The Hindu Business Line : Proceed, but...

A manager's life is all about making judgements — `taking a call' in manager-speak. At times the decisions are not easily reversed, more so with one's career choices. It is amazing in how many different ways one misstep forward or the "road not taken" can come back to haunt you.

More than 35 years ago I was interviewed for the position of an executive assistant in a non-corporate institution. The head of the institution took me round the facilities, introduced me to very senior people, and then most graciously invited me to his home for a delicious, simple lunch prepared by his wife. He was an idealist and an institution builder who went on to become a national figure in the ensuing decades; but the job was located in a one-horse town, and it meant forsaking savings needed to repay the debt I had incurred to earn my Master's degree.

So I chose a glamorous, much-coveted job as a trainee in a large company in Mumbai. The city lights beckoned me as they have done a million others. But imagine my dismay when on the third day of service I was transferred to the very city I thought I had escaped from, because the company wanted me to work in a city and a language I knew well! When things went sour with that prize job, there was no going back to the offer I had turned down. And so the cookie crumbles...

I remember this and many other faux pas of my career whenever students and colleagues ask me for career advice. One can at best help such advice-seekers with some old chestnuts about the need to first understand one's interests, motivations and abilities, and of going through tests to find out what you're really good at or delighted to do; but often such advice sounds tame even to oneself.

I can't help feeling that while doing this, I'm in a losing minority and unpopular with parents. It seems as though by definition such counsel would result in the young wasting their talent or idling their life away. Few adults seem to have the confidence that to be an excellent painter, singer, writer, broadcaster, or architect is so much more rewarding than being another mechanical engineer or cost accountant — the staple of middle-class aspiration.

A British member of the faculty at a training programme for managers once remarked, "You know, it's funny, these people who call themselves engineers aren't really doing any engineering; most are doing commercial, managerial or production jobs!" For him, an engineer was one who designed, created, or at least worked with his hands or maintained some process equipment. It took some explanation before he understood how such degrees are mere entry visas to adult life in India, and nothing more.

Today there are many more formal methods, compared to a decade ago, of scientifically testing for abilities and aptitude, and professional advice regarding career options. And there are far wider choices both here and abroad, as foreign travel is less expensive and more accessible. For the under-35 generation, the world truly is their oyster. Nonetheless, the herd tendency persists.

Both parents and young people prefer to take the trodden path, follow precedent and play safe. All evidence around them to the contrary is studiously ignored. For example, one prepares all through high school for the IIT entrance exam, which in turn is followed by four years of dreaming about either the GMAT or the CAT examinations; this is yet again followed by the MBA degree or the coveted overseas work permit en route to making one's millions — and living happily ever after in sun-drenched suburbia with a wife/husband and two children. Get the idea?

However, this conventional wisdom is as much based on a bunch of untested fallacies as the age-old debate on love marriages versus parentally arranged ones.

Fundamentally, the scope for any one to make the choice on your behalf is pretty limited. At best one can give guidelines. Even sharing experiences or prioritising is fraught with risks, partly because what the chooser wants is more than reassurance — he really wants to share the monkey on his back. "Well, I tried following my uncle's advice and look where it got me... " is a typical lament when things go wrong later, as they oft do. Not very different from choosing the spouse strongly recommended by a relative. No human being can really understand another as intimately as is needed to make decisions on their behalf; also, life is a flowing river, and you never step into the same river twice; so, what was a cushy, prestigious job in my 20s may be a non-starter for someone who is 25 today.

The post-modern, `globalising' scene is a chaotic, fuzzy logic world. No career is assured of success today; and though, in a limited sense, there will always be room for lawyers and accountants given our rulers' propensity to weave tangled webs of legislation, few distinguish themselves in such crowded professions. In salaried jobs there is no such thing as security; and job-hopping every three years now seems expected even on the employer's side! This means a permanent state of learning for the young professional, and a readiness to move across jobs and countries at short notice.

The most pathetic beliefs about careers concern money. Of course everybody wants it, and few seem to feel they have enough of it, although early in the career the successful young person thinks if he climbed the ladder fast enough he could afford to retire at 45 and do his own thing. Alas, that magical age is a receding horizon — ask anyone nearing that point. Peer pressures of a different kind multiply and ambition feeds on worldly success, and there is always a more expensive locality to move to, or more luxurious holidays for the family. Besides, the last thing somebody keen on his image wants are questions from his own kind, like: `Hey, I wonder why he chose to switch off when he was doing so well, did he goof up or did something go badly wrong or what is he trying to cover up?'

So, in the end — and unfortunately for many, too near the real end of the road — the seeker after the ideal career discovers some bitter truths. It is far better for the older person to whom he comes for advice to tell it like it is early in life — and let him find what he wants, independent of the pressures of following money or the trodden path of convention.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury

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