Accidental Career vs Addictive Career
How would any one choose his/her career? You might choose your career based on market demand, pay prospects, your interest in a specific field, parents & others influence, family culture (business families, doctor families), etc.
Unless you have a very good understanding of what career you really want to pursue, it is very much of gambling and adjustment/compromise. This is what I call as “Accidental Career”. The closest analogy I can give is arranged marriage vs love marriage. In arranged marriage you (your parents) find someone and get married then leave your life to theory of probability. You will get a suitable partner if you are very lucky person. If not, then you will get used to your not so suitable partner through adjustments and eventually you will be locked due to obligations. And, if you get frustrated then feel like leaving your partner but if you are scared then you will continue with half or empty heart. You only leave your partner if the relationship is becoming unbearable no matter what obligations you have.
This is exactly how you your accidental career also works. So, the lucky ones will get the right career coincidentally in the first few attempts and the not so lucky people will go through the cycle of adjustments and frustrations. When you are so much frustrated with your career you will look for alternatives but if you are scared or have too much obligations then you are forced to continue. Result of this is no fulfilling career and mediocre achievement.
What about Love marriage? At least here you would have taken conscious decision based on your likes, etc. And, hopefully you would have done enough dating before marriage. You will know to some extent the other person. If you select a career which you are passionate about then most probably you will continue with your passion for rest of your career. This is the reason why almost every successful person (in any field) say that they are very passionate about what they are doing. If not, then they won’t be able to produce the results they are able to. Most of these people are obsessed and addicted to their career. This is what I call as “Addictive Career”. Addictive career is progressive, fulfilling and outstanding accomplishments.
Don’t analyze and think about pros & cons of arranged marriage vs love marriage. That is just for analogy.
Think about if you are living with “Accidental Career” or leading with “Addictive Career”.
In the “Game of Career”, the most important step is to understand what kind of career you currently have.
YK
5 Comments
Nice one sirji… This article just made to analyze my career now..
From the moment I read this article I am under dilemma if mine is arranged (accidental) or love (addictive ) one.. 😉
Nice perspective Kishore… comparing the career choices with arranged vs. love marriage.
In India, for most of the employees when they start their career with large SIs such as TCS, Wipro, InfoSys, HCL etc…they unknowingly choosing the “Accidental Career” path. The future (career) path will be defined by their first 1-2 project allocations after their training. They are branded (boxed) to a specific technology/vendor/service area. Not much choice here. However if someone chooses the area of their passion, they will love the job and journey. They produce good results as you rightly mentioned in your blog.
Very right Munwargaru
Good Analogy of career with marriage in Indian Context YK!
Nice analogies sir. But, most of the people though they get into accidental career, may not know what is that addictive career they would fall for. For those kind of people rather than adjustment and compromise, i think they need to follow “love what you do” principle because they do not know what they love to follow “do what you love” principle.