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Choosing a Profession
Our world is more sophisticated and varied; more challenging and promising than ever before. The way we live in it now has also changed as a result. As our lifestyles have changed, so have the number of professions increased. Matching this increase in the number of professions is the difficulty in choosing those suitable to us.
In the past, when societies were small and simple, the question of choosing a profession rarely arose. People chose their professions in accordance with their family status, and the traditions of the communities into which they were born. They merely followed in the footsteps of their parents; helping their parents in traditional occupations. They learnt the skills their parents taught them, and practiced their parents occupations. Thus, a cobbler’s son became a cobbler, a trader’s son a trader, and a landlord’s son inherited his father’s wealth. The simple lifestyles of the people limited the number of their professions.
Later, as societies developed, lifestyles became more varied. With industrialization, large numbers of people were required to work in mass-production factories, which created new professions in automation and management. But like those in the past, modern professions also involve acquiring skills by practical training which usually follows a period of comprehensive, basic education. Such training, along with talent and experience, continues to determine proficiency in professions.
However, the attributes necessary to succeed in modern professions vary from those required in the past. While hard work, sincerity and expertise were enough to ensure success earlier, factors like team spirit, coordination and the ability to inspire subordinates or to motivate colleagues are additionally required in the case of modern professions. In modern work places, since procedures are complicated, workers cannot do everything expected of them individually. They work as a team, the members of which have the responsibility to coordinate their activities and to cooperate with one another. Success in such cases, is more the result of team work than of individual efficiency.
The team leader has the added responsibility of inspiring the team members to produce quality work. By being quality workers themselves, the leaders can motivate their team members better. This shift in importance, from individual excellence to collective effort, is a feature of most modern professions; a fact-which should be borne in mind while choosing one’s profession.
Though choice of one’s profession is a crucial exercise in one’s life, rarely is it given its due importance. We still choose professions on the basis of our performance either in school or in the university. This tendency is both unwise and insufficient, because aptitude or liking for a profession can hardly be related to the marks obtained in qualifying examinations. Good knowledge of mathematics is not a sufficient indication to train as an engineer. The ability to imagine, conceptualize and innovate are more important for an engineer than to solve complex problems in mathematics. Qualities like creativity and resourcefulness, and a practical outlook, are as important for an engineer as skill or intelligence. Similarly, a person opting for a career in medicine should have a flair for dealing cordially and compassionately with people, more than a satisfactory knowledge of biology. Lawyers, who know all the laws thoroughly, may not be successful if they do not have the sharpness and alacrity to counter arguments. Likewise, teachers’ success in their professions depends more on gaining the respect and confidence of their students, than on their proficiency in the subjects that they teach.
It is, therefore, clear that talent, interest and other related attributes necessary to succeed in a profession are more important while choosing one’s profession than academic qualifications. The key to the successful choice of one’s profession is in the assessment of one’s capabilities. However, it should be noted that talents do not always relate to definite professions. Talents are often vague in nature and general in distribution; they can be developed only by interest and practice. The need is, therefore, to develop interest in a profession before deciding to practice it.
Choosing a profession is a very important exercise, because it decides what our future will be. The choice should be based purely on the merit of a profession and our interest in it. No useful profession should be considered as exalted or despicable in relation to the others, because professions can never be true indicators of a person’s dignity or character.