Event buzz
“Keep more than one career choice alive”
Gayatri Rajwade

HOW exactly does one draw up a career plan? Some clues about this were provided by Usha Albuquerque, well-known career counsellor, at a recent seminar in Chandigarh on the ‘Recent Trends in Professional Education — an Overview.’

The seminar stressed largely on the need for building a focus or vision of one’s future. According to Albuquerque, the process must begin with a goal in mind. “List two or three final careers that interest you; find the success factors that will help you determine your goal and these are your skill sets, strengths and a strategy to get there. Success factors in turn can be evaluated by assessing your personality, interests, motivations, academics, aptitudes and your environment, which may be your peers or exposure in the form of interactions with experts in various fields.”

The next step would be to gather the relevant information. “Access the Internet, read up magazines and newspapers and collect as much information as you can about your area of interest or subject that you wish to pursue. Research the kind of jobs available in your field and assess whether your personal attributes, academic qualifications and eligibility are in conjunction with the requirements of the job,” explained Albuquerque.

Trends are changing fast and keeping up with these means you are on top of your choices.

Most important, keep your options open. Keep at least three career interests alive at one point for there is no guarantee that one’s first choice may always work out. “It is equally important to keep your mind open to new ideas. New career fields are cropping up consistently and there are some really interesting non-conventional jobs on offer now.

Take the entertainment industry, for example. “If you are technically inclined and like music you could think of being a music technologist and learn how music is recorded and mixed. Similarly, disc jockeys are in great demand with the events industry booming.”

Each subject — be it physics, chemistry, biology, maths, social sciences or life sciences — has scope and options to offer. Today, IT and related activities may be the new buzzword but tomorrow biotechnology and genetics or nanotechnology may be in the ‘career arclights’.

Similarly, television and media may be the hyped industries for the young generation of today; tomorrow radio may create the ‘big wave’!

The last mantra is also the simplest, says Albuquerque, “Follow your heart and your dreams, for those will never fail you and do well no matter what you do.”