Making the best use of any opportunity when it presents itself
Through systematic hard work, one has to make the best of every single given opportunity, at any given point in time.
This is easier said than done. In most families, career choices, for example, are made by parents, even though it may be clear that the children have very good talent, in singing or dancing, or even painting, and can possibly even make a big career and a living as well, in that field. The children are mercilessly pushed into engineering or medicine, and made absolute misfits.
Sometimes, the children drop out of colleges, and go on to become play back singers, or writers or film directors. When the society acknowledges their contribution, the parents realize their folly.
Similarly, in the Human Resources Management profession, it is vital to get a good grounding in managing welfare amenities, fighting with trade unions day in and day out, singing long-term settlements with the trade unions, and so on. This vital manufacturing experience is so essential to make a big success in the profession.
Yet, many straightaway jump into the more glamorous jobs in Human Resources Management in the IT field. It is true that they do get a lot of experience. However, they do not gain the vital factory experience, so badly needed, to become far better professionals.
Similarly, when the whole world looks at a huge number of opportunities to learn additional languages, particularly with the growing reach of the internet, it is sad to note that many thousands of students who have earned their degrees through the Tamil or Telugu or Gujarathi or such other medium, do not make any effort whatsoever, to learn English, the most important language of global communication, trade and commerce.
Such students always find themselves at the wrong end of the stick, when it comes to employment. Many opportunities that exist -- as such networking with those who know English very well, or those who have studied through the English medium -- are lost, and the boys and girls, who are graduates, are found to be totally out of tune with current realities and are left far behind when they face any situation in their career. Worse, many of them join only low end jobs, where the communication skills in English are not so important.
Much as we would like to simply take it easy, we are losing many an opportunity. For example, in the service sector, those who are a bit intelligent will notice the huge demand for food of all types. Since India has a very huge population, with very different tastes, it is extremely possible to start a small hotel business with the most minimum of investment. When the money starts pouring in, depending on the taste and the consistency of such tastes, the hotel business can be expanded.
This is exactly what is seen in the case of hundreds of entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu, who have moved from strength to strength. They have understood the rules of the game, and in a huge metropolis like Chennai, for instance, it is possible to find hotels of all sixes and shapes and tastes, and continue to milk the market, particularly when both the husband and wife are employed, and there is little time for anyone to cook.
Once again, when one examines the IT market for jobs, for example there is a huge demand for those trained in ethical hacking, or even cloud computing. A few thousands of rupees spent on acquiring this skill, does go a long way in making the person quickly available for jobs.
When one realizes the way thousands of young men and woman have been lead to the wrong path, because of the adamant attitude of the parents, the situation does call for a huge amount of career counseling. In the metros it is possible to find parents giving maximum importance for the nurturing of special talent of their children, and they balance this beautifully with the need for attention to the regular academic lives of children.
However, in the tier two and tier three towns and the rural areas, the old stereo-types still prevail. It is very difficult to break the mindset of parents who think that only careers in engineering and medicine are worth the salt, at any point in time. This is no longer the case, and new careers have opened up, like never before.
For instance, new careers in the media, in event management, in interior design and so on, are now very famous and hundreds of young men and women are now part and parcel of this new era of careers that are very creative and open to a lot of innovation.
For those in the regular Corporate Sector, it is becoming very clear that only those who survive by taking up jobs in a number of fields will succeed far better. For example,. in the Finance domain, it is essential that the person has to have exposure to regular accounting, indirect taxation with a big exposure to customs and excise duties, to Corporate Financial Management during crisis times, and also during the period when the organization is engaged in mergers and acquisitions.
The opportunities may not present themselves in just one organization. So, one needs to jump to another role, where the grounding in practical experience is possible. Once this is done, he or she becomes a thorough professional. There are times when we are lost in the maze of family problems, and when we think hundred times before re-locating. But we fail to understand the larger implications of the opportunities when they present themselves.
Children should also be taught the bare minimum of specific trades. For example, plumbing, electrical wiring, motor repairs and so on. The idea is not make them professionals in the filed, but to make them adequate in terms of acting in times of need, when they can fix a problem, rather than running around to find the friendly neighborhood guy, who is never available at short notice.
We can always think of ways in which we can use every single opportunity. We cannot let them go, at any point in time. We will be working smarter, if we do so. The time to act is now.
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