Times have changed
Image credits to AZ Quotes
We are proud. We are proud that our millennial (well, almost) made into Prestigious Robert Bosch GmbH, close to Headquarters. From today’s perspective, it looks like an obvious choice of career after completing Masters in Germany. Oh! Yes… that’s another feather in his cap. Let’s call him — Mr.John.
What you see is like the tip of an iceberg. There had been a large tectonic shift in the attitude and major happenings compared to just 6 years ago.. Times have changed. This is the same thought which had triggered Ruth Bader Ginsburg during her walk with her daughter and further built this thought onto an argument to win her case.
Times have changed — Compared to where typically a Masters Graduate will look forward to a Doctorate or based on the current trend — just get into any company to continue living where you have completed your Masters eg: Germany, Australia, Americas.
Times have changed — in how students prepare themselves starting from day 1 on their college life. They clearly know that getting an A grade has become basic and multiple hands-on projects only helps them to steer their career.
This did not happen overnight. There were a series of steps / interventions addressed during the last 6 years for John.
Calibrate :
It did not work out !.Certainly, when John joined a college, the basic culture, the way the college was run, the way he had been brought up till now was completely different to what he had been exposed to until he joined this college. Didn’t last for months. But with the excellent guidance from parents, multiple conversations with other family members, friends the course was calibrated. He was back to the place where he had completed his schooling.
This is one of the biggest and most fearful, challenging steps we should take in our life. Calibrate. Understand where you are , assess whether it’s right for you (not for your parents or partners) and take steps to calibrate.
I can quote multiple examples which I have seen with my friends. One of my friends wanted to explore whether setting back in India is the right choice after taking citizenship in another country. He tried, explored, shifted his family to India, got his daughters enrolled in school. But things did not work. Calibrated. Now he is back to his country, where he is a citizen and outside india.
This is not a one step activity or a only a first step activity. Calibration should happen frequently and the effect of that is either re-assurance that you are on the right path or an opportunity to navigate to the right one.
Navigate:
John — during this first year of college explored what’s the options available to make the college life more interesting. Got into Photography, Made new friends, Got into selfless work of teaching kids as a Volunteer. All these steps did make him understand the essence of what’s required to excel.
Get on to something that’s interesting for you. There could be millions of doubts whether you will succeed or not. The key principles are to
- Get on to something — where you know that you don’t know and you can improve
- Be consistent
- Success comes by practice. Even if you are 1% better than yesterday, imagine how much you would have progressed in a year.
Commitment :
Once you have identified the idea, passion or do not even know what it is, but got convinced that you will become good at it, next is to get yourself committed. Commitment is for yourself and it’s not for any other third person. Commitment is like “what you do , when you are not watched”. How much time and effort you can really commit yourself to the action , will be shown in the outcome or the results a few years later. Getting committed to your work, passion or learning is to
- Dedicate a time in your day for this activity — consistently.
- Know your weaknesses and work on improving.
Just being committed, sometimes may not take you anywhere other than a few spikes of progress during initial days. What you need next is the Mentor
Mentor:
If you refer to any of the research papers on Mentoring effects, it always stated that Mentoring brings in positive outcomes, be it behavioural, attitude or career oriented. Getting yourself a mentor is the key step you will have to do in your initial period of your college or starting your career, migrating to a new country etc.
Again, identifying a mentor is Key. You do not have to look beyond where you are studying (university) or working (industry). When you want a mentor you will certainly find one. Mentor helps to curate your path to what you want to achieve. A mentor is also a person with whom you can share your innermost fears and work through the obstacles with Mentor’s experience and guidance.
While this is written based on John’s graduation of his Masters degree and subsequent placement to a prestigious , reputable organization, the same steps can be followed by you across your college, career or migrating to a new country.
In conclusion, Times have changed — in the way students or anyone take their passion to reality in a much different way than it was a couple of decades ago.
