Excerpt of the week: The Anatomy of a Career Change Decision
We know that choosing a career and choosing a spouse are two equally important and analogous decisions. Yet, we often underestimate the importance and implications of a career change and fail to treat it fairly. Besides, we fail to benefit from the process of choosing a partner that presents an interesting analogy to the anatomy of a career change decision.
Among all creatures, only humans have the institution of marriage. Whether it is a blessing or a curse depends on many factors. The most important factor is how we enter this institution. It has a weighty bearing on what we experience subsequently— a heavenly living or a psychic trauma. Put differently, how we decide to marry, that is, basically how we choose our life partner determines whether we will enjoy the matrimonial bliss or endure the shackles, if separation is not the option. And while separation may be a blessing in disguise for many, it cannot be termed as a positive development in general. So, essentially the selection process, i.e., how we choose, influences the outcome. But then, why we cannot lay down the foolproof guidelines or perhaps have an academic course to equip ourselves for such important life-shaping if not lifesaving decisions given that we have the brain and proficiencies to do that. Perhaps we could not earnestly try it owing to our overindulgence in the rat race and other so-called mercenary tasks. So in the absence of any infallible guidelines or standard yardsticks, we often take such important decisions on our own, thanks to our self-involved attitude akin to a rat participating in the rat race. Now, let us explore how and why our choices go wrong.
When a boy selects a girl to marry because she is beautiful, brainy, levelheaded, well bred and rich, it is an objective decision that can be termed as a calculated move. And when the same boy selects a girl because she loves him and/or he loves her, it is a subjective decision based on a prejudice. In the first case, knowledge plays a decisive role. Human factors are responsible for the second decision, perhaps making him an uxorious husband until harsh realities of life dawn on him.
The God has presented us knowledge and human feelings, expecting a rational use of our wisdom to ably determine compatibility quotient while choosing a spouse or a career. That is why when the same boy rationally chooses a girl based on the man and material factors, his chances of success in the marriage are greatly enhanced, and he can look forward to revel in the role of an uxorious husband forever. Similarly, when we take career change decisions after necessary objective considerations in addition to assessing our true love for the new career, it assures much better outcomes. For that reason, in the career change process, our approach will be to draw on the synergy of mind and heart to establish the right blend of objective and subjective parameters to improve our chances of finding a compatible career.
Decision-making process for choosing a life partner and a career is fundamentally the same. And the outcomes of these choices follow the similar pattern as well. However, the process of choosing a spouse is more complex and intense as compared to choosing a career, again probably due to the interplay of our animalistic instincts in the case of former, ostensibly in quest of a true love. Choosing the first career or a new career is relatively simple and simply calls for a sensible approach to reap the rich dividends.
Career change is the topic that usually enervates the rational thinking power of nearly all who think about it compulsively. And it is not a walk in the park, even for those who contemplate it rationally. Yet, career change has become a way of life for the career conscious white-collar people. Many of them are actively seeking a new calling, because they are not genuinely happy with their current career, a fact established by several studies and surveys…