Need for Career Counselling

intresting article and quite true at the same time .....
but question arrises why such thing happens ,why we don`t get what we want . ??
Answer to this is we `ve very bad instititutions and the one who makes policies they don`t know anything about it and thats why we are facing such problems.
I want to prove this by KSE`s example that in Karachi their are so many educated persons in finance so many Risk Manegers but can they work properly? no, its all because of infrastructure because most of the people who deals in stock exchange are illterate and they believe in speculation and they can`t forcast even the reputable names of KSE are not even educated .There is no such instruments we don`t know and KSE is like a gambling place .Its not about KSE infact Assets mangers can`t work freely because mostly institutions never believes what they are saying ,so does education matters in Pakistan ... ???

Dear Ibrahim:

This will be a frank analysis of your case. What you have written here points to many problems, not just career counselling (CC). Let`s filter out the issues:

1. Need for CC to determine:
a. what`s your aptitude career-wise
b. how to handle on-job problems
c. what is the root cause of your problem

2. `Corruption` and mismanagement in financial sector, and your moral (or other) problems with that situation

3. Economic/ market situation, and your evaluation of those when you decided to join the industry

4. General HR (human resource) issues in organizations that lead to ineffective `fit` between capabilities and opportunities

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Speaking of point 1, it seems that though there is a general lack of guidance, you have had specific issues. As a person, it is ultimately our own responsibility for making informed choices and have the will to know what we`re getting in to. You chose glamorous images over concrete thinking. A simple walk in to real banks and talking to real bankers is a better option.
When you started working, you suffered from `disillusionment.` Don`t worry, this happens to about 9.9 MBAs out of 10. You`re not alone. It seems that when you started working, you were quickly disheartened by the un-Forbes/ un-Economist realities of Investement Banking. There is a real value of hard work, facing challenges, and making one`s way up and through. Re-read your article and try to find any ONE instance where you said you tried to improve the situation? The fact of the matter, dear friend, is that EVERYONE faces great challenges, even if they are born with a silver spoon in the mouth. Do you think the world lets a big shot guy keep his riches? He has to fight for it everyday just like any of us do fight for our career survival and growth.
Once the charm was gone, and it was time to face realities, you chose instead to see the flaws and negatives of your situation. Which place on this earth will you find corruption or problem free? These are realities of life that one lives with. Your problem was not that your bank was white-washing money. Your problem is that you don`t like you work. These are two separate issues, and it will help you to see them as such and solve them in isolation.

Also, you want to choose: as in, choose the goods (perks & privileges) and avoid the `dirty` part of the work. Selling is, as a matter of fact, a donw & dirty job, but then you have to sell yourself at all times everyday in any job position. Do you not think that even Bill Gates has to lick up (can`t think of a nicer term) to politicians?

In the final analysis - what you are facing are actually on-the-job issues that you are getting mixed up with past `mistakes` and the other 3 points which i will briefly go over now:

2. wrong practices exist everywhere, even in own business. It is a dillusion that many I know suffer from that things could be squeaky clean if we were allowed to choose our own work. As an exercise, think of ANY industry or profession where one can get by without any social / moral evil?

3. True that a bit of clever CC can train people to read future, yet not even experts can do it. Market situation has got nothing to do with past personal choices. What abt the engineering related careers?? What can do you good now, anyway, is the ability to make your self flexible and adaptive.

4. There are genuine HR issues in our country that merit a totally separate discussion. But Ibrahim, it seems in your case you weren`t sure of what u were doing and thus did not make proactive decisions. Your complaint to mismatch between you and your assignemnt is justified though.... and there is a need for organizational / human resource training and education in this country.

I will end my long analysis here. Perhaps I shall put these pointers in an article. Till then!!
P.S. I wish you good luck... my analysis has been candid, but i needed to get to the heart of it in a short time.

I don`t know when things would start changing... when parents would listen more carefully what the child would want to do rather than what they expect him to do. But a lot of intelligent kids, no matter which college they go or what they study, excel and get fantastic jobs. Wise are the parents who give their child a good primary education and make him/her capable enough of handling anything that comes in their way. Their exposure is greater, are active and have the potential to tackle anything... unlike the kids who did not have much exposure to a variety of subjects in their primary schools, were not given proper attention by their parents and kept flunking because of lack of interest in studies not because they were born dumb, but because they are not encouraged to study by factors no in their control.

I`m glad though, that I landed in Engineering, but still feel that I should have done fine arts or a simple MA degree in Religious Philosophy! I think that`s how it goes... you start studying, eventually get bored of all the course work and think that this is just not for you! Art students seem to have more liberty... students from colleges other than NCA think those art students are so cool, have less time to study and more time to have fun, have more boyfriends/girlfriends, stuff like that. But it get`s normal once you enter the real world, practical life, where what you have studied is being finally applied somewhere, and it makes it a lot more interesting. Moreover, we need more engineering and scientific professional rather than artists for our country... so in a way a lot of parents wanting their children to study engineering and MBBS are doing a good job... IF they also keep them from being hit by the braindrain syndrome!

I really dont know what career councilling is.

It all depends how soon one needs to start earning and bring money back home to pay the rent and to collect jahez for the younger sister.

if there is no such above problem and one has PurkhON ki jaidaad and aam kai baghaat, one can take up bachelors in music or do Ph.d in some Nigerian art...if one has an aptitude or love for that...

I just believe one should look up careers which are shorter and cheaper in education and bring money quicker...

Raka ` probably bukwasing` Posh.

There are days when i get frustrated by my computer courses and wish i had gone for a degree in art at Indus. Then I realize my drawing is nothing but pathetic. I wish I had had career counselling though, but even in its absence I think I did pretty well. I opted for a business degree and am doing pretty well. I`ve discovered I have an aptitude for it. But not everyone is that fortunate. A few weeks ago, a teacher of ours asked the class what they wanted to do after they finished their studies. 80% were blank. This is where the educational institutes need to look at.

I was a fairly decent student at school, who did quite well in his board exams and then shocked most people by taking up Humanities (arre..yeh humanities kya cheez hai!!...acha arts paroge)..Luckily for me my parents and class teachers were quite supportive and my school was lucky enough to have a good humanities faculty.

The artie bunch as we were called were a small group, well knit and distinguished by the fact that our class of 30 had 6 boys. But at the end of it, we did fairly decently, got into good Delhi colleges (St Stephens took 8, LSR another )...lawschools, design schools, all sorts of places.

So did we, five years since school turn out better or worse than the more conventional sciencies or commerce types. Most of us are happy, we are doing things we want to do, most are doing higher studies (couple of rhodes scholars amongst them)...some are just drifiing around writing for papers etc...or immersing themselves in theatre...

Eventually we may not all get pots and pots of money (im not too sure about that, some of my classmates and seniors are definately in the economics/management league, others are steadily moving towards those non taxable paid in dollars work in India International NGO jobs)...but nearly all of us are happy with what we are doing..and those millions of sciences...some made it to the IIT`s others went to arbit engineering colleges spread over from Shimoga to Shillong...and I know a lot them did not particularly like engineering or science...

So perhaps we need to actually explore more options, there are more options...and we have to break out of this mera beta doctor.engineer banega mould

We had career counselling, a very cursory sort of system...did it help, I dont know...