CAREER COUNSELLINGby

Suvro Chatterjee

Session I

Suvro’s Good Life Tutorials

The future of the mind

SUVRO-SIR’S CAREER COUNSEL

We start this voyage of discovery by dispelling some very common

current myths.

Exploding the first myth

First Myth:

Career is synonymous with job or livelihood.

First Fact:

Career means what you will do your entire adult life, not just making a living but aiming at certain ideals and choosing a certain lifestyle.

Real life examples

Tony Blair, Henri Dunant (the lawyer who founded the Red Cross), Ted Turner (the man who created CNN), Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao fame, Pandit Ravi Shankar: they all have or had careers, and many of them had very humble origins.

You must be the one to decide

You must decide what sort of life you want to live. Remember, it is your life, not to be wasted on trifles, nor on something that 'everybody' wants you to do.

And remember…

‘Everybody’ thought that the Wright brothers were fools!

So don't take 'everybody' too seriously.

Exploding the second myth

Second Myth

Everybody ought to aim at those careers that offer numerous safe and well-paid jobs.

Second Fact

In this world of rapid change and uncertainty, there's no such thing as a perfectly safe job.

Look around you…

‘Safe' career avenues tend to become overcrowded very fast, and latecomers don't do half as well as the early birds.

‘Safe’ jobs are often boring and ill-paid (how much does a bank cashier get in comparison with a film star or a bestselling author?)

Look at yourself…

Everybody does not have the same talents.

If you don't have a knack for mathematics and don't love to fiddle with gadgets, chances are that even if you make it to engineering college, you will never shine in the profession.

….Perhaps you were meant to be a great artist!

Exploding the third myth

Third Myth

Everybody is ambitious for a great career.

Third Fact

In fact, it is because of lack of ambition that most people end up to be ordinary.

My long experience…

in teaching and counseling (both parents and children) – tells me that most people neither have big ambitions nor clear-cut small ones.

Doing a little better than your neighbours does not count as ambition.

- Remember the Dursleys from Harry Potter…?

Exploding the fourth myth

Fourth Myth

With talent, you don’t need hard work to shine in any career.

Fourth Fact

Nearly every successful man and woman* will echo Edison’s opinion that genius (which is at the root of all significant successes) is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and that too usually for years and years, despite repeated and terrible setbacks: he who slogs longest does best in the long run.

(*Note: we are not counting people who win jackpots and inherit vast fortunes from their parents here!)

Exploding the fifth myth

Fifth Myth

Everybody doesn't have talents.

Fifth Fact

Nobody knows what he can do until he tries to find out.

Conventional versus rare talents

Some talents are common and conventional; some rare but extremely valuable if properly utilised.

For instance, a lot of people have the talent for memorising long texts (the sort of talent that helps you shine in normal written exams.)

Far fewer have the sort of gift that makes a great scientist or a statesman, a Faraday or a Churchill.

What do you owe to yourself?

You owe it to yourself to find out exactly what sort of talents you do have: in fact, your entire school life should be devoted to this.

Things NOT to do…

First, do not give up in a hurry;

Secondly, do not trust school reports too much.

Some of the greatest successes in the world had poor reports, like Tagore, the great physicist Einstein and the world's leading paediatric neurosurgeon, Fred Epstein…

And finally, do not be disappointed if you find you lack the kind of skills that are appreciated in school…

- For you might still end up becoming another Steven Spielberg, Anthony Hopkins, Shahnaz Hussain, Lata Mangeshkar or Sachin Tendulkar!

Things to remember:

Even the finest gifts need polishing up for years before you can begin to shine, so patience, perseverance, a focussed mind and self-confidence are your real keys to success.

Once you have discovered your gifts, persuade your parents to believe in you (Warning: this won’t be easy!). Then make them your colleagues in hunting out the career opportunities that suit your skills and tastes.

Exploding the sixth myth

Sixth Myth

Some subjects taught in school are more important than

others for making good careers.

Sixth Fact

All subjects matter, and all of them can and do prove to be useful at some stage of your life, history as much as physics, elocution as much as economics.

Don’t make the mistake that others do…

Some people who ignore a lot of subjects grow up to regret their shortsightedness, because they then discover how dumb they are compared to their peers (or even their children!)

Languages and mathematics

Developing a strong grasp of languages (including the power of fluent speech) and mathematics is most essential in today’s world, because there are hardly any paying professions left where you can do entirely without them.

Other subjects

All the rest of the subjects taught can be conveniently grouped under General Knowledge – to which, of course, there are no limits.

You will keep finding out that the wider and more accurate your GK, the better you do in every walk of life.

IQ and EQ skills

In addition, it is vitally important to hone your IQ and EQ (how clever you are and how observant and sensitive you are) through all kinds of tests, quizzes, debates and wide reading.

The best ‘human resource development’ experts are now unanimous in their belief that your IQ and EQ skills make an enormous difference to how high you rise and how happy you become eventually.

Exploding the seventh myth

Seventh Myth

Good career counsellors are those with fancy calling cards and plush offices, who advertise lavishly, and who are to be found only in big cities and charge enormous fees.

Seventh Fact A parent, a

teacher in school, a favourite writer, a senior friend, even, can be a great counsellor…

Being a counsellor requires not age and fancy degrees but a keen, caring, non-judgmental mind, lots of well-digested experience and old-fashioned common sense (which, though, is not too common actually!).

Keep looking always for someone like that who is ready to help you. He or she will be a lifelong treasure!

That is all for now…

That brings us to the end of Suvro Sir’s career counsel, Session I.

Join Suvro Sir for Session II where he discusses the pros and cons of various career options in which many people have made a mark for themselves.

Enrol with us for his workshops, seminars and courses in career counselling and personality development at Suvro’s Good Life Tutorials.