’Perhaps the most important decision you are ever going to take’. I have heard this said to me a zillion times.but I will say’not really!’ I have learnt through my own experience that there is no such thing as a’right’ career option. Most of the times you do as well as you want to do, and this has nothing to do with what you have chosen to do. Simple and pure perseveration can often overcome many handicapps in a chosen career line.
I would imagine the closest thing to the’right career’ choice is being able to decide what it is that you would like to be doing for most of your life(well atleast for a large part). When such decisions are being taken I think it is very necessary to complete avoid trying to find out how lucrative it can be monetarily. Once you have got money on your mind the decision can never be 100%. Ofcourse everyone wants to earn and enjoy a good life, so you cant decide to become a professional kite flyer and hope to become rich and famous. You have to choose an activity that enriches your daily existence and gives quality to your life. It must be something that you would like to value as YOUR work, and it would help if it is an activity by which others can benefit also that way you have clients.hehe!
I constantly forced myself to believe that I was built for chem. engg and worked towards it and spent a good deal of time achieving nothing. Only when all the pressure was eased off was I able to think what I wanted to do, and I realised that the greatest pleasure I got was in building new things, making better things out of non-functional objects etc., and I chose a career in design. It meant taking a huge loan from a bank, it meant forgetting that I had already done 3 yrs of graduation, it meant sitting in a class full of 17 yr old toddlers, it meant taking a huge risk because design as a profession was still not completely understood and acknowledged in India(1997). But what the hell, I was atleast doing what I really liked doing. NOthing like mixing business with pleasure. no?
Things since then have taken a turn. There seems to be a boom in the field of design(which also means there are 1000 complete morons out there parading around as designers when they dont the first thing about aesthetics). I had not forseen this situation and my actions had not been planned. But it has come as a welcome surprise and I have no regrets.
The whole point is follow your heart. It may sound weird to yourself at first but then if you believe in yourself I think you can build a career out of nothing and actually enjoy it. Gone are those days when doing anything respectable meant being a doctor, engineer or a MBA. I know many ppl who have fallen into this rut and what you have today are just whining men who cant get enuf of saying’life is a bitch’.
So think over it. You can follow advice given by the enlightened generation(no points for guessing who) and live someone elses dream, then spend the rest of your own life telling yourself what a loser you have been. OR. just go ahead with your interests and you will find a way!
cheers