Typically there are two schools of thought that are prevalent when youngsters
are planning their careers. One is to follow the bandwagon: Enroll in
the course which is most happening (read - which most people follow), be it
Engineering in Computers/Electronics, MBA, MCA or whatever and get into the best
companies (read, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro if you are in software or the likes in
Banking, Electronics or FMCG). This is what is typically also called as the Rat
Race.
The other school of thought is to follow your dreams. But hardly anybody
takes this route. It’s not the typical reasons like parental or societal
pressures that completely explain why. The main reason why people take the
beaten path is because they do not have a dream to follow. The educational and
societal system we have, hardly allows students to have a dream, let alone
follow it. Right from school one thing that is forced into every student is
compliance. Follow what the teacher has to say, follow the school/class
curriculum, follow the tuitions like everybody else does, follow the coaching
classes for entrance exam and the list is endless. This hardly leaves any mind
space for youngsters to identify their potential and have a dream.
When I was in my school, I was of the kind, who wanted to follow his dreams.
However, the biggest challenge for me was to figure out what my dream was. I
could never really figure that out.
And before I could, I was already in the rat race. I joined engineering in
electronics and communication since my father wanted me to.
However being of
the dreamer kind, I asked myself, now that I am here, where would I like to go
from here? This question led me to have a dream: to get a job in research and
development in India. I had it clear that I would not follow my friends, most of
whom were planning to go for MBA. I wanted to be part of a research and
development organisation and that too in India.
In mid 90’s this was a very big dream to have, since there was hardly any
research and development happening in India, let alone in the field of
electronics. However, I was keen to pursue my dream. This meant I had to be
without a job for a few months after college. It also meant that I had to let go
of lucrative jobs in big companies like Wipro, from which I had a job in a
support function.
One attitude that helped me pass through that time was to
be positive, hopeful and not to get trapped in anxieties that all my friends
have a job and I don’t.
After waiting for a few months, I finally got a job in an organisation to
work in advanced research and development in microelectronics, an absolutely
unchartered field in India at that time. I worked in research and development department for 12 years at various
positions – including being a design engineer, a design lead, a team lead and
finally a group manager.
By this time, I had fully lived my dream and I was getting anxious to do
something different. What I was doing no longer looked like “the dream” to
follow. It probably was the time for a new dream.
In my role as a design manager, people management was a big part. I got
involved in many intricacies of managing the relationship with my team members
as well as relationships amongst them. I found out how aspects like openness and
trust played a significant role in how the team operated and in turn on the
success of the project. I started developing a lot of interest in the behavioral
aspects of managing people. I also worked very closely with our HR department to
develop new trainings and interventions for my team. I found that this process
of co-designing the workshops with HR was very rewarding. And this made me
wonder, should I start pursuing this domain.
I found my interest growing in this aspect and I started to contemplate a
change in my role on these lines. This, however, meant that I had to give up my
established role and move to a completely new field. However, it was not easy to come out of the comfort zones to pursue a new
dream – the comfort zone of a well settled job which I knew how best to do and
the comfort zone of a settled family life . I could perceive the risk involved
in leaving these comfort zones.
After about one difficult year of thinking and contemplation, and going
against suggestions of friends and well wishers, I was ready with another dream.
I wanted to move to behavioral sciences and work in the field of organisation
development.
Thanks to my organisation, which was kind enough to be flexible and
courageous enough to experiment, they offered me the position of organisation
development consultant - without me having any formal education or experience in
Human Resource.
The only human resource development experience I had was through my role as a
manager of a design team.
Since almost last 3 years now, I have been responsible for the Organisation
Development function of my department – which is close to 500 people. In these
three years, I got my Certification as an Organisation Development Consultant
from Indian Society of Applied Behavioral Sciences (ISABS), allowing me to have
academic background in organisation development as well as a lot of experiential
learning through the many human process labs (T-Group) that I attended.
When I look back now, I think I have been able to live my dream all over
again and establish myself in this role. I have started to live and enjoy my
dream. God only knows how long it will be before I start thinking about yet
another dream.
I would like to summarize by saying two things:
One, I believe that it is never too late to have a dream. At any point in
our career, we can develop a dream. We need to be sensitive to identify our
likings, potential and preferences and have the passion to follow them. And it
is possible to do so, if we don’t get trapped in the anxieties of reaching
somewhere quickly or comparing ourselves with others or only aiming for social
compliance.
Two, I believe that a dream need not necessarily last a lifetime. Whenever we
think that our dream job is no more exciting and does not give us thrills
anymore, it is time to read the signs and look out for a new dream to
follow.
If we don’t do that, we would be living somebody else’s life. And if we
choose to continue to run the rat race, even if we win the race, we would still
end up being a rat –a rat that has lived someone else’s life.
Ameet Mattoo
Jan 2012
