Thursday, August 09, 2012

Seminar on 5 August 'How to choose your career after 10th class'

A free seminar was organised on the above subject at Nashik in collaboration with Yeshwantrao Pratishtan, at their Hall at Gangapur Road office, Nashik.

Harish Nair ( in the chair) and Sanjiv Bhamre ( who is on the mic) in the seminar 

Harish Nair, Founder and CEO of a Executive Search Firm which finds CEO's and seniormost managers  for corporate world was a key speaker. He spoke about the emerging trends in the corporate sector and its impact on the careers of today's students. He urged students to specifically focus on three careers : Careers in High technology segment, Careers as Entrepreneurs and Careers in Social Sector.

Sanjiv Bhamre, Career designer, on the other hand, talked about the issues that a student should address while choosing his career. Career is about unfolding one's potential to excel. Therefore, decision of 'which career to choose after 10th' is really a decision of choosing 'Which potential should I decide to unfold and why'. 

Sanjiv Bhamre highlighted the key differences between the unfolding of potential of sportsman and musicians ( who are engaged in senses-based careers) and those who are engaged in knowledge field such as Engineers, Doctors, Accountants, Consultants and Researchers.

For instance, Sportsman and musicians identify their potential only once in their life and then continue to strengthen that chosen potential area throughout their lives. Be it Sachin Tendulkar or Lata Mangeshkar, they continue to unfold one chosen potential ( be it cricket, golf or singing) throughout their lives. On the other hand, knowledge workers have to constantly 'identify and chose' their potential strength at different stages.

At every stage, a student has to choose a potential strength from his available choices to proceed further. At 10th, he has to decide which potential path to chose - Science, Commerce or Arts- from the available choices. At the stage of 12th, the science student has to chose which potential strength to unfold further " Engineering, Science, Mathematics  or something else'. At graduation, he again faces another choice of potential unfolding path  "Post graduation in his earlier field of graduation, diversify in MBA, or do a job in some specific skill." In other words, a student in knowledge field cannot just identify and chose his potential strength once, but instead has to learn to 'identify and chose the potential strength again and again"

This difference compels students ( who are engaged in knowledge field) to learn three skills that are required to master the process of Excellence cycle ( CTS) of potential Unfolding: 

1. Choosing the Potential strength: To be able to identify and chose a potential strength from the available choices, a student must learn basic skill of converting data to knowledge. Without understanding this conversion process, a student does not understand which of his potential area ( history, maths or literature) has got better 'chance' of unfolding into 'knowledge'. Only when he can do this, he can chose a career at 10th/12th stage !

2. Tapping all the opportunities to enhance the chosen strength: Choosing the potential strength to unfold is however not enough, he also has to learn to 'tap all the opportunities to enhance it constantly't. Without tapping the opportunities, the first step of choosing will not produce any fruits.

For instance, if a student decides to take up 'Arts' at 10th, he has to initiate and take certain actions in the field of Arts to tap opportunities in Literature, Psychology or Journalism, the three paths available in Arts. Only if he 'taps' opportunities in these fields, he will know if he has the 'capability' of  converting his potential strength of Arts. Tapping the opportunities means engaging in the chosen field and using all the options to practice in the chosen area.

To tap the opportunities, a student has to learn to spot and use the available interconnections around him. For instance, he  has to find group of students who have similar interest in English Literature to talk and discuss topics in English, or write short stories after attending 'Story writing' workshop, or appreciate different aspects of English Literature by reading English Novels. The more he is interconnected with the world around him, more easily he can utilise all the opportunities. This is the skill of understanding and exploiting interconnections.

3. Sticking and choosing the potential area of strength for sufficiently long time: "Strenthening a chosen area of potential strength" requires focused attention in a specific direction without getting distracted from it. Our emotions, for instance, distract us. Gaining emotional intelligence is therefore critical in helping the student gain focus. A student also has to learn to train his Willpower to focus his energies on one subject or area. This skill of Regulating  Self is critical for the student in sticking to a chosen potential strength for a sufficient time and then deciding to continue with it or let it go.

Summary

In short, choosing the career after 10th is not a simple decision of finding colleges, courses and matching with our interest. It is understanding the Excellence cycle process of unfolding one's potential and taking actions after  choosing the career for sufficiently long time to excel in it.

As we have seen above, a student not only has to choose the unfolding path of science or arts after 10th, but also has to tap all the available opportunities to enhance the chosen potential in a given field after 10th, stick to it for a sufficient time so that he is once more ready to take a more informed decision at the stage of 12th. This sequence of identifying and choosing a potential (C) > tapping it (T) > and sticking ( S) with it and again choosing the next potential path is repeated again and again in a student's life. For instance, this is repeated again after graduation.

Infact, this sequence of steps are repeated again and again in one's life till the age of retirement. For instance Manmohan Singh ( a professor in economics) had to chose his potential in 'Policy making' when he decided to become a RBI Governor at the age of 52. Nandan Nilekani  also had to choose his potential after the age of 50 when he moved away from corporate sector to join Governmental arena.

Oversimplifying the decision of 'which career to choose after 10th' does not help a student to identify and fulfill his potential. Instead a student will benefit more if he understands the CTS cycle of excellence and use it for his own benefit.