Boards Results Are Out It’s time to think about your Career!

With one hurdle (The board exams) crossed now, it’s time to prep for the next one. A bit of thinking, a little bit of analysis and a little bit of professional advice shall do the best for you now.

As an adult a person spends a large part of your life, and many hours of a day working for the job. Yet, most students spend very little time and effort before making the most important decisions of their lives. In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing technology-driven world the options and opportunities have become unlimited.

As human beings progress in various fields, we are developing a lot of new job industries and job roles that didn’t even exist before. With the boom in the number of options, students often become confused about which path to choose for the future. There are many pitfalls in it as well. In such an environment, the difference between success and failure may lie in how early and how well you have planned for your career. Both students and parents need to adopt a more proactive approach in this regard.

Even some parents force their kids to pick their future career only from three or four available conventional options including engineering, medical, and MBA. On the other hand, there is also another breed of students and youngsters who are very much aware of the kind of job they want and won’t settle for anything less because their main target is job satisfaction instead of simply earning.

It is said that there are two critical decisions we take in our lives. One is the choice of a life partner, and the second being, the choice of a career or profession. These two important choices determine whether we are going to be happy and successful in life, or not. And while we give ample time, attention and expenditure to the first, very often little thought is given to choosing a career.

Read More: Tips To Choose a Career after Your College

A career decision is often made on the basis of many unrealistic professional aspirations, inadequate knowledge, parental and societal pressures and emotional factors that should rightly be irrelevant to this decision. Society, specifically finds no body worthy unless he/ she becomes a doctor, an engineer, business manager or a chartered accountant, ignoring the fact that each individual is unique in abilities, values, interests and personality styles, and could be eminently successful in anyone of thousands of work opportunities that exist today.

Nowadays, most of the colleges have entrance examinations for their admissions which open up after the class 12th board exams, barring a few colleges that finish the exam procedure early. The ones who decide on the merit of the boards results open for admissions after the results are out. So, it is officially not too late for deciding on a career. Besides, there are a number of available options which you can choose from after working out your interests and aptitude.

What Next After XII Result?

Put on your thinking caps as it’s the time for introspection and self-analysis. The more you do so, the better equipped you are to answer this question of “what next?” If your focus until now was on scoring a great percentage in XII board exams, a change in focus now is what is required. A distant vision with defined short-term goals is the best approach you should adopt.

This choice is crucial as it shall drive what is going to be the individual’s daily schedule for the rest of the life. Furthermore, it will have a direct impact on other aspects of their life such as: life style, self-satisfaction, work-life balance and quality of life. Since you have decided to wait before you could put the class 12th board exams behind your backs before diverting your attention, it’s the best time to channelize all energies into career planning now. There is an increasing number of interesting careers open for you; all you need is a good insight into the available options.

Read More: Crucial Role Of Career Counselors In Schools

How to determine which Course or Career fits you the best?

So what should you do? Can you really plan for a career? How? Are you sure this is the way to reach your goal? Are there other routes too? And, if you don’t make it are there alternatives? There are four major steps you should consider when choosing a career:

1. Self Assessment

it is about know own self, one’s own potential, academic capabilities, interests, aspirations and expectations. This understanding of self is the first and foremost important step in career planning and has a great impact on the decision making process. This will enable you to open your mind to the incredible choice of career options that exist today and are being created all the time, in every subject area. You can begin by asking following questions to yourself. Parents should also participate in this process.

• What are my most prominent skills and abilities?
• What are my strengths and weakness?
• What skills do in need to acquire?
• What am I interested in doing?
• What gives me full satisfaction?

Your Interest plays a major role. Interests are the things you enjoy doing and would like to do without force or instructions. Selecting a career which matches your interests will make you much happier in life. You will enjoy your work than just doing it as a routine job.

For example: Just because you enjoy playing cricket doesn’t mean that you can play in the Indian Cricket Team until you have passion and have experience of playing at different levels of competition i.e. school, state, etc. But, still it helps an individual see what they are interested in and later, they can have these interests in one way, or another, in your career. So even, though you, may not be able to play for India, you could look for a job with cricket magazine, reporter, cricket equipment’s manufacturer, etc. If you want success and satisfaction you must take responsibility of your career. You can either work in any area you want or get any job that comes along

2. Career Exploration (Exploring the career options)

This is also known as “Information gathering” stage. At this level, find out more about different career options that interests and short-list three potential careers and gather information about them. While gathering information, al-ways take care of the following points.

1. Be a bit open-minded. Don’t label a course / career as good or unfit, until you have done enough research about it.
2. Make a list of careers you are interested in and shortlist 3 or 4 of them.
3. Gather information from the right sources. Talk to a career counselor, read newspapers, attend career guidance seminar & workshops to learn about different career options.
4. Meet career counselors who can help or guide you in taking decisions based upon your own interests, aptitude and personality.

3. Decision Making (Selecting the best option)

After you are done with self-assessment and getting the information about available career choices, you have to select the suitable options. This is the time to set your goal.

1. Question yourself – Which career choices are most attractive to you?
2. Which fits best for you considering your own strengths and limitations?
3. Finalize, 2- 3 career options.
4. Compare these career options on all the different parameters.
5. Put a Plan to reach your desired goal.

Always remember that the decisions are not permanent. New options may open up and new choices can be made. Most of people need to go through this process again and again until they find a satisfactory career option.

4. Take Action (Implement the Career Plan)-

Now it’s time to take action to reach the desired goal. This is very important as “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”

1. Make a realistic plan with clear deadlines.
2. Be committed to your plan.
3. Be sure of what the actual plan is.

Remember these Don’ts

• Don’t get tempted by the trends.
• Don’t finalize before you clarify.
• Don’t select a career in dejection.
• Don’t be headstrong & decide in haste.
• Don’t choose because of anyone’s influence.
• Don’t assume about any career on your own without researching.

In conclusion, it may sound cliche, but, your Happiness is the most important thing that you should consider while choosing a career. Don’t feel pressured into becoming an accountant if you hate numbers just because you think it’s the right thing to do; instead, pursue something you’re truly interested in. Always look inward, and discover who you are and what you want. Such self-assessment will help you in making good career decisions. It is, thus, better to get a scientific evaluation done, so that any form of bias does not creep up in your choice. Psychometric Career Assessments might help you to make correct decisions by evaluating you on different parameters (including your aptitude, interest and personality). It’s not too late, but it is sure time for quick action.