Let's talk about career

Kh Siile Anthony *

Career is an individual journey launched through learning, work and other aspects of life. It is used as an occupation or job, trade or profession of a person to earn a living. It can be one job or many jobs. In order to earn one’s living, career planning is needed to achieve his or her goal.

In this, it should match career goals and individual capabilities. One should have a liking, interest and affinity towards one’s career. To achieve one’s career, an individual should seek proper education, training and skilling etc. Counselling may be done to understand oneself as well as work trends so that one can take an informed decision about a career.

There is nothing such as a good career or bad career. It all depends on one’s choice, interest, liking and capability. If a person has got a white collar job not by his choice but by circumstances, then he or she need not be regarded as having the best career or most happy life. On the other hand, a person who gets into a manual job by his choice then he would be more content and would perform his or her duty better.

Since career is connected with interest and earning for one’s living, a high profile job or low paid job makes no difference. It depends on the outlook of the person and how he or she carries it with him or her. One should not compare with jobs as it varies with degrees and not with happiness index.

When we look at our career, we focus on how strong we could build it. Actually it is more than that. To share an anecdote, there is a 484 meter long bridge in Honduras, Central America, called the Choluteca Bridge.

Built in 1998 by a Japanese firm, it is strong that it has withstood notorious storms. There was heavy rain for four days in Honduras, wreaking havoc, killing 7000 people and destroying everything in its path except the bridge in question.

But something different happened. The roads leading to the bridge were both swept away, with no sign that there was once a road. The story did not end there. The flood had diverted the river and it now flowed beside the bridge, not under it. The bridge becomes a bridge over nothing and a bridge to nowhere.

During the pandemic, we should not focus alone on how strong we could build our career but how to adapt to the changes around us. The Choluteca Bridge lesson is relevant to us today than ever before. It is a terrific metaphor for what can happen to us -our career or our lives - as the world around us gets transformed so drastically and suddenly.

Like the channel in the proverbial Choluteca Bridge changing course, so could our career’s path change for good if we ignore the changes of the time. The nature of the problem did change under the Choluteca Bridge; so is the nature of our career’s problems taking different forms every passing decade. It’s not necessary that we build a career that lasts for nothing like the Choluteca Bridge. It should keep recreating itself by adapting to the changes.

There are innumerable professions and job opportunities in Government and private sectors. How to grab one of this will depend on one’s interest,capability, fitness, skill, matching degrees etc. All the required information relating to jobs are now available on various websites. Some of the important websites of the Government recruiting agencies are www.upsc.gov.in, ssc.nic.in, ibps.in,etc.

One can also see the State Public Service Commission and other recruiting agency websites. For educational institutes, one can use the name of the institute with the suffix ac.in or ernet.in etc. One can browse to the above website occasionally to know the time, number of vacancies, eligibility criteria etc.

If one still requires more information, make a good friendship with Google, it will always be there to help you.

Many youngsters are looking for Government jobs and that too white collar jobs. The job opportunities available in the Government sector may not match the expectations of many educated youngsters. The number of degree holders are increasing year after year, whereas the job openings for the same are shrinking. The literacy rate is increasing year by year but job opportunities in Government sectors are not increasing proportionately.

The employability rate is low as many young degree holders do not have the skill to match the industrial and market job requirements. One needs to be skilled to match one’s interest and capabilities. If one is skilled, one can earn livelihood by engaging oneself as an entrepreneur. We have rich natural resources which are untapped and unexplored.

This can be tapped, explored and converted into value added products to generate income. We also have a lot of traditional crafts and products which can be up scaled and marketed. There is great scope in rural and hilly areas for promoting organic fruits and vegetables. If one can connect to the industrial houses and E-Marketing centers; rural organic products can also generate good revenues.

In the present scenario it is better is to be a job provider rather than a job seeker. Give a serious thought to manage our naturally available resources scientifically in order to enhance the economy of the region.

Keeping in view the rich natural resources and viability of the place, the Government of India is giving special attention to the North East region in the following areas, that is Handloom, Handicraft, Horticulture, Tourism and Bamboo (3H,T& B).

We must try to avail this opportunity in order to create more jobs and enhance the economy of the region. What is important in life is to ‘be happy with what we can earn for a living than what we can accumulate for greed’. Happiness does not lie in the amount of wealth but with the joy he or she experiences out of it.