Career and calling

"What are your career plans?" I asked a 10th class guy.

"An IAS officer", his mother replied.

I looked at him and found a blank face.

"What are your career plans?" I asked him again.

"An IAS officer", his mother replied again with a look that translates to "Don't you dare ask him one more time!"



Will I stop....?

I took him aside, and asked him few questions like what are his interests, what he thinks his strengths are, etc.

Though hesitant initially, he poured his heart out.

I gave few pointers on how he can choose his career, and left him alone.

When I met him after two days, I immediately recognized his excitement.

"I am going to study law, you know, I love sherlock holmes, I love sloving puzzles, I have a great memory and many times i watch tv programs related to law." He told me so happily.

Fortunately, his parents agreed for it and his mother still repeated, "I will make him an IAS officer after he completes law"

His puzzle solved but not mine.

November 2011, I met my mentor. We had a small chat for 5 mins and he suddenly told me, "Gopi, don't confuse between career and calling"

That struck a chord. I agreed that I was confused and I took it up as a challenge.

I searched and researched a lot. In fact all of my waking time (except office) went to that and this is the reason there is no activity in my blog recently.

I have decided to give all I learnt in a concise way by giving you the pointers which you can use while deciding your career.

Here is goes...



 Know your self and be yourself


First let me define personality.
personality = physical + emotional + mental natures of a person.

Personality or personality traits are the patterns that you exhibit in your day to day life. It is the way you act and the way you react to events, people, challenges. It is the mechanism which you use to express yourself on earth and every personality is unique.


I read torkom saying that we should not have vanity. He continued saying that many people think vanity is excessive belief in one's own abilities but vanity is also not having enough belief on your abilities. "You should know what you are exactly, not less, not more."

The problem is many people don't know what they are exactly. It requires a life of dedication and self-observation which seems to be a long process.

Fortunately to make our life easy, there are several tools which we can use to know about ourself. One such tool is the MBTI system. It is a system developed based on Carl Jung's principles. It categorizes people into various categories based on four measures

1. Whether the person is Introvert or Extrovert
2. Whether he is sensing or intuitive
3. Whether he prefers thinking or feeling
4. Whether he is judging or processing

Based on the above, all people in the world are divided into 16 types. There are several online tests you can use to determine yours.



















A sample test is http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

When you answer them, be truthful, answer according to what you are rather than what you think you should be.

If you don't like helping people and a question comes related to it, say it. Don't say otherwise and remember there is no correct answer to any question, it is all about your preference.

Once you complete the test, you get a code and its description. Read it and justify how far it applies to you and if you feel it is good enough, you can use the code and start digging into it more. It gives you a good picture of what your tendencies, strengths and weaknesses are.

Remember the below

1. If you don't like what you have got, leave it.
2.Nothing describes you exactly, anything, at its best, can give certain patterns of how you behave.
3. Everything that comes under your type may not apply to you and one type is not better than any other.
4. You might be someone who is inclined towards more than one type, so don't despair when you are not able to find an exact match.

Once you do the above, you get a fair idea about yourself (not 100% though). Then you can use your type and search for suitable career options.

You can refer to the below for more clarity

http://www.scribd.com/doc/15163830/Career-eBook-Do-What-You-Are-Discover-the-Perfect-Career-for-You-Through-the-Secrets-of-Personality-Type

Again, the above book gives only recommendations. Anyone can excel in any career, it is just the above gives the one that has more chance to use our natural abilities and can be done with least effort.

Career and Calling


Now that you know the possible career paths, what about your calling?




Whats the difference?

Career : Something that you are good at doing, that uses your talents, skills and pays you money.


Calling : Something that gives you satisfaction. Something that feels like the thing you are put here to do and something that you are always ready to do for free.

Major factor in Career is earning and in Calling is satisfaction.

Many people confuse both and make wrong decisions. (something which my mentor pointed to me). Ignoring any of these will be wrong move.

There are two ways of dealing with this.

Having both:


One way is to have and balance both in your life. You would have your career goals, you excel in it and when you have time you give it to your calling. A typical example can be a mechanical engineer who uses his weekends to give counselling and career guidance to teens.

The key here is balance.

Merging both


The other way is merging both. A similar example is where this mechanical engineer turns into full time career and student counselor.

The key here is finding a way to get paid for following your calling.

This book gives more insights into this topic http://www.amazon.com/Four-Purposes-Life-Direction-Changing/dp/1932073493


A touch of spirituality :


If you get clarified about your personality, career and calling...almost all the work is done. But I thought to add something which also helps you understand about yourself.

This is based on ancient neurological theories and since it came from one of the most practical spiritual author's I have ever read, I gave it a try and it really looked great.



Refer to the links below.

http://www.peacefulwarrior.com/life-purpose-calculator
http://www.amazon.com/Life-You-Were-Born-Live/dp/091581160X

The END


This settles everything. If you really wanna have all answers about career and calling, this post will be a good start. The MBTI system even explains the midlife career crisis. Career and Calling comes into picture in every critical decision you take. The numerology system tells you about your talents and the challenges you need to overcome. I did my best to combine psychology, philosophy and spirituality to answer career dilemma.

I request you all to suggest this post to all people who you think might find a use from it.

Note : I recently was having a writers block and I thank the girl who always (even today) kept asking me about my blog activity.

 This is dedicated to you!....:)