By: Ranjan K Baruah
Career is one of the most buzz words among young people and more importantly amongst students either in schools, colleges, or even universities. We know that career is an individual’s metaphorical journey through learning, work, and other aspects of life. There are several ways to define a career and the term is used in a variety of ways. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word “career” as a person’s “course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)”. This definition relates a career to a range of aspects of an individual’s life, learning, and work.
It is not an alternate word for job or livelihood and it is more than that. Now the question is have we planned for our career? The world has become competitive and we must plan and prepare well to move ahead and achieve success. The career does not mean getting a government job or engaging in activities and assignments for the government.
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If we want to plan well then we need to know about our potential and capabilities. We must know our interests, hobbies, passions, etc. to plan for a vibrant career. The irony and tragedy are that many of us do not plan for our careers and just keep moving with the flow and choose what others choose for them.
We can start planning for our career from class IX or after passing our secondary level examination as we get a chance to choose our streams after secondary level exams. Some students change streams after senior secondary too which means some planning might get changed but if we keep on changing our aims and lose focus then we may not become successful in the future. Even after getting good marks, we may not get a job that might satisfy us.
If we want to become successful then we must make our career planning and in this regard, we may take help from career counsellors apart from our teachers and guardians. Information is available online regarding different career options and opportunities but we must pick and choose the right one for us for which we need proper mentoring.
Let us not get confused with career planning instead get convinced and choose the right options for us and this is possible when we have proper career planning. Students should not get confused and depressed even if they score fewer marks as there are many opportunities ahead in life for which we must have authentic information. I wish all success in the future for the students whose results have recently been declared.
There are many open opportunities for all these young budding minds today more than ever. A couple of such that I would like to draw your attention to are as follows:
‘Rolls-Royce Unnati Scholarships for Women Engineering Students’ is an initiative of Rolls-Royce India Pvt. Ltd. to financially support meritorious girl students in completing their engineering program. The scholarship is aimed at helping girl students studying in the 1st/2nd/3rd year of the undergraduate engineering degree program at an AICTE-recognized institution in India. Aspirants may apply before August 1 next.
HDFC Bank Parivartan’s ECS Scholarship 2022-23 aims to support meritorious and needy students belonging to underprivileged sections of society. The scholarship program is meant for school students from Class 1 to those pursuing UG and PG programs. Under the ECS scholarship, the students who are unable to bear the cost of education due to personal/family crises or any other financial problems and are at risk of dropping out are provided with monetary assistance of up to INR 75000 for their studies. Aspirants may apply before August 31 next. (The author is a career mentor and skill trainer. He can be reached at bkranjan@gmail.com)
