What are the Obstacles to Career Planning and how to Overcome Them?

Careers seem to be one of the most important rather vital ingredients of living. As early as
the age of 3-5 years, the parents and elders begin talking to the child about his/her career desires. The child may not be totally aware of the gravity of the topic, but even then he contributes enthusiastically in the discussion. The parents have their own ambitions for this child’s career and start putting away funds for a future date.

And so it is really surprising that most students even today just stumble into a career and many of these continue with a career for life that they do not find a connection with. As adults we often come across people who go through their everyday work life with a sense of burden and compulsion and find no joy in their work of life. I have come across many adults who are financially successful but harbor the regret that if they had the awareness in their student life, they would have chosen some other career line for themselves.

As counselor I counsel many students who are not able to cope up with the demands of a course they have chosen. There are many who are desperate to drop their study courses half way. When such a situation arises, there is a lot at stake. From the time the choice of the study course is made not only the student, but the entire family invests financially, mentally, physically and emotionally in the career. By the time the student comes to me they are already lacking 2/3 years behind their colleagues. They lose a substantial amount of confidence in this process of trial and error and some arrive in a real state of depression.

Further in life, if the chosen career does not fall in line with the aptitude and interest of the individual, he/she cannot find the enthusiasm to devout to the work. In the absence of personal interest and involvement, any work is a mere compulsion. It is then carried out like a duty and no extra efforts are put into it. Work is generally a Monday morning disaster and it is performed as a punishment. With such an attitude no person can make extra contribution to the work and obviously the returns and progress is restricted.

Why people choosing wrong careers?

In this fast and competitive world where a person is identified with his/her career, it is not worth to land up with a wrong choice. The cost of a wrong choice is high and not always easily correctable. Hence, it is essential to understand the reasons why we end up with wrong careers so that we can avoid the same for us and our dear ones while there is still time.

1. Lack of information
2. Desire for the security of the tried and tested
3. Popularity ranking of career options
4. Glamour of certain institutes
5. Peer pressure
6. Lure of ‘the in thing’
7. Attachment of parent’s personal ‘ego’ and ‘status’ to a child’s career
8. Insistence of the parent to force the child to follow the parents footsteps

There can be several more individualized reasons for the making of a wrong career choice. But the outcome is almost the same- a lost student unable to cope up with study demands growing up to be a dissatisfied adult not enjoying life.

How to avoid wrong career choice

Careers are the mainstay of our life where most other factors come to revolve round it. A person who is not satisfied with his/her nature of work/ pace of growth/ opportunities and challenges offered/ lifestyle pattern cannot derive the much needed satisfaction and growth out of the work. The career becomes one of the biggest drags of life. And since careers take the centre stage for us, people lose interest in other facets of life. Their families are the first to suffer the brunt of their frustration and life becomes one long chore.

Today we live in an era where career options are innumerable. Technology brings information galore to our door steps. There are hundreds of government and non- government scholarships that can bring every career option within our reach. The only need is to understand the individual and match him/her to a career of choice. I recommend the following steps to ensure a matching choice of career:

1. Perform a thorough self analysis
2. Match the attributes of a self to the demands of a career
3. Take the help of a career counselor to get aptitude and personality testing
4. Consult teachers/ guides to understand yourself and your shortlisted career options
5. Interview experts in your field of choice to understand the course of progression
and demands and disappointments of the job.
6. If possible spend time in the relevant work place of your future career choice to get
first hand feel. Eg. In CA’s office, Software development firm, Doctors clinics and OR
etc.

All this may seem to be too much of work. But understand this is about your life. It is not about the course you are about to join. It is fun to join a course or institute with friends and for its glamour, however that period of studies is only for about 2 to 6 years in most cases. But those few years would open the path to the next 40-60 years of your life and that is huge. A few days spent in making an informed career choice can be the best investment you can ever make.

How to Make the Right Choice of Institute

What to study, where to study and how to study is always a challenging question.
Education industry is growing by leaps and bounds bringing multitudes of options to us.
This is a boon to the students of today as it offers a choice and option for the best. However the competition among the Educational institutes means huge amount of marketing activity. The target of this marketing activity is us, the students and parents of these students.

Unfortunately the scope of the marketing stretches to glamorizing the individual products that are sold. These products are the courses that are offered by these institutes. Since the options for the students are vast, the individual institutes have to go out of their way to impress about what they have to offer. In the process, lots of facts are covered up by layers of glamour. For example- Many institutes resort to highlighting their air-conditioned study halls and provision of laptops to their students. Factors like these hold tremendous attraction for students at that tender age.

In my counseling centre parents approach me with a stubborn child who insists on joining a particular institute for reasons of glamour. Often when I ask these students about what is so good about this institute, they are not able to quote anything more than the glamorous ads they had read. To my surprise when I talk about the courses offered, these students are naively ignorant and yet not interested in the details of the course curriculum.

To my dismay many institutes that boast of state of the art infrastructure do not believe in investing in human resources and severely lack trained and experienced staff. I would like the leave the institutes to their fate as they are mostly in the fray of the business. However that leaves a tremendous responsibility on the students and the parents to choose an institute that caters to their requirement of learning and developing a satisfactory career for themselves and their children.

How to choose the correct institute:

To shortlist the suitability of the institute for your-self, ask the following questions:

1. Are the combinations of subjects offered right for you?
2. What type of degree is it?
3. Does it improve your chances of following your chosen career?
4. Will it be recognized by employers or educational organizations in the country
where you plan to take employment or higher education?
5. What are the options within the subject? 
6. What are the teaching methods? Will it solve your purpose?
7. What kind of teaching staff does the institute have at the time of your admission?
8. Are the classes conducted regularly with regular assessments?
9. How is the degree program assessed? Who is the assessing /verifying body?
10. Does the institute offer any scholarship?
11. Do they have hostel/ boarding facilities?
12. What is the placement strategy?

To get the current and authentic answers to your questions the following steps can be most helpful:

1. Refer to at least 3-4 authentic sources that compare college and institutes on the basis of various factors. There are many website on the internet. One has to remember that there is always a personal bias and many a times these comparisons are not complete.  

2. Talk to the current students of the concerned institutes- None but the students who are currently studying in the institute can give you the correct information about the quality of faculty and efficacy of education in that institute. Past students may give some details but remember that education is a dynamic phenomenon and faculty and administrators keep changing which may change the key essentials.

3. Study the prospectus of each institute in your list in depth. There are many important points about placement and scholarships etc that are mentioned in fine print and need to be questioned in time.

Most of all try to remove all influence from friends and marketing agencies to work on the selection process with as minimal bias as possible. All said and done you cannot be over careful about this selection process. Howsoever time consuming and tedious this may sound remember that this is going to ensure that the place you take your education is worth your time, money and investment of dreams.

Enrich Yourself by Understanding the Deeper Meaning of Career

As language evolves, many words come to take the more popular meaning or rather the meaning of convenience. However over the period the words may lose their depth and come to mean very little to us. The origin of words usually has much deeper meaning and knowing it can enrich us in so many ways.

‘Career’ is one such word that has lost its real value in the transition. For most of us a career means a profession or line of study or work. Nothing is wrong in this meaning but it is incomplete in many ways.

Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person’s course or progress through life. It can also pertain to an occupation or a profession that usually involves special training or formal education and is considered to be a person’s lifework 

Even the origin of the word ‘career’ is traced back to Latin ‘carrus’  meaning ‘wheeled vehicle’ that basically symbolizes journey and progress.

Thus career is all about the progress in life. When we take into consideration only the study and profession aspect of career, we develop a warped view towards it. Our focus stills on the options presented to us by the society and our decisions based on the acquiring of degrees and bagging a source of earning.

In reality, choosing a university course only is one step towards the journey of life, which is vast. Most people choose a university degree that seems to be giving them a much accepted professional status and guaranteed income. While zeroing on the course we tend to neglect the most important aspect of choosing the career, the very question: Why do I want to take up a career? While the apparent answer may seem to be about earning a livelihood, if we take a few minutes and ask ourselves another Why? The answer could be easily traced to: I want to be happy! Where does happiness come from? It comes from inner satisfaction, a sense of contentment. We very well know that money alone cannot guarantee that contentment. So isn’t it worth the while to consider this inner satisfaction while choosing our career?

Now our satisfaction is based on many parameters like where we work, where we live, who do we associate with, what is the nature of our work, what are our work hours, what challenges the work has for us, do we enjoy our work, does it align with our life goal, does it give us the opportunities to travel, to grow, to be creative, to invent, to serve, to solve, to change and so many other needs that we have apart from making money?

Choosing a career thus is not just about knowing the employability of that study course. It is about knowing who you are, what you want and what can it give you what you live for. It is a process of exploration. You need to explore yourself and explore the range of career options and then match the career to your needs.

Believe in Your Dreams and Desires As You Plan Your Career

Dreaming is beautiful for it takes us into the world of possibilities. That is the world where everything seems to be possible and that is where all the new inventions are born first. And yet we are not encouraged much to dream. Rather we are discouraged from entering that world lest we would be lost to this world of reality.

As children, we have dreams that are called as fantasies. In those dreams we aim high. We look up to ourselves. When we come across some new things it brings a spark to our eyes. Some people we meet or read about make a deep impression upon us and we dream to become like them. Elders around us find it quite amusing and take pride in sharing it with others.

But as we grow up suddenly hundreds of hands reach out to pull us out of our dreams and to bring us back to the reality. Everyone is worried that the dreamer would never be able to do anything practical and would waste away his/her life dreaming.

In a way they are right because only dreaming does not take us much ahead on the road of life. But that does not make dreaming a crime or a time waster. Every big thing takes shape in the dreams of someone. All the beautiful architecture of the world has its roots in the dreams of their conceivers. Agreed, only dreaming does not do the magic of creation but without dreaming nothing new or big can be achieved. Many a big things do not happen in the world because many dreamers give up on the dreams. They believe on their distracters more than in their dreams.

Action is needed and dreams are needed too. Rather than throwing away your dreams cherish them. If you wish to build castles in the air, build them but then go ahead and put foundations under them with your hard work, perseverance, planning and determination. Set long term SMART goals by visualizing your dream come true. Work on short term goal plan to chalk out a route to the goal and then readjust your immediate goals like planning education and choice of study to start you on the path to achieving your dream goals.

While planning your career do not neglect any dreams or desires you have had about your future. Take these also into consideration and try to blend it with your aptitude, interests and value. It is possible to convert any dream into a reality by working on it realistically. Take help of people who are related to your dream career, ask for help, take guidance. Don’t forget to discuss your dreams seriously with your counselors.

Believe in your dreams and remember not to share your dreams lightly to non-believers. People who do not believe in dreaming big and accomplishing them often laugh on your dreams and belittle your faith in your dreams. This kind of people are all around us.

Beware of them. Remember you are different. You are not your friend, not your parents, not your sweetheart either. You are a unique creation and your dreams and desires would be unique. Do not lose faith in your dreams only because someone who loves you does not believe in your dream.

Talk of your dreams to only those who are action people and who aim high themselves. Work on all aspects of the dreams. Weigh the pros and cons and the risks and benefits equally. Help is available in the world in every form. If you have faith in your dreams and if you do your homework well, there would always be people willing to lend you a supporting hand.

So when you plan your career, keep a place in it for your dreams.

WHICH CAREER IS BEST FOR ME?

Career Guidance by Counselor Dr. Sapna Sharma. Image Source -  http://www.seaindia.in/blog/india/job-oriented-sound-enginering-course-in-india/

In India the choices of careers begin with Engineering, Medicine, Chartered Accountancy & Law. For many, it ends with one of these four. Undoubtedly these are good career options but the problem starts when we believe that these are the only ones. Of course parents wish for a progressive and ‘safe’ career for their children. Unfortunately these definitions of what is progressive and safe is based on a few successful examples in the society. Young students are influenced by the glamour around the career mostly based on the JEE Coaching classes hoardings and the tag of being called an Engineer.

No doubt that the above-mentioned careers are good, but so are any other carefully planned and executed careers. But there is a difference between a career that is ‘good’ and a career that is ‘good for that particular person’. This is simply based on the observation that not all engineers are successful, not all doctors well known, not all Chartered Accountants mint money, but some do. Then again, there are highly successful, famous Journalists, Chefs, Artists, Designers, Entrepreneurs, Trainers, Therapists and so on.

If we really are looking for a career that will give us what we want in life then we would look for a career that matches our personality and aptitude rather than blindly follow the masses that say only certain careers are good.

Students can start with observing themselves and parents can look into what their children really are without any bias or prejudice. If you are considering a career in Engineering then do analyze whether tinkering with mechanical things, household repairs, going into the technical aspect of computers or scooters and cars at home come naturally to the student? A person who is very good at drawing and is basically creative by nature would rarely make a good Engineer even if they manage to secure admission in an Engineering college. Most of these students are unhappy and not able to cope with the studies. Even after they pass out they are basically degree holders and not Engineers and hence have problems growing in the career.

If the students or the parents are not able to understand the basic personality and trait of the child, taking an aptitude test with an experienced counselor would help you understand the student and take the right career decision.

We do much research in selecting our clothes and deciding where to eat then how can we simply decide to take up a career just because everyone else says is good?

How to Choose Best Career?

It is important to understand that choosing a career does not simply mean deciding upon the ultimate career to success and fame; rather it means that a person should have the potential to grow with that career and achieve happiness along with success. That is why it is very important for every student and Parent to understand what is embodied within the word Aptitude and why an Aptitude Test for career selection is important when tracing your path towards success and growth.

Every career option requires a particular aptitude combination that should match with the individual's potential ability to grow with that career.

Best Parenting Tips By Dr. Sapna Sharma. Image Source  https://arenaajmer.com/2016/11/05/career-oriented-courses/

Aptitude is basically defined as an innate, on inborn ability of an individual to perform certain tasks. This can be explained well by understanding that there are many children who are very good at one or more of the performing arts from an early age and without any formal or informal training. Often we refer to these children as ‘gifted’ and their talents as ‘God’s Gift’. Each one of us is born with some or the other such ‘gift’ and as it is clear, if we base our career on something that we already have, we can progress much faster. This ‘inborn quality’ or ‘gift’ is scientifically referred to as ‘Aptitude’.

It is very important for parents and students to understand that School curriculum and marks do not test us for our aptitude for all areas. For example, we believe that students who score good at math and science in school exams can definitely be good engineers. However, study reports by many Engineering colleges show that students who scored high in school because they were sincere and good at rote learning and hence at scoring, face great difficulty even in understanding the basics of engineering. Because to be a good Engineer one needs to have good technical Aptitude and not just the knowledge of math and science. Many Engineering degree holders are not even interested in changing a fused bulb or repairing a leaking faucet at home. This is because they do not have the technical bend of mind and they basically are ‘Engineering degree holders’ and not ‘Engineers’.

This is the reason why taking career decisions based on school marks alone is usually a short cut to one of the most important decisions of life. And shortcuts certainly do not guarantee the desired outcome. It is strongly recommended that each student should be taking a scientific aptitude test around the age when careers are chosen. Ideally these tests along with detailed counseling should be provided to each student of class 9 or ten by the school. However, since most schools are still not very open to doing this scientifically, parents should seek out experienced counselors to work on the career planning with aptitude testing for their wards.

Interest v/s Aptitude
Many times people make a mistake while choosing their career according to their interest. It is very important to understand that interests are based on many factors- exposure, glamour factor, attraction, meeting or knowing some influential or impressive personality who happens to be in the said career in consideration. Children and youth are impressionable. They are strongly influenced by anything that attracts them even momentarily. Also, they are not really aware of many career opportunities available to them. In addition, the media and society is constantly bombarding them with ‘dream careers’ concepts and fearful parents are frequently asserting that if they do not get into a particular career, the children may not have a good life eventually.The result? Well they tend to choose what has made impression on them – a career, someone’s lifestyle, insecurities about their own future. Many a parents hang on to some career mentioned by their child while growing up or a doctor set their little princess had asked for or their child’s interest in watching a particular soap that is about business and money and take it as their child’s ‘Clear interest’. The next that the children know is that they are constantly reminded by the parents that this is what describes the interest of the child and that is ‘the’ career their child should choose. Confused, the children start talking about any of the above experiences as their ‘interest’. For many, soon the ‘interest’ wears off.

In my practice as a counselor, I have met many grown-ups who regret their career decisions that were taken without actually understanding what they really meant. There is money but no happiness or enthusiasm for their work or life. Hence, it is very important for the parents to be aware that they have to ‘watch’ their children. As a child with strong aptitude for Dancing would ‘dance’ at every opportunity and non- opportunity. Similarly, a future engineering would be seen tinkering with stuff around the house and always willing to open and repair. But, all the career related aptitudes traits cannot be seen so visibly and hence, every child needs to undergo a thorough (Not a short version of ‘quick ‘ testing on the career websites) scientific Aptitude test with an experienced Counselor who can interpret the test results and integrate the interest, personality, family background and dreams of the child with his scientifically tested aptitude.

Career is one of the most important aspects of life and hence, we need to understand that it cannot only be a source of money. Our career should inspire, motivate and activate us while bringing us joy and enthusiasm for life while making money. Look for a counselor with good references around you. If your city does not give you many options then you can look online. Do check the credentials and feedback on that counselor on various social media before you entrust them your future. With online Counseling options today you can get the services from the best counselors across the world.
So if you are thinking career- think Aptitude testing.

My Child does not Study

How much should the children study and at what age should they be becoming

serious about studies is a frequent question? Interestingly the age at which parents

are becoming concerned about children’s attitude towards studies is decreasing day

by day. So what should we be concerned about is, children’s disinterest in studies or

parents’ over concern?

A concerned mother sent me similar query about her children aged 10 and 13.

First of all I would not like to take them in the same group and discuss them

together. A 10 year old is merely in class 5 while a 13 year old has already entered

the high school and there needs to be a lot of difference in our concern about

their studies.

As a generation of over anxious parents we need to understand that studies,

the way they are presented to the children, are inherently boring. Our education

system insists on adding volumes every year while not doing anything to ensure

the clarity of concepts or relevance to the real life. Most teachers are not

‘born to teach’ kind of so they focus on completion of the syllabus rather than

helping the children develop interest in a particular subject or the studies.

Eventually what studies mean to most students is a means to pass some

painful exams. And that certainly is not interesting even for an adult.

If we take the above fact into consideration, we as parents may understand,

at least to some extent, why the children avoid studies and postpone them to

the last minute. This awareness would also give us some motivation to be

innovative about how we present the concept of studies to our children.

Some of the few basic factors to remember here are:

• Children do not enjoy doing anything alone. Even expensive games are left

untouched if they are left to play with them. Hence, try to give study partners

to the children wherever you find them lacking in interest. These can be home

tutors. The advantage is that there is the interaction that makes the whole process

less boring. Also children develop a habit of sitting down for studies regularly and

at the same time, which is a very good habit for the future. Remember the role of

home tutors is not just of teaching. So if you hire a tutor for writing practice or

regularity or concept clearing, you need to let the tutor know so right at the

beginning and also need to monitor it from time to time.

• Children need consistency. Busy parents do not always sit with children the same time

every day for studies and they want to go by their availability which eventually makes 

the children loose the importance of the process. So, if you are too busy or if the child 

is not responding to you positively, getting a home tutor can make a big difference.

• Have a casual discussion about studies with children asking them which subjects they 

like and which ones they hate particularly and why. An educated parent can teach any 

child up to class 7 in the least. If you see that your child is struggling with something in 

particular try to find some important facts about that particular topic using the internet 

and present it to the child in an interesting format. This is particularly helpful for 

subjects that children find boring like history, Geography, physics, chemistry.

• For math, especially with high school students, if they have not developed clear concepts 

during middle school, they end up fearing the subject. It is best to test the child with few 

basic calculations of fractions and equations and if not satisfactory at least one hour a day 

should be spent in making them practice basic calculations. I have personally observed 

a shift in their interest towards the positive just in a month’s time.

The most important factor here to be remembered by the parents is that just because

the children are going to the school does not mean all of them should be interested in

studies. Each child is different. Their understanding and logic about the importance of

studies is different. Forcing them is going to work less and less with every new generation.

They do not respond to compulsions and to your all-time statement “because I told you so”.

Also know that each of your child is different. What works for one may not work for the other.
Schools have a mass training system. Children usually are not given individual attention.
So it is up to the parents to understand the unique learning style, challenges and
motivation of their child and help accordingly.

Of course if you are not able to help them, please get in touch with a counselor rather
than getting angry with your children.