In search of a career for me- Where does guidance come from?- WSM Who will guide me to choose an appropriate career for me? Where will the guidance come from? How do I end up choosing a good career for me? Why should I think so much before choosing a career? – These are some questions that keep hovering in a student’s mind of class X and class XII. Not just the students the parents are also baffled by too many suggestions offered by newspaper, teachers, experts, career guidance specialists, relatives, friends, media etc. Both the students and the parents undergo a tough time deciding a right career. This is something almost every student and every parent experience. How do we handle this? How do we choose a right career? It is neither a miracle nor an intuition. Then what is it that helps us to choose a right career for us. What is that factor called? Let us now peek into a student’s life named Narayan who is in similar stage. Narayan was born to a middle class couple. He was quite good in his studies and scored around 75- 80% on an average. He was also good in chess. He represented the school team twice and won in inter school competitions. His name was chosen for zonal level competitions. In the meantime all his friends were talking much about cricket and cricket players. They all were in full praise of cricket as a game and school cricket team. This made him feel low as he was playing chess. So Narayan gave up chess and joined cricket coaching. He did not participate in chess competition from then onwards. He went for cricket coaching regularly though he did not perform very well. He was not chosen for the school cricket team. He got frustrated and gave up cricket. His parents consoled him and advised him to join music class as they considered it to be their family trait. He went for music classes, but again dropped out because his friends told that it was a girly thing to do. He joined coaching for Olympiad exams as all his friends had joined, but again discontinued it as his paternal uncle explained that it was waste of time and advised him to join tuitions for class X. He completed his class X and was in the verge of choosing a group. His parents advised him to join computer group as they felt that he would get a good job. But many of his parents choose commerce group. He joined the commerce group because of that, but found it too difficult for him as he was very good in science and his interests were to become a doctor. It was almost seven months over in class XI and he was neither happy nor interested in pursuing the course. He somehow completed his class XII with just 55 %. He and his parents were moving from one college door to another in search of seat for his higher education, but were unsure of what he wants to do. The above anecdote from Narayan’s life is not to demotivate us or scare us, but to caution us. Let us answer a couple of questions. · What kind of similarities do we find between us and Narayan? · What made Narayan make choices? · What kind of process did he undergo to make those choices? · Hope we understand that Narayan was quite intelligent. But what was missing in him that prevented him from making right choices? It is the “WSM factor- What suits me?” Yes, I love calling it so. Before choosing and arriving at a decision, it is not enough if we seek advice and get enough exposure. It is also important to analyze our skills, family situations, limitations and likings. Once we have an idea about ourselves, we need to analyze the pros and cons of choosing a profession or making a decision. Any coin has two sides, so is every decision. Every decision has both pros and cons. The smart move here is to weigh the pros and cons and map it with one’s skills, limitations, likings and family situations. It doesn’t stop there, but it is important to prepare ourselves to face and handle the cons. This will help us emerge as strong and successful individuals who could lead a happy life J

Who will guide me to choose an appropriate career for me? Where will the guidance come from? How do I end up choosing a good career for me? Why should I think so much before choosing a career? – These are some questions that keep hovering in a student’s mind of class X and class XII. Not just the students the parents are also baffled by too many suggestions offered by newspaper, teachers, experts, career guidance specialists, relatives, friends, media etc. Both the students and the parents undergo a tough time deciding a right career. This is something almost every student and every parent experience. How do we handle this? How do we choose a right career?

It is neither a miracle nor an intuition. Then what is it that helps us to choose a right career for us. What is that factor called? Let us now peek into a student’s life named Narayan who is in similar stage.

Narayan was born to a middle class couple. He was quite good in his studies and scored around 75- 80% on an average. He was also good in chess. He represented the school team twice and won in inter school competitions. His name was chosen for zonal level competitions. In the meantime all his friends were talking much about cricket and cricket players. They all were in full praise of cricket as a game and school cricket team.  This made him feel low as he was playing chess. So Narayan gave up chess and joined cricket coaching. He did not participate in chess competition from then onwards. He went for cricket coaching regularly though he did not perform very well. He was not chosen for the school cricket team. He got frustrated and gave up cricket. His parents consoled him and advised him to join music class as they considered it to be their family trait. He went for music classes, but again dropped out because his friends told that it was a girly thing to do. He joined coaching for Olympiad exams as all his friends had joined, but again discontinued it as his paternal uncle explained that it was waste of time and advised him to join tuitions for class X. He completed his class X and was in the verge of choosing a group. His parents advised him to join computer group as they felt that he would get a good job. But many of his parents choose commerce group. He joined the commerce group because of that, but found it too difficult for him as he was very good in science and his interests were to become a doctor. It was almost seven months over in class XI and he was neither happy nor interested in pursuing the course. He somehow completed his class XII with just 55 %. He and his parents were moving from one college door to another in search of seat for his higher education, but were unsure of what he wants to do.

The above anecdote from Narayan’s life is not to demotivate us or scare us, but to caution us. Let us answer a couple of questions.

·         What kind of similarities do we find between us and Narayan?

·         What made Narayan make choices?

·         What kind of process did he undergo to make those choices?

·         Hope we understand that Narayan was quite intelligent. But what was missing in him that prevented him from making right choices?

It is the “WSM factor- What suits me?” Yes, I love calling it so. Before choosing and arriving at a decision, it is not enough if we seek advice and get enough exposure. It is also important to analyze our skills, family situations, limitations and likings. Once we have an idea about ourselves, we need to analyze the pros and cons of choosing a profession or making a decision.  Any coin has two sides, so is every decision. Every decision has both pros and cons. The smart move here is to weigh the pros and cons and map it with one’s skills, limitations, likings and family situations. It doesn’t stop there, but it is important to prepare ourselves to face and handle the cons. This will help us emerge as strong and successful individuals who could lead a happy life J