Disclaimer: These are my very personal views on a very general basis. Some of you may not agree with me! But if you strongly disagree with me, please treat it as my personal opinion and write in you comments.
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Each of us has something special that we want to accomplish in this lifetime. In terms of career there are four distinct groups:
Passionate: There are a few of us who want to make their passion their career.
Confused: There are many of us who do not know what we want to be do or become.
Balancing act: There are a few of us, who are ready to take up any kind of job (whether they like it or not). They don’t mind working in any field. Any job or a reasonably good pay package is all that matters.
In between: There are a few others who are in between. They are passionate about something, yet confused, and probably want to a balancing act.
First you have to know in which of these categories you fall into.
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People who want to make their passion their career
A very few people are fortunate enough to know exactly what they want to do very early in life. People in this category are usually extremely talented in a particular field that they virtually follow that path because they enjoy what they are doing. Dancers, actors, singers, painters, etc. are perfect examples of such people. Most of them follow their passion and try to make it their career. So passion becomes a hobby, hobby becomes an obsession, and obsession becomes their career. They actually think from their heart than their mind and follow their heart.
Some like teaching and go on to become teachers, lecturers, professors etc. Some people get involved in social causes. The people in this category are the luckiest lot as they do what they love to do! Do you belong here? Then check out your passion and see it can become your career? If yes, all the best, if not, read on….A word of caution is that some succeed and many don’t.
The confused lot
Such people have no idea whatsoever about what they want to do. They don’t actually have any interest in any particular thing (and probably this help to mould well in any selected area). The decisions made by these people mainly depend on the marks they obtain in certain subjects in 10th or in the 12th. Then, they put in effort in that direction. They have a lot of thinking to do to figure out what they have to do. Since they are not passionate about a particular subject, they don’t feel depressed about not having the opportunity to follow it. Probably they are the luckier lot. Do you see yourself in this category. You don’t mind doing engineering, or medicine, or commerce. Anything is fine with you. Do you belong here? If yes, all the best, if not, read on….
The balancing act
There are people who enjoy their job, probably because it pays them well (or for other reasons). But the job is not (and probably will not be) the principle love in terms of what they would like to do in life. When you can not make a decision about your job or make a separation between your job and your passion, think about your career first. Take up something that you don’t mind doing and then follow your passion as a hobby. Here you are doing a balancing act.
You might feel a satisfied as you have a good job (if it is good) and that you are also doing something you like (playing musical instruments, dance, etc.). People in this category are probably a lot more practical in life as they know what they are capable of achieving and so live a life that sort of takes care of both. Job and hobby becomes two different things, but to get time to do this is also a part of the balancing act. Do you belong here? If yes, all the best, if not, read on….
In between types
But what about people in between---like someone who can’t live without listening to music, but can’t sing! Here, there is passion for music, but it can’t be taken up as a career.
An Example:
Why talk about some or about a hypothetical situation. I have always loved the world of books and devoured anything in print. Books were my best friend’s right from my childhood. My dad being an engineer wanted at least one of his daughters to become an engineer (and I probably did not want to crumble his dreams). I wanted to either do journalism or architecture (as I was reasonably good in math, writing, drawing, and had a streak of creativity). Yes, I know that they are drastically different areas to choose, but I could related them to what I liked doing. To cut the long story short, before I could realize what I was doing with my life I found myself with an engineering degree (in Industrial Electronics) in hand. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see myself as an electronics engineer. But the degree got me my first job as a production engineer in an electronics firm. I worked for over a year as a production engineer. During that time, I used to write poems, short stories, and articles on various subjects and published over 40 articles!
One fine day (it really was a fine day, because it changed my life), I was brooding over what my future had in store for me. I chanced to see an advertisement in the newspaper. It was a requirement for ’’engineers with a flair for writing’’. That was the best combination I could ask for---a combination of both, my educational background and writing, something that I loved doing. I promptly applied for it and was called for the interview. Out of the blue, I got a call from the Documentation Manager with an offer for the job. Without any other prospects, I accepted it. Along the way, I discovered this world called technical writing and spent the following years as a technical writer. Very few people (like me) have the privilege to love their job. I have the privilege of combining technology, writing, and engineering---all into one job.
Technical writing is writing, but is different from creative writing. It is factual (not fictional), it is informative (not entertaining), it is for a specific audience (not for a generic audience), it is logical (not creative), it is concise and to the point (not descriptive).
During my working years, the creative part of me took a back seat and I probably never realized it. About 2 years back, I featured in the magazine called Digit on a technical writing related article. They sent me a copy of the same and I was keeping the book along with my other collection when was my daughter saw the paper cuttings of my articles/poems etc. After asking a lot of questions and she decided that I should start writing creative stuff again (I often tell her that she should do what she likes to do, not what others are doing) A prompting from my little one and I realized what I missed. I starting writing again for various journals and newspapers, but on “technical writing” related topics. Now, when ever time permits, MS that is my outlet to the creativity side of me. NO complaints! I love my job and MS too. Do you belong here? If yes, all the best, if not, all the best!
So go on and check where you fit in---it takes a lot of serious thinking to come to a conclusion (weigh the pros and cons and if you want to follow your heart, just go ahead. :)