How difficult is it to choose a career?
What does a career mean to you?
Is it all about money?
Some People are really confused while choosing a career, Why is this so?
These are the questions that come up when a student chooses a career.
A career should be something that a student likes or he/she is interested in.
It can be anything at all that satisfies their interest and at the same time does not spoil their image in the society. What I mean by this is that if you have interest in obscene things such as sex or fling does not mean you become a sex worker for its sake. As sex workers are not given a proper status in our society and nor does the law give its permission. A career should be something that retains your dignity in the society.
Does this mean that you have to do only jobs that have high pay?
The answer is no. No profession is bad unless and until you retain your dignity. Your pay is decided not by the profession you choose but by your ability and your experience in that field.
For example: If a guy wants to be a hairdresser, he would think twice before going for such a profession. In hindi lingo he will be called a HAJAAM, with a really low pay .But when you see the hairdressers like Hakim Alim who charges you a fortune for a simple haircut. Places like Juice hair salon are most famous for their hairstyling and charge big amount. Do you still think that such professions are low paying ones?
Some people don’t want to choose a career because people have wrong notions about it. For example: If a guy wants to become a fashion designer he will surely think twice before going for it only because most of the people think only the guys who are gays go for such professions. The reason is that most of the famous fashion designers turn gays…all thanks to the media to spread such things.
The girls in most cases are not allowed to become models because their families think it’s a bad profession and it only means exposing your body all over. Also the scandals with wannabe models add fuel to the fire.
In Indian society it becomes really difficult for the students to convince their parents for such professions. The myths that have been bestowed in the minds of people are almost impossible to remove completely.
As a result of this, the students take up professions that their parents want them to take or take up the profession that gives them most pay. They sacrifice their likes and interest for the sake of their parents or some other reason.
After the students choose their profession they may think that they don’t want to do what they are doing right now, they wanted to do something else but could not do it for some reason or the other. They feel that they are forced to do something that they never wanted to do but by that time it is too late.
By this the only memory that comes to my mind is of the movie American Desi where the sikh boy wanted to become a set decorator and his father wanted him to become an engineer. But in the end his father understands that his son is really good in the profession what he wants to do and lets him do it. Hope the parents understand this in the real life also and not only in movies.
In recent times, the things are changing. People are not afraid to take up profession that they really want to take up and even the parents are supporting them. But in some cases still the pressure that gets to the student and forces them to take up the profession they don’t want to do and sometimes because of such pressure students attempt suicide.
Some students come to me and ask me what profession they should take up. What career is IN??I ask them only 1 thing.
What do you want to do?
They give me a confused look at this, so I tell them that I am no 1 to tell them what they should do. I ask them their interests, favorite subject, their passion, their interests etc… Then I tell them to take up a career which interests them based on the answers they gave me.
They thank me for helping them to choose their career and I tell them that it wasn’t me who told them what their career should be, they themselves choose their career.
Some of these students tell me that I should become a counselor to guide other students for their career. I just laugh at this and say that I am not a good counselor but it’s the students themselves. It’s only the student who knows the best what he or she want to take up as their career. No 1 can help them take a decision which is correct except for themselves.
