Society. Family. Parents.
More often than not, create the greatest obstacles in exercising career choice.
Everyone wants happiness for his child but allow me to be more precise here….the topmost layer of happiness, which can be flaunted in the form of materialistic possessions!
What about more meaningful words like Contentment, Happiness, Inner Peace?
They seem to be relegating to the background when it comes to exercising choice in career. This only leads to one road……with milestones of frustration, unfulfilled dreams and desires.
Recently, I came across a student of a reputed MBA institute. I had called her in for an interview. But actually, she was forced into it. She looked bright and full of energy but towards the end of the whole process, she said that she wanted to be a social worker! On being asked if that was the case then why did she come here then, her answer was quite obvious- under extreme parental pressure.
That very moment I told her to go back and talk to her parents and not get into a corporate job. Her heart and soul didn’t belong there.
What she would get in social work…she will never get even in the fattest pay checks!
When will this typical mindset of parents change? Don’t they want their kids to be happier or do they just want their girls to be married off to people who love the degrees of the prospective bride more than the person she really is?
Making the right career choice is a crucial decision. Unfortunately and very often, particularly in India, a career choice is not a personal choice alone. It is a choice of the environment around us.
Kids are not allowed to follow their passions or dreams, rather, they are pushed into the well of degrees and higher degrees. They struggle and manage to come out with some pieces of papers they might not be interested in. They struggle through the every brick of the wall they climb. They struggle even after coming out of the well. They struggle at concentrating on their work. They struggle at enjoying their work. They struggle at life.
The only thing they may not be struggling about in such a devastating scenario is their bank balance. But every time, you talk to them, you feel the continued struggle in their voices.
Why can’t my son play football? Why does he have to play Cricket? To get selected in an IPL team and have a big bank balance?
C’mon…Its one life…live the way you want to live and let your kids live it the way they want to live. Am not saying allow them enough space to get into bad habits but give them just enough to make a career choice under proper (not forced) guidance.
At max, they will fail and fall. But then, they will also learn to get up and stand tall.