Preparing for the Career Path: When is the right time..

Perhaps the most critical decision in a student’s life is choice of a right career, one which suits interests and competency equally. Hence the need of a fine balance and proper guidance become crucial.

Inspite of the fact that India has around 250 plus options to choose from, spanning thousands of career paths, research reveals that 93% of students are only aware of 7 broad career options in India. And this in itself makes it ever more imperative to look beyond the horizon and explore options which aren’t in the knowledge radar of students. And this is where career coaching gains supreme relevance and importance.

The times have changed and education systems have been evolved to a great extent in our country. Few decades ago, there was no concept or relevance for career guidance or counseling. There were lot of myths attached related to career choices. The most intelligent students opted for Science, followed by commerce and it was said the below average students took humanities. The parameters of success were confined to being Doctors and engineers.?I still remember that when almost 32 years ago, I expressed my desire to choose humanities as an option, there was big hue and cry in my family, as I belonged to the family of Doctors, Engineers and Science researchers but my father supported me in all my decisions.

It is imperative that we start focusing and preparing for higher education from a very young age and for that we need career counselors and coaches and according to a research there is a need of 5 lakh counselors in the country and we have very few available. If we talk about the psychometric assessments the ideal age to conduct these will be from grade 8 onwards but preparation for higher education must start from primary. The aptitude and Psychometric tests are constructed in such a way that for 13 to 15 years old they are interest, subject and personality specific and 15 years plus are aptitude, personality and career specific. According to research, these years are witnessing??many transformations taking place in their life physically and emotionally and they are coping with peer pressure as well. It is also a time when decisions related to higher education are made. Aptitude assessments help them to understand their own strengths and weaknesses with regard to their higher education choices they want to make and here the role of career coach comes into place.

As a school head and a CCSP coach myself, I use these a lot with many students. We call the different professionals to address our students to share their experiences and journey from various fields. The primary students start weaving their career dreams around it and for middle and senior students we plan to initiate the internship program for them, where they go and learn the skills related to the different career options and face the challenges too.

All the parents want their children to be successful, famous and rich in their lives and to ensure that they achieve this, they fail to understand their children’s interests and desires and impose their will and dreams on them. I have seen many parents helping their kids in online psychometric assessments as well to get so called perfect score. They don’t realize that instead of helping they are harming their children and their careers and future.

“Lets not fulfill our dreams through our children. Let them dream! Allow them to chase their dreams as their dreams might be larger than ours.”

Dr. Vasudha Neel Mani