Dilemma for choosing suitable career
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Dilemma for choosing suitable career

Finding a fulfilling profession is more twisting path than a straight one for most people

Dilemma for choosing suitable career

The CBSE results are out and it is time for the students to choose their career paths. This can be a daunting and confusing question for many youngsters.

Generally speaking, it is often difficult to decide what you want to do for a living in terms of a career path. Finding a fulfilling profession is typically more of a twisting path than a straight one for most people. As per a study,

“Around 80% of college students choose to switch majors at least once.”

Almost every student is confused these days. This confusion begins once you complete your 10th standard and continues till you complete your education. This is not the case for every student. A few students know their interests and know what they want to do, but most of the other students are either confused or opt for courses by influence and change later. Even after enrolling in specific courses, you may find yourself wondering, "Is this exactly what I want to be?" According to a survey conducted in 2020, the college dropout rate rose to 24.1% in India. There could be many reasons for dropouts, that is, poverty, accessibility, availability, and many more, but the least discussed reason would be students' confusion or choosing the wrong major.

Cityspidey talked to a few youngsters to find out about the struggles they faced while choosing their career paths.

Priyanka Sharma

Priyanka Sharma
Credit: Supplied

Last month I completed my 12th board. I had no idea life would be this confusing after that. We have hundreds of courses, but I don’t know where I belong. I'm tired of reading about different courses and speaking to endless colleges. They are just busy promoting themselves instead of helping us. I talked with teachers, parents, friends, and strangers about this dilemma situation I am struggling with, but nothing was helpful. Instead, every person had a different perspective and suggested me a different course. Students begin by selecting majors based on their maturity and the influence of their surroundings, particularly family, friends, and peers. It is not to our fault because we tend to decide on fields and courses based on the state of mind and interest at any particular time. I guess at the end, it is a trial and error method where you try out courses and paths and change the course of action accordingly. Only a few in the lot tend to stay on the same track because of sheer will, but mainly due to dumb luck, getting that clarity and doing it in one-go.

Muskan Palrecha
 

Muskan Palrecha
Credit: Supplied

Some people do not have any particular passion in life, or something they aspire to be. Such people tend to keep goals that are flourishing during that time and start pursuing courses that are necessary to achieve them.

While pursuing my BBA in my hometown, I realised digital marketing is the most trending course and there are a lot of job opportunities. As I had no further plans of doing masters, I opted for digital marketing. But the thing we don’t realise is that the trends keep changing, especially during the 21st century. I didn’t realise my interest in the course but just chose the success one reaches after it. After my graduation, I took a break and then did an internship related to my course, but I ended up dropping it after 6 months as I realised this is not my field, but now it’s too late to opt for any other thing. I belong to a Marwari family. In our family, we have a particular age till which we must be married. Shifting fields in this situation would be a sign to parents that we are not interested in studying and wasting their money. Maybe there are quite a few students who can afford to shift fields and start over due to better financial and social conditions. However, many more students have chosen to study something and are unable to change their minds due to financial constraints or, in the case of girls, the responsibility of marrying and raising a child. There is a shadowed inequality based on sex, religion, status, etc.

Niharika Reddy

Niharika Reddy
Credit: Supplied

I am currently pursuing my masters in International relations and am enjoying my subject. But no, my journey was not this sorted, I jumped from different subjects on every stage, till 10th std I took IIT coaching and then suddenly my interest changed and I shifted to NEET coaching in 11th and 12th and then I prepared for medical entrance and then I cleared but then I decided it is not for me. Temporarily I shifted to Botany Honours at Delhi University, after completing my graduation I took a year off and prepared for entrance examination, gave my entrances and realized that I no longer have interest in sciences and then I shifted to International relations where I joined Amity University. the students opt courses that are out of their interest, they tend not to excel in it and end up being insecure with low self-esteem. It leads to degrading one’s mental health and there is a taboo regarding it in India. Lack of therapy and counselling serves as reason for the statement above. I think the problem is seen more in India due to lack of student guidance counsellors, parents not trusting children to make decisions on their own life, continuously evolving world and this is being overwhelming for students.

The USA has comparatively fewer major-changing students than India because of the continuous monitoring of guidance counsellors. Implementing this would not completely eradicate the problem, but it would help students learn how to deal with it.

Students need to realise that trending courses are temporary and should rather focus on their field of interest irrespective of the difficulties it carries with it. Because when one works harder in any field, they end up being successful no matter what, be it opening a tea stall or getting into the civil services.