Career: Choosing or Forcing

In India, as students, such as you, finish VIII^th, X^th or XII^th standard examinations, they are faced with a tough decision of opting for a career which will not only earn them decent wages but also provide them with stability in life. More than often, this decision is made for them by their parents. However, in an ever changing world, influenced by their friends, social media or the web, students choose career without giving it a proper thought.

Why this choice of career is so important? It is because, choosing a career is the single most important decision of ones life that will guide life for an unforeseeable and long future. It will either make you or break you. So, how should it be taken? Should a student, with her/his limited world view, be left to choose it or should their parents, with years of experience behind them, be allowed to force their choice on their kids?

Here, I propose a hybrid model where all the stakeholders must be consulted before any final decision is taken. Students should then be allowed to make their own decision. There is a saying in Konkani – भुरगी जोडीत भुरगी खायत (which literally translates to “kids will eat as they earn”) which is apt in this case. However, elders have to guide them to make a better decision.

When, I was in that age group, no one was around and that included teachers as well, to tell us about choices we had. We only had two options: Medicine or Engineering. Anything less, and it was considered a failure. Fortunately, society is slowly coming out of that mindset. However, due to peer pressure from their friends and information explosion on the web, students are bombarded with information that they can hardly make head or tail of. Every piece of information looks legitimate and, in turn promising and convincing. Should I be a programmer or a data scientist or perhaps train in hundred other high paying careers paths? Parents are also unaware of different avenues that have opened up in recent years or hardly connect career choices with the decisions their governments take.

So, without going into too much details, let us break down this decision making process into pleasurable one.

What, who, where and how:

• Our goal is to decide which career to choose.
• The main stakeholders in this are students themselves, their parents and teachers.
• Information we need is mostly available online.
• Information can be sought from newspapers, government sources, syllabi, blogs, experts, alumni, industry and so on.

Steps towards decision making

1. Introspect or think over, about the subjects you like.
   1. Someone may like Science or History or Geography or Mathematics or something else. Within Science, one may like Biology or may not like it at all. Someone may like to draw really pretty pictures or play a musical instrument. Everything is fair in this process.
2. Convey your liking to your parents and teachers.
   1. Ask them genuine questions about your liking.
   2. Ask them, if there are careers related to your liking.
   3. Check the web or any other sources listed above for cursory information.
3. Once you choose a career/course, go for the detailed research.
   1. Check what possible jobs you might get after finishing the course.
   2. Check median salary on the web.
   3. Check what you will learn by referring to syllabus of the course.
   4. Check the schools or colleges in top, middle and bottom tier that offer such courses.
   5. Check the prospect of the chosen field based on government decisions. For example, government is going big time after semi conductor industry. Will this increase job prospects after 5 years down the line?
      1. Ask your parents, if you find this step difficult.
4. If the prospect of having a decent career is bleak in the field of your liking, go for the next best one. You can always follow your passion as a secondary career.

You may simply decide to continue your study. For example you want to complete X^th after VIII^th or XII^th after VIII^th and X^th rather than enrol for specialised courses (All courses after XII^th have been assumed to be specialised which include BSc, BA, Bcom, LLB, etc.; ITI, Vocational and any other such courses which can be pursued after VIII^th or X^th are also specialised courses).

By following these steps you are always concentrating on one career at a time about which you can then carry out research in detail. This will remove most of the confusion about information explosion you see now a days. In the fast paced world you may find this process boring or time consuming, but always remember; you are going to do this perhaps only once in your lifetime and it will be a factor which will aid in steering your life in the meaningful direction. NEVER opt for a career because your best friend has chosen it.

REMEMBER – Think about a field and how it will be after a number of years it will take to finish the course. For example, you want to choose Electronics Engineering which is currently in a slump (2024) but you know that once you finish Engineering, it will have a lot of high end job prospects (2028) because of semiconductor industry, go for it.

I hope you find this instructive enough and help you in a smooth decision making process.

Best of Luck.