DOCTOR! ENGINEER! LAWYER! CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT! What do you want to become? Choose fast because time is ticking! Tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock! Don’t even try to convince me that this doesn’t exist because if you have never heard, experienced or imagined this then you are from the other dimension.
Is it really okay for your career and passion to diverge rather than converge? By career I mean a job that will provide for you even if you don’t love it. Well, the orthodox school of thought ‘agrees’ by giving the argument that one should choose a career which pays well and gives you early stability. These are the career paths with mainstream academic backgrounds like Law, Medicine, Accounts etc. Although I believe that these require extreme dedication since they have to spend in their youth studying and early 30s with gaining expertise. They get stabilised as they get older since they keep on gaining more experience. Coming from a person who is from one of these streams, keep in mind that this will require a lot of hard-work and by hard-work I literally mean studying for 15 hours a day and sometimes even then you won’t be able to achieve things. So, this is a place where you will get low income initially but after a time period it will increase exponentially.
The more relaxed school of thought believes that, an individual should ‘follow their passion’. But personally as good as it sounds, it is very rare that you see people who follow their passion, grow it into a successful project. This isn’t your fault but the thought process of our society and what has been inculcated in us when we are at our most vulnerable state of mind i.e., childhood. An ideal childhood is a place wherein you should experience innocence and stay away from the societal expectations that the world has to offer. I mean nowadays parents expect their child to start speaking and walking from the day they are born. If we see the bigger picture, the parents aren’t completely at fault but the companies that want a 5 year experience from fresh graduates. These recruiters are also parents and so, the vicious cycle continues. Here, you will get the job satisfaction but initial returns would be less or nothing at all and
sometimes you would feel like giving up since there would be no one supporting you. Not even your Mom and Dad!
What we need to understand is that it is okay if your child or the interviewees aren’t living up to your expectations. However, if you don’t even give them a chance who will? They will never get to learn and follow their calling. Have you ever thought why the less explored careers are less chosen? This is because the recruiters aren’t willing to hire people since they are scared to invest their time, money and efforts in a new and raw piece of clay. They want a perfectly moulded pot with all the expertise and skills. But where do you expect them to learn it from and when should they start?
Stress is a man-made disease and one of the main causes is this blind rat race where everyone pretends that they know what they are doing in life, but trust me they just follow others blindly.
I am not here giving any solution to you all but putting forth this widespread issue. I am also struggling with this issue myself. Wherein I have chosen a career that meets the societal expectation and is well respected since it pays decently and would help me get settled. But the actual reality is that it is suffocating and I don’t enjoy it at all. I want to pursue my calling of joining the defence services or joining investigative services. So, just know if you are struggling in this aspect, you aren’t alone and thousands of young minds are in a similar place.
Take Care
Love
V.
