Yep - you’re right out of high school - at an important crossroad - where are you going to go from here? In India, where professionals are a dime a dozen, and the competition is nothing short of cut-throat, it’s a tall order to keep your head focussed on the real issue at hand - what do YOU WANT to do? A lot of times, a common mistake many people make at this stage (and I count myself among the guilty) is they let popular choice sway their own ambitions. It’s a tough call to stay focussed on what you really want to do when everyone around you is offering opinions that are not needed. Remember, you are the best judge of your own aptitude. Difficult though it might be to look at things in perspective, it pays to always stand your ground when it comes to choosing what you want to do.
My brother had visions all his life about being an architect. That was all he ever wanted to be! Given the slightest chance, he would grab a pencil and paper and sketch out floor plans and elevation schematics that could rival any professional architecture student. My folks were often worried that he would not make it - because his scores in high school were not great and in a system that demanded perfection - he seemed to be falling off the deep end. To make matters worse, the peanut gallery wasnt too sparing in their comments and remarks and advice. Without too much regard to the peer pressure, off he went to the best architecture school in India to write their entrance exam. His confidence level was on an all time high - it was almost as if he knew he was going to make prime time. And sure enough he did. He left his peers gaping as he just picked up and ran with it - in short his aptitude took him there. And today he’s on the throes of being one of the top class architects of this age.
The next and probably less apparent factor is attitude. You are at unarguably one of those landmark moments in your life where , among other things, it is very easy to get confused. Develop an attitude towards your career choice. For you to choose what you want to do you need to like what you want to do. For that to happen you need to know what it is you like. General awareness of the industry combined with personal interest can help substantiate the reasons why you choose a particular field. Everything you know about what you want to do has to be a fact rather than an opinion. Don’t let opinions sway your career decisions because you want to base your decision on hard facts and not what some over-ambitious kid at school or some disgruntled individual in the street has to comment about the field. If you are the type that is not really sure what you want to do - give yourself the benefit of your instinct. At the end of the day, it is not what you do that makes you who you are - its how good you do what you do that takes you where you want to be. Choose wisely and follow your ambitions because that will guarantee your success as an individual!!