They have a dream!

With specialisations, assessment tests and the fast-growing field of career counselling, any interest or passion can translate into a job in today’s world.

It is easier than ever before. But people still choose to be safe and pursue courses that ensure stability. It seems ingrained in us — to have a dream but not pursue it directly because we are afraid to risk the future. 

The information that Google, Bing or Yahoo can give; the reality shows that focus on career paths and the career counselling provided in schools; give clarity on what to study and which career to choose. People discover new things and deviate from what they had intended to become one day down the road.

However, there are many people in the City who are currently in an offbeat career, yet pursued a conventional course just to have a safer option in hand. Metrolife spoke to a few such people. 

Ramya A, who is now a mentor for vedic scriptures at ISKCON, did engineering in biotechnology just “to be on the safer side”. She says, “Just in case there was no vacancy for non-engineers or non-doctors, I had to do a basic graduation in biotechnology.” 

People become engineers and then get an MBA, switching to networking or marketing. 

Some women even start tuition centres or turn to writing novels when they exhaust their engineering careers. Meghana Basavaraju, a 19-year-old, says she took science but then switched over to the communications field as a way “to keep all paths open”. She reasons that with science, entry into all streams is possible. But the same cannot happen vice-versa. 

Some people even realise that they want to pursue a different career but stick to a conventional course because they wish to learn about it. Kshitija Jayanth, a first year communication studies student, did commerce till she came to the undergraduate level. She says, “I had always wanted to study accounts and business and gain more knowledge about them. But I wanted to make a career out of arts.”  Shiv Nair liked science but after two years, he realised that he didn’t want to pursue anything in science-oriented streams. While Shraddha Sharma notes, “If I had taken arts and later regretted not being able to do engineering or medicine, it would have been horrible. So I studied science.”

A shift from arts, science and commerce is hardly unusual anymore. It is actually less common to go along a complete arts or commerce path. The idea of “all-round development”, aimed at by schools and colleges, is mirrored in the mind of the students as well. 

Ramya A points out that because of the changing demands of society, the employment situation has become unpredictable. 

She says, “The students are confused. With multiple targets to meet, they have become the ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’!”