Deciding Career: Boundless opportunities, Endless possibilities

The millennial generation and Generation Z are fortunate enough to have numerous career opportunities available to them. This inundation of career opportunities and transitions in the 21^st century has made career decision-making a bit difficult. 

The future depends on what you do today.

Mahatma Gandhi

One has to look at the possible options and make choices considering the limitations and constraints of the individual while satisfying the passion. The process of convergence up to the final choice about the career is dynamic as well as full of apprehensions of the consequences of inappropriate choice. It starts with pursuing education and goes up to fetching the desired occupation and job. After getting a job, the next level of decision-making required is whether to continue with that job or move on to another job offering better prospects. Thus, career decision-making remains relevant for nearly the complete active period of life.

Final career decision-making is done by the individual and not by anyone else

The conflicting situation in career decision-making gives opportunities for career consultants to ease the individual out of the fear of wrong decision-making. But it should be remembered that the final career decision-making is done by the individual and not by anyone else. Therefore, it becomes essential to be well informed about our likings, dream, behavior, emotion, intellectual capabilities, family considerations, other constraints, qualification, information of available options, compensation, job security, social recognition, comparison among the options,  implementation of the choice made, etc. This intricate choice for the career can be done either through a systematic evaluation of all factors affecting it or just intuitively. The internal and external factors affecting career decision-making result in dilemmas which are much more for those devoid of information.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein

The conflicts in career decision-making should not be allowed to persist for long as the indecisiveness eventually leads to a lot of complications including the clutter in thinking, unfocused working which adversely affects the personality.  Expeditiously deciding the career facilitates clarity of thoughts, focused working, perseverance, positivity in personality, etc.

Let us look at the major aspects of the career.

Factors in career decision-making:

Career decision-making is the process to be carried out with great responsibility and honest consideration of the factors affecting them. The common elements to be considered in career decision-making irrespective of the qualification possessed by anyone are as under;

1. Passion and dream
2. Talent and confidence about the self-abilities 
3. Assessing the beliefs about career options
4. Tolerance
5. Optimism about the future
6. Motivation about career
7. Anxiety about career
8. Availability of information about occupations
9. Remuneration
10. Social recognition
11. Future security
12. Adaptability for the transitions
13. Conflicts  of family
14. Interpersonal conflicts
15. Internal and external conflicts
16. Career independence
17. Career flexibility, etc.

Therefore, career decision-making should essentially include the factors listed herein along with the other requirements of the specific career and individual’s concerns.

Embark on the career that catches your heart

It is better to involve the family influencers in career decision-making so as to arrive at a decision that is widely acceptable to the family whose support is perennially required. Quite likey all those involved in this process may not be well acquainted with the information about some of the factors, but every input improves the quality of the career decision-making process. In this fascinating world, everyone should embark on the career that catches your heart without hallucination by many things of life that catch the eye.

Choosing the subjects for study and program:

Education is a necessity that every human being has to seek. Seeking education is the right of every individual.  Every child starts formal education in schools and will move on through primary, secondary, higher secondary, and tertiary education system as per the individual’s capability. In general, the parents play a crucial role in deciding the specific stream and program of education for their child. In this process, the individual’s passion may take back seat in certain cases. Nowadays, the focus on multidisciplinary education has helped in overcoming this issue, and the opportunity to grow as per individual desire is available.

The selection of the subjects of study should be made as per the interest of the student and not for fulfilling the aspirations of the guardians. In the process of choosing a suitable career, every child needs to be exposed to all possible fields before he/she is made to opt for a certain program/ subject. Indian education system primarily offers three streams namely science, commerce, and arts with further subdivisions in them. Here are some of the indicative programs in the context of major streams of education at the tertiary level.

Major stream	Some Popular Program after 12th standard
Arts	Bachelor program in Arts / Beauty cosmetology /Business administration / Business management / Elementary education /Education / Fine arts / Journalism and mass communication / Hotel management / Law / Library science  / Music / Performing arts / Event management / Fashion design / Retail and fashion merchandise / Retail management / Social work / Graphic design / Travel and tourism /Teacher training  / Management studies, etc.
Commerce	Bachelor program in Commerce / Business administration / Economics / Law / Management studies, Professional courses of Chartered accountancy / Company secretary / Cost and management accountant / Financial planner, etc.
Science	Bachelor program in Architecture / Business administration / Computer application / Dairy technology / Design / Dental science / Education / Engineering / Environmental science / Fashion and apparel design / Fashion design / Law / Media and Journalism / Medicine and surgery / Medical lab technology / Naturapthy and Yogic science / Nursing / Nursing and midwifery / Pharmacy / Physiology / Science / Technology / Travel and tourism / Veterinary science and animal husbandry / , etc.

Sectors available for making career:

The availability of career options depends upon the specific sector contributing to the economy such as industry, services, and agriculture sectors. The qualification in the respective subject domain possessed by the individual is the primary criteria for deciding what are the opportunities available for anyone. 

For example, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics have been seen as the most charming career option for quite some time. This could be due to the ongoing advances across the globe and the major share of services and industry in the economy of the country. But the situation may not remain the same all through. So, each of the available career opportunities at any point of time needs to be assessed from the present focus and futuristic perspective.

Services sector is the largest sector of the Indian economy

It has been evident that new jobs are emanating in the core areas with the integration of artificial intelligence to them which means that the jobs involving physical labour may reduce to some extent. The services sector has become the largest sector of the Indian economy accounting for about 54% of the GDP of the country. It holds the potential to offer more jobs to cater to the requirements of the huge Indian population. The agriculture sector contributing around 17% to the Indian GDP is unable to attract brilliant minds of the country despite having the highest employment.

May see: Employment publications of Ministry of Labour and Employment

The ensuing spread of coronavirus has opened up many new areas of growth and development for the industry. The biosciences, microbiology, epidemiology, etc. have emerged as the niche areas to meet the challenges faced by humanity and civilization.  The digital education due to lockdown has opened up newer opportunities in the service sector dealing with the knowledge dissemination. This frequent upsurge of jobs in niche areas needs careful evaluation as there will always be limitations with respect to the feasibility of expansion and survival of the opportunities emanating out of it.

Frequent upsurge of jobs in niche areas needs careful evaluation

Undoubtedly, there has been a paradigm shift in the nature of jobs available to the young generation along with an increase in the spectrum of opportunities. There has been a reduction in the jobs with the public sector, along with a simultaneous increase in the private sector job opportunities. Some details of the available career opportunities which have varying requirements are listed below just for reference.

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Acting, Actuarial science, Administration, Agriculture, Archaeology, Astronaut, Astrology, Banking, Beautician, Builder, Carpenter, Consultant, Contractor, Cooking, Counselor, Dancing, Dairy,  Defence, Designer, Detectives, Dietician, Digital media, Driver, Doctor, Engineer, Entertainment, Entrepreneur, Ethical hacking, Farming, Films, Financer,  Games, Gardener, Geologist, Journalism, Historian, Hotelier, Insurance, Interior designing,  Landscaping, Lawer, Management, Masson, Mechanic, Media,  Metallurgist, Mining, Modelling, Motivator, Musician, Music director, Nursing, Painting, Para military, Pet sitter, Pharmacist, Photographer, Physical trainer, Physiotherapist, Pilot, Plumber, Police,  Politician, Professor, Purchase agent, Real state agent, Research and development,  Scientist, Singer, Social worker, Software, Space,  Sports, Stock market professional, Surveyor and loss assessor,  Teacher, Technologist, Transporter, Travel agent, Tutors,  Website building, Writer, Yoga, etc.

Try to seek job satisfaction rather than merely a job for survival

The career opportunities listed here evince the ample changes in the type of career opportunities due to the continued upgradation of the civilization which is expected to increase as well as change further in the times to come. The present era being blessed with the technological advances for making life easy & comfortable has a plethora of career opportunities, but their nature is somewhat different from those present earlier.  Career decision-making should be done with due care so as to end up in job satisfaction rather than merely a job for survival.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

Henry Ford

By : Editorial Team, TheRise.co.in