Outline:
- Introduction.
- Importance of choosing.
- Preparation of career.
- Conclusion.
Self-knowledge is a very difficult thing. We rarely know ourselves. It is still rarer among the young and inexperienced, and it is. these young people who have to make choice of careers and professions which are confoundingly varied. They seem to be equally attractive and young people very often make the wrong choice and consequently they make little progress in their life. In order to choose the job and career that offers scope for one’s progress and prosperity, very careful consideration is needed. It is in the selection of careers that teachers and parents should co-operate and decide according to the talents and temperaments of the young. It is only when a right career is chosen that young people prosper and become happy. If this is not carefully selected, the efforts of the young to pull on in their jobs become wasteful. Therefore, intelligence tests and vocational aptitudes should become the basis for choosing the careers and professions of the young. The factors to be considered in this matter are the physical, moral and psychological character of the young.
A careful examination of these factors would help in finding out what might be good and fruitful for the young. The importance of the choice of career cannot be exaggerated. The success or failure in life depends upon the making of a right choice. For example, if a youth is interested in mechanics and shows great promise in doing and constructing things it would be unfortunate to force him to adopt a literary. or journalistic career. It would be like squaring the cricle if, on the other hand, a youth with a richly emotional temperament were to be made an engineer or an architect. The success and happiness of youths is wholly dependent upon their finding joy in the job they have to do.[the_ad id=”17141″]
Life is more difficult examination than those that students take in schools and colleges. It is not enough to pass academic examinations. One should be able to pass the examination of life. That is to say, one should be employed after education and get joy in the job. This is most important. It is not enough to pass an examination; it is not enough even to get job; it is most important that one should get joy in the job one has to do. This is the test of a right choice of career. If a person does not get delight and joy in the work that he is doing, then he has failed in life, no matter what money he might earn or what position he enjoys. Happiness comes only when we get pleasure in the duties we have to perform.
It is for this purpose that one has to make a right choice of one’s career. However, it is not always that one gets a chance to choose one’s career. As a general rule it may be said that careers are chosen by parents and young men have to obey the wishes of their elders. If, for excample, a lawyer wishes his son to take up law, it will be difficult for the son to say ‘no’. The same holds true in other professions. In those professions and crafts which are hereditary, the question of choice simply does not arise. The son steps in the past. But otherwise even when the profession has to be chosen the choice is usually left to the parents. And this is particularly so in society like ours where parents’ authority and influence dominate. There is nothing wrong in such an influence. No parent wishes to misguide or obstruct his children’s career. On the other hand, parents are genuinely interested in seeing that children should shine and succeed in the jobs they take up.
But the trouble is that good intention are no guarantee of sound judgment and keen insight, which are needed in order to find out the skill and aptitude of youths in particular subjects and jobs. Love is blind, and parental love no less. Some parents are dazzled by the prosperity of certain people in certain careers and they imagine that their children should enter those professions at any cost. This is an all too common parental disease. They do not care to see whether the talents of their children are capable of being exercised in that line. For example, engineering and technology are now regarded as very lucrative. They are so, no doubt, but that is no guarantee that every young person has the genius to be an expert in these careers. Yet it is a pity to see how almost every second parent wishes to send his children to these subjects, regardless of the interests or aptitude of the same. That is not good for them or for anyone.[the_ad id=”17142″]
Supposing now that by careful observation one is able to find out the capacities and aptitudes of youths, and to fix up certain careers for youths, the next question is to see that sound preparation are made to ensure success in the particular careers. To make a choice, however good and likely, is only half the battle. The battle of life can only be won when youths systematically train and discipline themselves – for the careers chosen for them or by them. Talents and even genius are of little value unless they are properly exploited and exercised. This preparation should be systematically made so that the youths are able to meet the demands of the chosen careers.
Also, a career once chosen should be adhered to. It is not wise to change one’s career, except in an exceptional emergency. Generally, it is good to stick to one career, and to persevere in it. If there are troubles and difficulties in the chosen career it is better to wait and get over them than hurriedly give them up and begin afresh. For, there are no careers in which there is only smooth sailing.[the_ad id=”17150″]
The world is wide enough to provide for all sorts of talents: and skills. Society needs innumerable services and modern civilisation is so multifarious that services are growing in geometrical proportions. There is therefore, no need to worry over finding jobs. Those who worry are those who have set their hearts on particular jobs which are supposed to be lucrative, fashionable and attractive. But as Carlyle told us long ago, all work is noble. Honour and dishonour from no condition rise, and if we act well our part, there all honour lies. So, we must not make fashion and public fancy the standard for choosing careers. The one and only standard of choosing should be the aptitude, temperament and interest of the person concerned. It is these factors which finally decide whether one succeeds or fails in one’s career. We should follow the latest techniques in intelligence and vocational tests discovered by experts in America and Britain where such tests are yielding beneficial results. In short, the choice of a career is too important an affair to be left to chance, parental and personal whims and wishes. Vocational guidance should be given in every institution, and occupations should be chosen voluntarily by the persons concerned.
Finally, however, we may note one point. Let us not make too – much of a choice of careers and professions. The fact of the matter is that all persons are endowed with talents and skills which can be utilised to meet the demands of almost any career. Not all careerists are born, most of them are made. Human nature is extraordinarily adaptable and it can be depened upon to guarantee success in all walks of life provided, of course, that there is sincerity and discipline to ensure success. Exceptions apart it may be asserted that chance as much as choice might equally be the basis for providing careers and jobs. After all, the best laid plans of mice and men go wrong, and therefore, we must not make too much of planning and choosing. All careers are good and fit for almost all persons. The things needed for success are genuine desire, keen and delightful interest and unyielding perseverance. If these are present, there should be little of the problem of the choice of careers.