Careers Gone Awry?

The Government of India launched a population control program with the famous line, hum do, hamare do – we two, and ours two. The inverted triangle of “nirodh” implored people to not have more kids. The stick-figured happy family had two kids in tow with the parents – a daughter and a son. The daughter was always the elder one! With the “only two” becoming fashionable, the general families also decided their careers. The daughter would be a doctor, the son an engineer! The daughter would be married off into another family of “only two” and the happiness would extend to the next generation. So much was making the kids doctors or engineers ingrained in the fabric, the other careers were thought as taboos. Getting less marks in SSC or HSC, prohibiting admissions to the above two courses would immediately bring a funeral mood in many homes. Later on, “only two” fell out of fashion and “only one” took the stronger hold. Till then, doctors or engineers in industries except for IT had become passé. IT still had the luster! And everyone had a charted career path – SSC, HSC, BE and then into IT and off to the US of A!

Life was easy, until I realized something. How is it that we are rejecting sharp engineers (more or less) in interviews and here, we have:

1. An expert in Slavic languages, driving the project design


2. A Certified Financial Analyst, working in Microsoft Technologies


3. An Art Director, you know, the one who decides what music Steven Spielberg should choose for background kind (I am not kidding!) manages a large server farm in various technology flavors


4. A specialist in Psychology is an established consultant on Microsoft Technologies


5. A journalist hobnobbed with web development and went on to become a corporate strategist


6. A Marine, did his part for his country (USA) and now runs successful operations at a product based company

Is the trend changing? For a long time, the path of success was IITB and then IIMA. The rodent-derby (folks also call it rat-race) was yours to lose, as many tell Barack these days! But I think the trend is changing. Kids still have fascination for IT but also want to do something else…. Here’s what the next generation in my family is doing:

1. I am interested in animation only, if that is not the job I am getting, I won’t take some software engineer job at a multi-national, told one of my nephews to his frazzled father


2. Journalism! No, wait, IAS! Umm, no Journalism it is. “College in Chennai?” screamed my cousin, but the niece was steadfast


3. How’s your MBA coming along? Good. Barely a whisper and I thought I was laconic! So, how are campus placements coming along. I didn’t attend any, the sparkling diamond studded ear answered. What? Well, no, I want to do business, came a nonchalant reply.


May be some will go down the rut, may be some won’t. But it’s good, they are more likely to do something they like!