Which career is best
From LakshyaWiki
Having read articles on how to choose a career and your career in Indian context, hopefully you now realise the importance of your career decision both to yourself and to our country. The next logical question is: “Which career is best?”
Contents |
Historical context
When India was ruled by British, they managed a very effective control mechanism through the Indian Civil Services. If you were looking for a career in 1940s then Civil services was possibly the best choice. Soon after independence we started building dams, hospitals and steel plants across the country. In 1950s and 1960s becoming an engineer or doctor was possibly the best. Also in this period we were investing heavily in top class engineering and medical institutes. However, we were unable to provide suitable career opportunities to graduates of these top institutions. The developed world (faced with a shortage of talent) offered much better options to these top graduates, causing a lot of them to migrate abroad. This phenomenon was so strong that we gave a name to it – brain drain. So in 1970s and 1980s becoming an engineer or doctor from a top institute became the best career choice.
The new world
Since independence India had closed its doors to the outside world. This served us well initially, however just because we closed our eyes to the outside world did not mean, that it ceased to exist. From 1940s to 1980s Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Korea emerged from nothing after IInd world war and joined the league of developed nations with USA and UK. Even though our markets were closed to the outside world we still had to buy goods like energy from other countries, this requires foreign capital. By 1991 in relative terms we became so poor that we had only one month of foreign reserves left. The developed world agreed to help us only if we opened our markets to globalization. We had no choice and we opened up in 1991, this was the start of economic liberalisation and it changed everything. Indian consumers suddenly had more than one car, one bank and one phone to choose from. From a careers perspective this had even more relevance, suddenly lots of interesting careers started emerging: management, accountancy, finance, fashion design, media, BPO, the list goes on and on.
Best career today
The most important aspect of economic liberalisation is that organizations get out of government’s control and start getting controlled by market forces. For example today you do not have to wait for 6 years to get a land line (as you did in 1980s); you choose the mobile service provider which best suits your needs. Same is true for jobs and careers, your relevance and remuneration no longer depends on a rule or your seniority, it depends only on your performance. So today it does not matter what you do but what matters is how well you do whatever you do.
What you hear
You will find people giving you all sort of career advice; it is always good to listen to what they have to say. However, consider these two points when you analyse advice:
- What has the person giving you advice faced himself or herself? For example if your father is giving you advice who possibly started his career in 1970s then he is more likely to tell you that engineering or medicine from a top institute is best.
- How professionally successful the person giving you advice is? For example a successful chartered accountant is likely to feel that studying accountancy was the best decision of his or her life, while someone who failed to become a chartered accountant will most likely tell you it was a mistake.
In summary
The world around us has evolved such that there is no longer a best career. Today being the best in whatever profession you choose is the only important thing. Next you may want to read the following article:
