - and that makes it worth the while.
Data Warehouse Consultant at NRI Australia | Business Intelligence | Application Development | Data Analyst - Data Modeling & Visualization | Production Support | Team Lead
8 年India's definition of the poverty line is abysmal. As per a Wikipedia article ..... "India's official poverty level, on the other hand, is split according to rural vs. urban thresholds. For urban dwellers, the poverty line is defined as living on less than 538.60 rupees (approximately US$12) per month, whereas for rural dwellers, it is defined as living on less than 356.35 rupees per month (approximately US$7.50)" But good thing is that a committed person can make a lot of difference in the lives of others. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality". Wish you all the best and many more successes in the future.
I Coach Executives, Consult on Culture and building globally distributed high-performance teams
8 年Hello Sudha, Nice to hear about your foray into this sector. Please be careful about who you want to help. Like you said defining poverty is extremely difficult and defining the amount of passion or dispassion is even more difficult. Treasure each small success and move along is the mantra in this field.
SAP Consultant
8 年Best wishes.
ML/AI and DFX Design Engineer, Founder CHANDANSHAMALA Library
8 年Excellent observations.....