Pick a career that suits you

CHOOSE WELL

How you perform in your career or role depends on three factors — aptitude, interest and personality, says J A Chowdary

You are at an important juncture in life. You need to make career choices after completing your graduation or post graduation. Whether it is selecting the right course for study or the right job, you will need to make an accurate decision because your future depends on it. Most students opting for further studies rely on one or two of the following — others’ advice on what is good, the most popular course of study, the one that many in the immediate friends circle are taking up or the one for which admission is easily available.

Most students take up roles in organisations based on the salary and perks offered, the size of the organisation or the location of work. Granted, there might not be too many choices in the selection of a first job. But, there are some basic criteria that one must consider before making the decision to accept the offer.

How you perform in your career or role depends on three factors — aptitude, interest and personality. Systematic analysis of one’s own aptitudes, interests and personality and career choices based on that is likely to reduce a lot of mental stress later when problems of fitment arise.

Aptitude is slightly easier to assess. Scholastic achievements in school or college are a good indicator of aptitudes and abilities. Take a look at which subjects you have been scoring consistently well, or those that you think come to you naturally. For example, you may have a natural flair for mathematics. This would mean that you would do well in courses or jobs that offer an opportunity to deploy a step-by-step, problem-solving skill.

Some of the jobs that would be open to you are that of software engineer, computer analyst, programmer, actuary (assembling and analysing statistics in planning for the right insurance plans), statistician, maths teacher, research scientist and so on.

There are also aptitude tests that help you understand what you might be good at.  These might be a group of short timed tests that test verbal, numerical, mathematical or other basic skills. These are available on the net, as books with most bookstores and as free and paid tests on the web. There are also trained career counselors who can help you make the right choices by administering these tests for you.

Interest, on the other hand, is what draws you to engage and explore more. There are interest inventories that help you choose between functions and careers. Though many are available on the Internet, it is best that you approach a local trained career counselor to take these tests. Many free tests available on the Internet are harmful and may guide you in the wrong direction.  Valid career measures are the result of years of study and are not easily available free on the web.

Personality is the third dimension you should consider before making your career choice. For instance, assume you are good with numbers, have a flair for making financial assessments and plans and like making predictions on market trends in financial investments. One of the careers available to you would be a customer care executive in the banking sector, working closely with key clients and helping them make investment decisions. However, if you are not the type who is interested in working closely with people, if you are short-tempered and easily provoked with people who are slow in understanding (most people don’t understand financial aspects very easily!), then it might be better for you to choose a career in financial research or planning rather than a customer-centric role.

An interesting theory that helps understand the various types of personalities and the correlation of interest with personality is the Holland’s theory of career choice. The theory explains work-related behaviour and helps understand which careers are likely to lead to job satisfaction.

(The writer is Executive Chairman, Talent Sprint.)