Cruising along the career path

Being happy doing what you love.

MARKET value today cannot ensure a feel good emotion in terms of job satisfaction. Great designations (Chief Knowledge Officer, Senior Vice President, Joint Managing Director) do not always guarantee a penthouse view of the future.

More and more we discover that we are faced with multiple choices in the career path with no feeling of joy to help us make our choice. Big houses, bigger cars, great vacations are accoutrements of success, but they leave behind a thirst for a kind of spiritual fulfilment.

We think we can follow our ideals and joys rather than conform to the general definition of success. We think we can make use on our abilities and skills to do what we have always wanted to do in the way we want to do them so as to give an enriched meaning to our lives.

This, however, comes at a price; remember there is no such thing as a free lunch!

A state of mind

The burning issue is: ``Will what I want to do, feed the family and give them the luxuries to which they have become accustomed?'' Abdus Razak, once a hardware whiz threw it all up to follow his passion, playing the Sitar! Something he had done for the joy of it for years, he hoped would meet his needs. He feels it is an uphill task.

Having given up his regular, high-income job as GM (IT) he found himself lost in the music of the spheres. The pity of it was that his family suffered the consequences.

Finally, he had to get a part-time engagement to make ends meet. He managed in the end to keep right- and left-brains reconciled, but not everyone is as lucky. Earlier, he spent up to 16 hours in the office, now he spends only eight hours at his workstation, but he also needs to spend four hours a day at practice, and sometimes as many as another four hours in performance.

Family life suffered as much as it did when he worked 16 hours! The only difference is that he thinks and says he is happier now.

Elbow grease

Razak's dream sustained him through the vicissitudes of life, however not everyone can get that lucky. Shruthi Angirasa had been passionately fond of animals from the time she was three.

Living on a farm allowed her to indulge in her passion as she grew up. The tragedy was that her parents pushed her to opt for biotechnology, which they felt would be better in terms of future prospects.

Veterinary science, which was her forte, was given the go-by and she missed the chance of the competitive exams to get into a Vet.College. Armed with a graduate degree in biotechnology she worked in a research laboratory in Hyderabad and spend hours after work tending to sick animals at the Blue Cross. She did her research job well and succeeded, but her heart was not in it. She felt resentful and victimised.

Despite being a better than average biotechnologist, she did not feel good about herself, which translated to a problem of attitude. In the circumstances, it was not surprising that she missed being selected for a management slot in her organisation.

It also hurt her deeply when a younger, qualified, person replaced her as the animal expert at the Animal Rights Organisation.

Finally after six years of hard work at her lab, she won a full scholarship to Cambridge where she joyfully took her veterinary degree and is today doing what she likes best and enjoying every minute of it. Today, Shruthi is a happy woman, she feels fulfilled and complete.

Career fulfilment is something different from career success. That Razak and Shruthi have found what they have been looking for is remarkable.

Razak may not be considered a success because of his need to express himself in a not-so-remunerative manner. Shruthi appears to have the trappings of success because she is abroad and is in a niche that she enjoys more than anything else.

It is important whatever one does, to have a clear goal and objective in view when one embarks on a career path.

You are indeed fortunate if your success is derived from your passion. However, everybody must keep their feet on the ground even if their heads are in the clouds!

S. RAMANUJACHARYA

professor1@sify.com