How important is Grade XI in shaping my future academic and career prospects?

Careers should be defined by what you are good at and what you love to do

Beware of five elements that could lead you to wrong choice of careers

Not so long ago, careers used to be the work one did to make life meaningful and fruitful. But, that has largely ceased to be the case now.

In our times, career has become synonymous to life. Hence, what you want to study is what you want to be.

Your choice of career reflects the kind of life you want to live.

But in reality, career is not and should encompass the entirety of your life. It is a source of making life beautiful and meaningful, but if it doesn’t do that and becomes a source of discomfort or negatively impacts other aspects of life then it becomes meaningless.

This happens if careers are not chosen for the right reasons or if the academics you pursue or the work you do is not your passion.

According to several international studies, more than 50 per cent of people across the world are not happy with their careers, despite the money and status their jobs bring to them.

More than two thirds of the people, across the spectrum of careers and positions globally, are always on the look out for a change, because they are not happy or satisfied with what they do. The primary reason for this dissatisfaction is that people are “not doing what they love to do,” or they “don’t love what they do.”

Where you can go wrong!

According to career psychologists, there are five primary elements that generally influence career decisions for most students, they are: Market forces, trends, parental or peer pressure, perceived money or status and fantasies.

Some people chose a stream because market forces have combined to make it very attractive and are pushing the focus of an entire generation towards a direction.

There are those who just follow the trends. What is the talk of the town? What is hot in the market? What is seen to be having a lot of scope? Etc.

Then there are those who just follow their peers or friends or accept the dictates of their parents.

There are also those whose only idea about a career is the money or status they expect it to bring, so they chase it, irrespective of whether they have the aptitude for the chosen subject or not.

Finally, there are a group of students who live in fantasies. The like a certain idea of life and they wish to achieve it. They wish to have a certain career and they confuse their wish to be their interest. More often than not the wish turns out to be mere wishful thinking.

These factors have our higher secondary students in their grip because most of them are confused about their interests and clueless about their potentials.

Chasing numbers

Throughout the schooling years, students are mostly kept busy chasing numbers, grades and ranks, hence they have very little time to think about themselves, uncover their genuine interests and harness their natural talents.

Each one of us has been created unique and distinct with diverse set of abilities and potentialities. It is the job of the education system to unearth those unique elements and give the students enough confidence to realise those potentials into something meaningful and enterprising.

But the reality is quite the opposite. Most of the students coming out of Grade X are truly clueless about what career paths to choose, because they are unaware of who they are and what is hidden within them.

The closed environment and repetitive atmosphere confines their ability to think and keeps them on the surface of their potentialities.

One has to go through a variety of experiences and experiments as well as a range of exposures and opportunities to unearth the gems that are hidden within them.

A recent news report suggested that around 85 per cent of students have no clue about what career choices to make for higher education.

In most cases, choice of subjects in Grade XI defines what career a student will choose. But, many students later regret their choice, struggle with their careers or go through a difficult transition just because they didn’t follow their passion, genuine interests or natural aptitude while choosing the path.

Do what you love

If the field you choose doesn’t interest you, then your career is less likely to be interesting and you will not be able to make interesting contribution in the field or make any meaningful impact in life!

Throughout history, people who made history, made inventions and discoveries or created meaningful change in the society are those who pursued their interests. Their careers were defined by what they loved to do!

“If you do what you love, you will never work again. It will never feel like work,” says Sir Ken Robinson, one of the greatest educationists of our times and the author of the bestselling book ‘Find your Element.’

Unfortunately, modern education system limits the choices for our students as economic considerations and market forces define the set of subjects offered for higher studies.

Money is indeed an important factor in the choice of careers, but it should not be the only criterion in choosing a stream.

“Two things should drive your choice of subjects or career – your aptitude and your passion,” says the late Sir Ken Robinson in his book ‘Find your Element.’

Discover yourself

Education is the process of self-discovery. Hence, 12 years of schooling should help you find yourself. It should give you a clear vision of who you are and what you want to be. Where you want to see yourself in the society? What role you want to play as a nation builder? What impact you want to make as a human being?

Find your element, see where does your heart lie? What are you best at, what sort of work makes you feel good?

To find your element you need to spend some quality time alone and reflect genuinely within yourself.

You should also look back and see what do you spend time doing the most, without anyone pushing you to do it? In what activities do you lose the sense of time and feel at your most authentic best – that is your element, that is what you are designed to do.

But to pursue your element you need to be bold. Needless to say, the reward for such a pursuit is always extraordinary.

Pursuing your interest will most definitely help you do your best and to top that you will achieve highest level of satisfaction.

Take control

Do not leave the decision that will impact your whole life to market forces, temporary trends or peer pressure.

Nobody is going to be with you when you are facing challenges in life. Nobody is going to do the hard yards for you. You are going to face it alone.

Only your interests, natural inclinations and inherent talents can help you sustain and overcome the challenges of life with aplomb.

You can make the most of the opportunities that come your way only if you love what you do, for that you need to do what you love!