THE CLOSE RELATIVES FACTOR IN CAREER LIFE
Subroto Bagchi the CEO of mindtree consulting writes in his touching column the close relatives factors in our career lives that make or break our careers. Subroto Bagchi narrates a story of a lady named Vanitha Premkumar a 57 year old lady who works with the Taj Coromandel hotel in Chennai. This lady is due to retire shortly, and during her career with the group she has won the presidents club medallions three times in a row. This the lady attributes due to the joy and satisfaction she has with her career in the group.
Vanitha strated of as a telephone operator in the hotel with a meagre salary of Rs 300. It was a job she had to take up due to the force of her uncle who came down from Kumardubi. The uncle forced her to take up the job since her mother didn't allow Vanitha to persue her education after her father died. While the other five siblings of her pursued their higher educations.
Even though she couldn't pursue her higher education she could find a job in which she could excell and grow to great heights. She is a content person today when she looks back into her life. As her two children have also settled down in their lives. Her daughter is in the U.S married to a software engineer while her son is doing a course in a engineering college.
When the writer looks into the career lives of his own employees in his company he feels that many young engineers in his company who could have gone to great career heights within the company have left due to compulstions from close relatives.
Many young professionals today chose a career due to an advice from a close relative sometimes the advice would be of great value sometimes it could be disastrous. Many take up careers that never match their attitudes and personality due to which many face mid career life crisis of been in the wrong place and not knowing where to go next.
In todays scenario of job switching and career changes its very strange to find people like Vanitha Premkumar who remain loyal to a company for an entire career span. Today if a person is with a company for more than a couple of years there is pressure from friends and relatives asking him of what his problem is for been with the same company for so long a time. They tell him that people are moving ahead changing jobs and going places sometimes across the borders of the country, forcing the person to look for change intentionally or unintentionally.
But as is said and known that diamond is tough and precoius due to the pressure and moulding it undergoes in its formative years. Many a young professionals are victims of the society and times they're in today. Due to which many don't know the difference between a career and a job. Even the new generation companies owe a responsibilty for the same as they only offer a job to a person to achieve short run profits rather than a career for long term gains.
Manoj G.Varghese, Bangalore, India