Changing Times

Below is a graph indicating average tenure in different countries from Economist:
Go to Economist for full details

Though figures for India are not given, it would be somewhere in the middle. In the 80's, trend was one-job-for-life, in 90's it changed to two or three changes in career and now it seems to be not-more-than-one-job-a-year.

Though I'm not an advocate of frequent changes, I feel that the current situation is very good for people in the job market. It's not even from the compensation stand point but it is more from the point of having choices. Earlier people had very few choices and had to hang on with the same job whether they like it or not. But now one can try different things and find out what exactly he would like to do.

Many times people advice that you should find your passion and work in that area to be happy. But in reality it is so difficult to find where one's passion is. Everything other than what you are doing will appear great except for few. You compromise either for money, convenience, fear or even lack of awareness. You feel stuck and your enthusiasm takes a beating. It is therefore very important to have lots of options at the beginning so that you can experiment a bit and then choose where you want to make a difference.

But while you experiment don't forget to give your best at every job and think of change only when you have done really well or really bad. Don't think of changing when you are doing average, it means you haven't applied yourself fully or you didn't get into a situation that needed your best. It is best to review when you are doing very well or very bad and take a call

Another aspect that is unfulfilling in almost all the jobs is the dimension of social service. It definitely gives a lot of satisfaction to help others who are in need but many times it needs lot of focused effort, which many find next to impossible. This point has been noted by many corporations already and they are incorporating this dimension as a part of corporation's activities. This is one area I would like to follow and contribute in future.

Term break is half-over and right now it is kind of silence before the storm. Till now it has been the grades and competitions but from now on it will be electives and placements.

Changing times are ahead.