But how many of us really go with 'Do what you like'? For most of us the path that is monetarily more lucrative becomes the logical and the practical choice, and we eventually put 'what we like' on the back seat of our mind. How many of us really know what we want to do, or is it really the money that matters the most?How to make a right decision? What is the right choice? What is that prevents us from doing what we like?
What do you guys think, should we prefer a better paying job over the one that fascinates us as this seems more practical, or should we do the job of our choice to make the career more interesting? Lets share our ideas and experiences, good or bad, the mistakes we did while choosing our careers, the things you would like to suggest so that others get benefitted.
That depends on the priorities and limitations you have in your life. Its always easy to say that follow your dream and happiness follows. Like i always had the dream to become a cricketer, my father wanted me to become an IAS. I chose the midway and did engineering, sooner or later i realised i dont have passion for IAS, and one cannot give 100% if he/she is not interested at all. Now i have started liking what i do.
ReplyDeleteRohit, no offense but I dont think you really wanted to be a cricketer.. sometimes we think we like something but that is not true.. if you really had the passion you wouldn't have left it so easily... I agree with the later part...in the end if you see you are doing what you like...
Delete@Rohit don't mind but,You wanted to be a cricketer, because you might have seen Sachin scoring 100's, you havent seen the effort he puts to reach the place where he is.And coming to your 'Engineer is at a midway to Cricketer and an IAS' made me and my flatmates share a good 15 mins laugh..Thanks for that..you have chosen engineering because that is the most conventional thing you can do.
DeleteRohit, I completely agree that one cannot give his 100%, unless the person likes what he does. Its good that you have started liking what you are doing. But I think you would have loved to make your dream come true, but there must have been some priorities and situational factors that made opting for Engineering, the practical solution. Right? We all want to fulfill our dreams but when it comes to career, most of us prefer playing safe!! :)
Deletetotally agreed..Once u r into the job u luv...u never has to work for even a single day. But practically we are moulding our passion in accordance to our need .some call it evolution and other name it as compromise.
DeleteI think this is what i myself have contemplated over for quite some time now.
ReplyDelete"Do What we like" is actually what we all long for, but in deed the biggest question is how do we realise what we like.
- Experience is the Key word here for me.
For someone like me, who comes from a Middle class family, in an Era where India is growing, and we are best suited to jump high into the Elites, Money at some point or the other do affect us.
For Instance, I joined Adobe for money, though the work really doesn't interest me. But this taught me a lesson for life, Money's Joy is short Lived. With every passing Day of my life, I am coming more and more closer to knowing myself. I do not mind taking few Pilot-Projects to understand my interests deeply, but then ultimately, I will attain stability only when I am doing what I really love to do.
-Situations is the second Key word. How your priorities make you give and take some things in your life. For a person, who is Below Poverty Line today, you offer him a job of a Janitor, it gives him immense pleasure. No one wants to do that job, but his priority is his family's sustenance. How can he dare to search for his dream job when it is really not feasible?
Nitin- True!! 'Money's joy is short lived'..i can give numerous examples in support of this.
DeleteCompletely agree Nitin!
DeleteWhen starting our career, most of us go for the package first, thinking once we have the money, we can always do what we like. Later on, with the given work experience and growing responsibilities, it becomes more difficult to switch to 'what we like'. I think, if the circumstances permit, its better to think first, rather than prioritizing money, when we take a first step to our career. Taking an unconventional path might require lot of patience and hard work, but will be rewarding in the long run. And this happiness for sure is long lived!!
Do not convert your fanciful ambitions into practical money making ventures. Do what you like to do, bcoz that is the way you will find contentment,A person who cannot find contentment, cannot find peace,I think point of life is happiness. We all are trying to find a way that makes us happy, be it by earning money or making friends or getting married. Even a person who commits suicide is trying to be happy, thinking that it will bring an end to his miseries. This journey called life will be over before you realize it then Why spend your life a way that isn’t personally meaningful to you?..
ReplyDeleteMy Personal Experience:-
Whenever i dive into the past and look into the most happiest moments of my life, I find that money was not involved in any of those moments...I almost doubled my salary twice in three years(which is way ahead of my dreams,to me it's just a miracle or God Gift).My parents might feel proud of me, society might tag me as successful, i might fulfill all materialistic desires i have ..But still i think i am pretending to be happy and excited from outside,and if i keep a hand on my heart, i still lack sense of accomplishment .Prosperity, Power and Popularity are not the sources of happiness, because you may have them all and still feel incomplete.
Being called 'good as a person' will mean a lot to me..but being called a 'good or an expert programmer/professional' won't matter much.
Money is the root of all evil,so don't go for money, Do what you like to do. Life is a valuable gift, thank God for it and utilize it for good reasons.
Suyash, many of my friends have the same story! I see they are earning good, but at the end of the day they are not happy. But they still find it better to continue with the current career choice for multiple reasons - experience, package, increment, promotions, stability, responsibilities, fear of being unsuccessful if they try to change and many more.
DeleteWhat is your dream and what's that is stopping you? How do you think you will be handling this and what would you suggest others who are going through the same situation?
In ideal scenario we should be doing what we love, but for most of us the world is not an ideal place. It appears many of us spend time doing what we don’t like.
ReplyDeletePersonally, it was not me who decided whether I want to be an engineer or a doctor. I was good at maths thus parents asked me to take Maths so that I can score good grades (Yes, its all about grades, this is how our education system is designed), and hence the foundation of my engineering journey was laid. Being from Electronics branch, when only one core company showed up for the placement, the only practical choice for me was try for IT firms and thus joined a MNC.
It is human nature to always ask for more, it does not gets satisfied easily. When presented with a lucrative opportunity, I joined a consultancy firm. All this time, it never occurred to me that whether I am moving towards what I would like to do, but to avail practical option available to me, to make my parents proud and at some point of time started loving what I do. During the course of my engineering, the words like IT engineer and consultant never came to my mind but it is paying the bills now. I would not say that the journey is happy but is definitely a memorable one.
I would be incorrect to generalize it but I am sure many of us reading this post would have the same experience behind their career path.
A questions always comes to my mind, Can people change their career path? I guess they can, but it will involve difficult choices to make. It might also mean that you will have to start over again losing the advantage/experience/position gained in current career over the course of time. I don't think that we can put a right or wrong tag on it, but it is purely a matter of personal choice and priority.
Yes the world is not the ideal place for most of us. But most of us either don't know what we want to do when we start our career or don't get proper opportunities to pursue their interests. In such cases the career path gets laid as and when better opportunities come. The same is the case with you. The ones who start liking what they are doing don't face problems moving on with the same career path, but for those who realize late that they are not getting interest in their work face problems and are unable to utilize their full potential. And this is where the problem starts.
ReplyDeleteChanging the career path is always an option, but it becomes more difficult as you spend more time in a different career. Obviously its not impossible, but its like taking a step back, and your career growth will be stagnant for a while. But yes, this is better than continuing with the career that doesn't interests you. I think its never too late to make a good start!! :)