Gauging your career prospects

            The road to employment and career is not smooth. The potholes and bumps that may be on it may have an abundance of breaks and prospects in them. You may find some opportunities ideal, some interesting, some useful and some irrelevant. There are some career opportunities that have the makings of wasting your time, tiring you out and draining your pocket too.

Is frittering away your valuable resources – hard-earned money, valuable time and priceless enthusiasm worth it?

There is nobody who can make money by digging into his or her pockets. You cannot earn money by simply doing nothing. If you think that you can have a six figure income by staying at home and making paper bags, you are sadly mistaken. Everybody would be doing this out-and-out only if such a possibility existed. Every second person on the street would have been a millionaire.

There are several people and their numbers are incidentally large who go about squandering away their precious time and dear money searching for their dream jobs. If a survey was to be conducted, there would be many who would get noticed for having wasted their time and resources on getting geared up and hunting for envisioned jobs that never came. Occasionally they would have been assured of big deals that in actuality turned out to be trivial stuff. Even if no promises were doled out to them, success did not come their way because either they did not seek clarifications or took things for granted. 

The issue is akin to the devious door-to-door salespersons who take orders, collect advance money and vanish into thin air. The job market is comparable with similar con artists out to exploit job seekers. Hence, you should always play safe and ward off attempts by fraudsters.  You should also be scouting to identify conditions that stage a faint type of unfairness that otherwise would be difficult to visualize whenever a job opening throws itself up. Some such situations are illustrated as under:

·   A trainer who persuades you to join a coaching centre where the curriculum is unlikely to be of any utility in so far as getting a good job is concerned. Evidently, all promptings were with ulterior motives, making a fast buck being the most common.

·   Work from home – many such endeavours involving sale of consumer durables are known to be in vogue. Should somebody goad you join such a pursuit, it should be remembered that the other person would definitely receive a commission from the earnings generated by your sales. Therefore, rest assured that there would be many deliberately left-out issues.

·   You are influenced by a therapist working at an institution to enroll for a soft skills training programme. You get carried away and pay full fees. Later you realize that the same training is available in a lane adjoining your home and that too at a fraction of the cost you have paid.

Instances like the above are not uncommon and individuals involved have objectives contrary to yours. They can be best described as fraudsters or cheats. Charlatan is also not a bad description. So the onus to view all facts dispassionately and without prejudice rests solely on you. You should also independently see through all propaganda and hard sell. Your objective should be to find out the suitability of the job opportunity in your own individual context.

How can one make factual assessments and sound judgments about career opportunities? The abc of the answer lies in the acronym ‘abc’ itself:

·   Asking:  You should not be presumptuous at all. Assuming things may lead to embarrassment subsequently. You should ascertain all possible details about the accomplishments and achievements of others in the same field. In addition, there is no harm in finding out comparable alternatives that may exist in your vicinity. In fact, you should find out all relevant information that you could regard as necessary to compute success, including income prospects.     

·   Boldness:   The impression that you portray will always be contingent on the assertiveness that you display. It is all about having a clear mind and that calls for confidence and nerve. If you ask a question, there should be no way that people can dilly-dally in their response. You can keep on seeking clarifications till the time you are satisfied. And there is nothing wrong in asking for supporting data or allied substantiation. Remember that the future that is on stake is yours and the career in question also yours; so there ought to be no room for any coyness. Boldness also implies rejecting what is not true, but before doing that, you will have to weigh everything in its correct perspective; therefore remaining unconvinced till such time fully convinced is perfectly in order.     

·   Consultation:   Conferring with others or seeking a second opinion is okay and nobody should ever object to it. The pros and cons of every decision that you take should be analyzed because it is only then that you would be able to put in wholehearted attempts into work. A single mind may not be able do so objectively; hence if you discuss an issue with a confidant, an objective estimation of things will come about.

The need to have an analytical mind when you are looking for career openings needs no emphasis. If you can comprehend the reasons why others are prejudiced and have preconceived notions, you will be better endowed with prowess to take a career decision that will compliment your very personality and disposition.