Wouldn’t it be nice if all of us had a fairy godmother who would make the ’right’ decisions for us, specially the ones which would shape our future?
Choosing a specialisation can indeed make us wish for divine guidance but all we usually need is introspection and common sense to figure out the career track or specialisation that would suit us best.
As a student, I had absolutely no idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up. But now, as a successful professional in my field, having worked for some of the world’s best corporate groups.... I know I have made the right decisions so far, mostly on my own.
You may want to be pilot when you are a toddler, a rock star when you reach teenage, and a serial killer after your first heartbreak. But when it comes to choosing a stream, you have to choose one that YOU like best.
Although it sounds pretty simple, it isn’t. Just when we are standing all confused at the crossroads of choosing a career, everyone else seems to know what’s best for us. Parents, teachers, friends, girlfriends, neighbours, the neighbourhood paan-wallah... everyone offers advice... so who should you listen to? Well, listen to all of them, and take it easy.
The only person who will have to live with the choice is yourself... so ponder over the following before you take a decision:
1. Job-based or knowledge-based?
Some streams are vocational and lead you on to jobs, while impart you deeper knowledge in a suject, say studying Literature can increase your knowledge but may not increase your job prospects. Taking up something like a language course or a skill course (like computer designing) will help you get a job. Take one that suits your objective best.
2. Competitive or open?
Some specialisations are so much in demand, you have to compete to get in. Students in India prepare for their entrance exams to Medicine colleges for two-three years, just to qualify for the entrance. Ditto for Engineering. Competition is stiff for Business Management courses as well. Some people also spend valuable years of their life preparing and giving the nationwide Civil services exams, just to get into the Public Sector Administrative services.
Do you have the stomach, the tenacity and most importantly the fluency in your subjects for the competition?
Well, I know really weak students can secure admissions through to reputed colleges at times, but then, does your dad have millions to bribe the college authorities?
Specialisation in many fields can be done through private colleges - although it could be somewhat expensive. But at least, if you have the money for the fees, you are assured an admission. This category is easier to get into.
3. Public or private?
Usually, the means of getting into the Public sector and the Private sector are quite different.
In India, you need to qualify competitive exams for Public Service posts and then rise through the hierarchy with experience. And different educational backgrounds are needed for different services within the administrative structure.
The private sector has a place for everybody, right from the fresh MBA’s from top management colleges who join straight in the management cadre to simple graduates who walk-in for interviews for door-to-door sales.
The private sector has the most interesting jobs, as compared to the public sector and rewards talent and hard work handsomely. The ’experience’ basis of the Public sector is not so overhyped in Private sector jobs.
4. Skill-based or knowledge based?
There are some jobs which are based on the academic knowledge you have acquired more than skills. Others are based on skills more than knowledge.
For example, a career in teaching would require you to choose a stream that gives you ample knowledge of the subjcet you would like to teach in addition to basic communication skills. Similarly, a career in accounts will require that you have ample knowledge of accounting procedures. These are knowledge based jobs. They usually require specialised degrees in related streams.
Skill-based careers may not require high academic qualifications. For example, if you have sharp communication and persuasion skills, you could opt for a career in sales without needing a degree in Sales.
Or, if you have good typing and organisation skills, you could start off as an office assistant. Degrees and academic qualifications for skill-based professions like photography, sales, fashion designing, journalism, etc. are not as important as your aptitude for the trade and skill in it.
A specialisation in a skill-based profession can add to your skill but is never a substitute for it.
5. Market Status
In every time and age, there are hot professions and dead professions, depending on the state of the job market.
In my dad’s time, Public Sector jobs were hot, vacancies were aplenty, money was good and job security pretty high.
During my college time, everyone wanted Medicine and Engineering, even if it meant going to some obscure university in Russia to get that Medical degree due to tough entrance competition back home in India.
Then, while I was doing my Post Graduation, MBA was THE thing to do. Because private companies were recruiting fresh MBAs at six figure salaries.
Later, everyone dreamt of going to Silicon Valley by doing a computer programming course. USA beckoned Indians like never before, till the bubble burst that is.
A good thing before embarking on a career would be visualise the shape of things to come when you step out for a job.... will your specialisation make a much-desired and hunted-after candidate after its duration?
6. Passion for your specialisation
The one single most important thing that decides your success and failure over a long period of time in any endeavour is your passion for it. Only when you have the passion for a thing, only when it sustains your enthusiasm despite all odds can you live with it and excel in it.
Which brings me to the conclusion of this review.... choose something that you love to do... aso that when you make ia living out of it, you will never feel overworked. Rather you will love you job.
This is the secret of my success.
I loved to write when I was a kid. I wrote on my school books, on walls, on furniture. I even wrote love letters for my friends. I loved photography. I loved talking to people. I loved trying to unravel the mysteries of human behaviour. And taking this as the basis, I searched for a field where I could do all this and more and get paid for it.
Guess where I landed up? As a very well-paid writer in one of the world’s most reputed organisations. More than the money, I enjoy the satisfaction of doing all the things I have always loved to do. Everyday.