How to choose the right
job/ career?
By Ashish Patil
This is a question that all of us have
struggled with or often enough continue to struggle with. Irrespective of age
or stage in life & career. As Bono puts it, “I still haven’t found what I
was looking for!” And what’s not just scary but tragic is that a lot of people
land up being and, worse, staying, stuck
in the wrong job. Knowingly!
So how do you know? How do you figure this? It’s
like love, you don’t know how you know, but you, well, just do. So there are no
right or wrong answers. It’s easier with jobs & careers possibly Vs. with
relationships. But these are some basic principles that may help decide.
And they include a specially custom designed Career Chooser Chart by me. The
X-Axis is essentially how good you are at that particular job, work. The
extreme right being, “You should take a masterclass about it!” and the left
being, “Tumse na hoga, bhai!” The Y-Axis is how passionate you are about that work.
Absolute top being “I love it so much, I want to make babies with it and
breastfeed them for life!”, the bottom being, “You hate it so much that you
want it to die die die die, rot in hell, have the fleas of a 1000 camels infest
its armpits!”
So that helps slice it into 4 quadrants.
1. You love the work and rock at it [Top
Right Quadrant]
This is simple. This is the work, the job that
gets you frothing at the mouth excited. You’d do it for free if you could
afford to. And you’re damn good at it too. Probably better than a lot of if not
most other people. You’re able to bring something unique and special to it. Go
find someone to pay you to do that. Or figure a way to do it, but have it pay
you. If you can sort that, you’re blessed, sorted forever. Like ever! So chase
this, and DO THIS!
2. You hate the job and suck at it too [Bottom
Left Quadrant]
This is also quite simple. You just have to be
honest about it. You hate the work. You don’t just hate Mondays, but also
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and those half Saturdays too linked
to it. And what’s worse is that you are just absolutely crap at it. You suck
donkey’s dick at it. Phir chhod de na bhai. Don’t even wait to find something
else, or to be fired. Izzat se khud hi chhod de. Else it will ruin you, your
headspace and you’ll take a few people down with yourself while you’re at it.
QUIT NOW!
3. You don’t really like the work but
are very good at it [Bottom Right Quadrant]
This one’s a bit of a trap. The largest
majority floats somewhere in this quadrant. You don’t really enjoy, like the
work. It’s work. It’s what you do. It’s what pays the bills. It sorts out your
steady monthly income, EMIs, rent, phone bill, the annual holiday, birthday,
anniversary gift, the odd party. And you’re pretty good at it too. Probably even very good. Because lot of people aren’t interested in what they do. They just
run for the time out machine to catch the local back and are doing it for the
above reasons. You’re among the few others who will ensure that you do a good job
at something even if you don’t enjoy it. Because, well, that’s you. And the
comfort, the safety net of this Vs. the uncertainty of something else, anything
else… scares you shitless. What if you’re not good at it? What if you can’t get
the money [forget more – even the same or close to what you’re getting now] for
it? You have ‘responsibilities’. You aren’t at that age or stage when you can ‘experiment’
with your career or life anymore.
Lekin, long term mein na waat lag jayegi. You will be
dissatisfied, unhappy, discontent. Mid life crisis will hit earlier, you’ll
want to buy a Harley Davidson, do a road trip to Spain, jump off a plane, learn
the guitar, French, salsa, get a 6 pack, do stand-up comedy and God knows what
else to fill up that empty void. Mat kar bhai! Soch. But... don’t just quit yet. Figure
out what you really love, are passionate about and can you find a way to move
to that quadrant and get good at that. Doing what you love to do will always
eventually play out better and the money will sort itself. Don’t get fooled and
pulled under by the promise of the fatter pay packet, the bigger car, the
better house, the fancier designation and more. But at the same time, those are
good things, so don’t jump blindly. First identify, assess, figure how much you
need to save up, train up, skill up to get to a stage where the possible reboot
will help you fire up faster from the switch. So HANG IN THERE, EVEN IF IT’S
STOPGAP, BUT KNOW IT’S STOPGAP, AND USE THAT STOPGAP EFFECTIVELY TO FIGURE THE
RIGHT ONE.
4. You love it but aren’t good at it [Top
Left Quadrant]
This one’s the trickiest. You are passionate about
something, love it, really are dying to do it. But have never done it. Went
through the wrong acads, education stream, degrees due to various external
pressures, or you didn’t know better than. Then followed through on the same
line to get a fancy placement, and since you worked hard, continued to grow,
get promoted, etc. and somewhere that thing you loved, always wanted to do took
a backseat. Woh toh extra-curricular ban gaya. Woh toh hobby hai, kaam thodi na
hai! And now you worry that it’s too late to switch. There could also be a
scenario that you’ve taken the leap but are realizing that maybe you aren’t
good at it. But if you really love it to death that much, don’t give up yaar.
Too many people give up too easily. For a variety of reasons. Practicality,
etc. Because middle class logon ke sapne bhi saale middle class hotay hain!
You have to realize that dream jobs are not
just dreams. They’re jobs. Which require work. Hard work. And blood, sweat,
tears, susu and lot of other bodily fluids. But they’re worth it cause they’re
dreamy. So then get at it. Skills can be taught, passion can’t be. Passion has
to be caught, skills can’t be. Adding skills is easier than annexing passion.
So if you’ve got passion, it’s going to be easier. Lag jao. Learn, train,
observe, do, cock up, do again, fail, improve, practice, rock. But chhodna mat.
For a lot of people, this will be the box that you ALWAYS have to be in. Or should be in. To do
what you love, want, die to do. And keep working to get better and better and
better at it. CHASE THIS!
So now classifying things into 4 neat looking
boxes is the easy bit, but then actually acting on it is the tough part. But
pull back and ask yourself those hard questions. And answer honestly. Knowing
and acknowledging where you stand is the first step in taking the correct next
step. Finding the right job, career for yourself. Cause if you are able to do
that, then you won’t have to work for a single day in your life again!
