I always wondered what the important and critical issues that one would look into before making a career choice. Its quite a maze, out there. In this day and age, one can make it big being an artist than an educated engineer. Essentially, if one's really good at something, it doesnt matter. You're gonna be successful. But, how does one measure this. More importantly, how does one get there?
Well, starts off plain and simple. One has to make career choices all thru their lives right from the age of 6 or 7. And with the kind of pressure that parents put on their children, it isnt too hard to see how difficult it is for the kids. So, most of one's early age is spent listening to one's parents, explicity or slowly absorbing the implicit hints that they drive into one's minds.
For some of us, they may have never told us to write IIT-JEE or even CAT. That's just the choice that we made... Or did we? Doesnt it come from the way one is brought up? To think, I was really not too keen on pursuing science after Class 10. But, after my 'brilliant' results in the boards, I was too busy getting carried away with all the "Oh, he can surely make it to IIT" crap that everyone around me were feeding me. Thankfully, certain incidents early on in my life brought about a change in my thinking. And soon I realised that I never wanted to be in any IIT. And I'm going to be proud of that decision all my life.
The next fork in the road- Class 12. I really dont remember why I chose engineering. Other than the fact that I loved to spend time working on my computer. And that my options were pretty limited after choosing Science in my +2 years.
As always, my sister's career path had such a great influence on me that I always chose that as a default. It was pretty easy to play safe, not take any risks. And what folks actually complain when a kid makes so-called "sane" career choices like science and engineering. As I pursued the path she took, which I'm sure was the result of some such implicit complusion for her too, I found myself interested in CAT.
Here comes the caveat... Since I was the younger one and having seen all the nitty-gritties that she went thru a couple of years ago, I just had to better that effort. Somehow, its that case with siblings. You learn from each others' mistakes and I carried off from where she had left. And yeah, cracked CAT.
Like 98% of the people here and in every other B-school across the country, I rehersed all the good "Why MBA?" answers and vomitted them at the interviews. We really dont deserve to be here, actually. I'm sure there are lots of people who are really good at what they do and have excellent reasons to be here. But, just because some of us are better at cracking a written paper for 2 hours, we got here ahead of them. Seems unjust, isnt it.
I dont want to discriminate, but try looking at some of the girls who are here. With a few of them, it seems very obvious that they are here just because they did decently well in a test. Not the other way round, like its supossed to be. Its pretty evident that they'll just get thru these two years, work for a couple more and then get settled and leave it all for a good middle-class family life. Can't help thinking what that seat would have meant to someone like Sarath Babu - the PGP3, who came from selling idlies on a road to IIMA and then opened his own chain of food outlets.
And even after coming here, people are the worst examples of so-called "future" managers. Its a great interview answer to say, "Yeah, I'm keeping my options open". That really means they dont have a clue as to what they want to do. They are so likely to get swayed by the hottest new career path, because its the in-thing these days (like finance) or because everyone else wants to get in to that (like I-Banks) or better still, because only some can really make it (for the snob value and bragging rights, like consult).
The few who manage to break away from all these factors have a different set of critical factors which decide their career choices. Disclaimer: Dont expect better stuff here.
Firstly and for lots, lastly as well, money. Its all about the money honey. Doesnt really matter whether you have a nervous breakdown at 30, or whether your wife turns so lonely that she becomes unfaithful. It just doesnt matter, as long as they keep filling the coffers which they willingly do. Most middle-class people just dont want to look back to the kind of society that they grew up in. It is understanable, but people choose to run away than attempt to make a difference.
Secondly, for some of us fun-seeking souls, its about the work-life balance. Which is very slick way of saying, "Do you get to have fun or not?" Well, this is one of the clinching factors for me, when making a career choice. Because I'm the kind of person who just cant live without having fun.
And the factors run far and wide. Somewhere down the line, people do think about job satisfaction and the likes. The "real" stuff that we MBAs are expected to. And lastly, it does come down to pizza as well. Puzzled? Let me explain. When a company comes over for its PPT, lots of students willingly go to the ones which serve pizza afterwards. Between a company that is likely to serve pizza and a company that isnt, anyone would choose the former.
Well, starts off plain and simple. One has to make career choices all thru their lives right from the age of 6 or 7. And with the kind of pressure that parents put on their children, it isnt too hard to see how difficult it is for the kids. So, most of one's early age is spent listening to one's parents, explicity or slowly absorbing the implicit hints that they drive into one's minds.
For some of us, they may have never told us to write IIT-JEE or even CAT. That's just the choice that we made... Or did we? Doesnt it come from the way one is brought up? To think, I was really not too keen on pursuing science after Class 10. But, after my 'brilliant' results in the boards, I was too busy getting carried away with all the "Oh, he can surely make it to IIT" crap that everyone around me were feeding me. Thankfully, certain incidents early on in my life brought about a change in my thinking. And soon I realised that I never wanted to be in any IIT. And I'm going to be proud of that decision all my life.
The next fork in the road- Class 12. I really dont remember why I chose engineering. Other than the fact that I loved to spend time working on my computer. And that my options were pretty limited after choosing Science in my +2 years.
As always, my sister's career path had such a great influence on me that I always chose that as a default. It was pretty easy to play safe, not take any risks. And what folks actually complain when a kid makes so-called "sane" career choices like science and engineering. As I pursued the path she took, which I'm sure was the result of some such implicit complusion for her too, I found myself interested in CAT.
Here comes the caveat... Since I was the younger one and having seen all the nitty-gritties that she went thru a couple of years ago, I just had to better that effort. Somehow, its that case with siblings. You learn from each others' mistakes and I carried off from where she had left. And yeah, cracked CAT.
Like 98% of the people here and in every other B-school across the country, I rehersed all the good "Why MBA?" answers and vomitted them at the interviews. We really dont deserve to be here, actually. I'm sure there are lots of people who are really good at what they do and have excellent reasons to be here. But, just because some of us are better at cracking a written paper for 2 hours, we got here ahead of them. Seems unjust, isnt it.
I dont want to discriminate, but try looking at some of the girls who are here. With a few of them, it seems very obvious that they are here just because they did decently well in a test. Not the other way round, like its supossed to be. Its pretty evident that they'll just get thru these two years, work for a couple more and then get settled and leave it all for a good middle-class family life. Can't help thinking what that seat would have meant to someone like Sarath Babu - the PGP3, who came from selling idlies on a road to IIMA and then opened his own chain of food outlets.
And even after coming here, people are the worst examples of so-called "future" managers. Its a great interview answer to say, "Yeah, I'm keeping my options open". That really means they dont have a clue as to what they want to do. They are so likely to get swayed by the hottest new career path, because its the in-thing these days (like finance) or because everyone else wants to get in to that (like I-Banks) or better still, because only some can really make it (for the snob value and bragging rights, like consult).
The few who manage to break away from all these factors have a different set of critical factors which decide their career choices. Disclaimer: Dont expect better stuff here.
Firstly and for lots, lastly as well, money. Its all about the money honey. Doesnt really matter whether you have a nervous breakdown at 30, or whether your wife turns so lonely that she becomes unfaithful. It just doesnt matter, as long as they keep filling the coffers which they willingly do. Most middle-class people just dont want to look back to the kind of society that they grew up in. It is understanable, but people choose to run away than attempt to make a difference.
Secondly, for some of us fun-seeking souls, its about the work-life balance. Which is very slick way of saying, "Do you get to have fun or not?" Well, this is one of the clinching factors for me, when making a career choice. Because I'm the kind of person who just cant live without having fun.
And the factors run far and wide. Somewhere down the line, people do think about job satisfaction and the likes. The "real" stuff that we MBAs are expected to. And lastly, it does come down to pizza as well. Puzzled? Let me explain. When a company comes over for its PPT, lots of students willingly go to the ones which serve pizza afterwards. Between a company that is likely to serve pizza and a company that isnt, anyone would choose the former.
These are the choices that one makes. To choose the career that one spends half of our lives in. That we studied the other half to get to. These are the factors that decide the firm that one chooses and the role that one performs. These are the career decisions that we make. Isnt it simple? Employers take note, include garlic bread next time. And see the rise in the number of applicants!
hey..nice post!
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