Choosing a career – listen to your inner voice.
Yesterday I was visiting one of my relatives and we were discussing the
career option their daughter had chosen, rather it was the parents had
chosen for her - ‘Chartered Accounting’. What baffled me was what the
mother gave as the reason, the daughter wished to get into ‘mass media’
while her mother strongly objected to it because it was not considered
to be a good profession for a ‘girl’! The mother felt that it would
involve odd timings and dealing with people of all kinds which is
against the norms of this traditional middle class family. The daughter
was forced to choose a profession which was considered as safe for a
girl, besides she was a high scorer so if ‘CA’ as a profession was in
demand (you can make good money) and everyone had an opinion that it
was good that was the way to go. I tried arguing that the reason for
choosing the career was wrong and that ‘mass media’ too offered good
opportunities but no one wanted to listen.
Parents rush to push their children to take up a stream of education that they consider will make them earn well (the one that is in demand), it does not matter what the child is good at or passionate about. In India the engineering stream is in demand because the IT industry offers great opportunities and everyone wants to get into a IIT! There was a time parents wished for their children to get a steady government job, now there seems to be a craze to get the kids into a IT company or Financial services company ! Once the target is achieved it is considered that the child’s future is taken care of.
A few days back I was talking to a friend who had chosen to take up a profession because all said that it was in his best interest, his internal instinct told him otherwise but he was pulled by the lucrative opportunity. And now he was not feeling happy, there was a sense of ‘emptiness’. I have heard this term a lot in the corporate world. We have all heard stories of individuals who had the courage to listen to their ‘inner voice’ and finally and take the plunge and do what they were passionate about.
Recently I was at a campus taking a guest lecture and I asked the students as to why they had chosen ‘mass communication’ as their career? The response was on expected lines “I like to meet people” some said while some felt that “it was a emerging opportunity” , while all these seem to be valid reason for choosing a career in the profession what about the ‘inner voice’, what is it that you are passionate about ? It is easy to get carried away by the ‘glamour’ of the profession or get into it because 'it is in demand', but you can succeed only if you can ‘add value’ to your customers, and you cannot ‘add value’ if you are not passionate about what you do.
Parents rush to push their children to take up a stream of education that they consider will make them earn well (the one that is in demand), it does not matter what the child is good at or passionate about. In India the engineering stream is in demand because the IT industry offers great opportunities and everyone wants to get into a IIT! There was a time parents wished for their children to get a steady government job, now there seems to be a craze to get the kids into a IT company or Financial services company ! Once the target is achieved it is considered that the child’s future is taken care of.
A few days back I was talking to a friend who had chosen to take up a profession because all said that it was in his best interest, his internal instinct told him otherwise but he was pulled by the lucrative opportunity. And now he was not feeling happy, there was a sense of ‘emptiness’. I have heard this term a lot in the corporate world. We have all heard stories of individuals who had the courage to listen to their ‘inner voice’ and finally and take the plunge and do what they were passionate about.
Recently I was at a campus taking a guest lecture and I asked the students as to why they had chosen ‘mass communication’ as their career? The response was on expected lines “I like to meet people” some said while some felt that “it was a emerging opportunity” , while all these seem to be valid reason for choosing a career in the profession what about the ‘inner voice’, what is it that you are passionate about ? It is easy to get carried away by the ‘glamour’ of the profession or get into it because 'it is in demand', but you can succeed only if you can ‘add value’ to your customers, and you cannot ‘add value’ if you are not passionate about what you do.
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