From Pocket Money to Professional Salary

By Vivek Bindra

This high power motivational book "From Pocket Money to Professional Sal meant for Students and professional from of all grades and disciplines. It everything required to create a Great Successful Career. It also enables you to: * Plan & Choose your career successfully

* Learn various etiquette like;

* Dinning Etiquette * Meeting Etiquette

* E-mail Etiquette * Self-introduction

* Telephone Etiquette * Handshake Etiquette

* Grooming Etiquette * Business Card Etiquette

* Quick tips to Communicate in English Effectively

* Golden rules to crack difficult Interviews

* Lead & Succeed at GD's (Group Discussions)

* How to write Effective Resumes

* Tips to get your Dream Job

* Time Management for Students.

* Learn to handle the Failures in Career.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Books
• Release date: Dec 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9788128827983

Book preview

UNIT IBegin Career Planning in Your School/College

Chapter 1What is the Best Career for YOU

What’s YOUR Right Direction?

Discover Your Best Career Options

Chapter 2Test Your Strengths to Shape Your Career

Discover Your Strengths That Will Get You The Ideal Job

Chapter 3Transition from Student to Professional

Strategies For Successful Transition Into The Corporate World

Chapter 1

What is the Best Career for YOU

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

– Tony Robbins

Introduction

Congratulations! You are through with your studies or about to get through and now on the road to shaping your life in the direction that you want.

This is the time when you can make or break your life. As kids we always dream about becoming this or that and usually end up clueless by the time we leave school.

We generally do not have any conformity about our career path or career goals. We keep adjusting ourselves according to the marks scored and directions given by others that include our family and friends.

If I ask you today, what you actually want to be? You will say:

I want to become a doctor or an engineer or a chartered accountant or the like.

Let’s assume that your answer is I want to become a doctor.

Now, my next question is Why do you want to become a doctor? This is the question that really puts you in dilemma.

Generally most of you or your friends will respond by saying:

Because both of my parents are doctors,

Because my brother is a doctor and I’m really inspired by him,

Because my biology subject is strong,

I want to fulfil my parents’ wishes,

Because my father said Son, I could not become a doctor, but I want you to live my dream.

… And so on…

Oh! Come on my dear friend. STOP! By doing this you are neither living your life nor making yourself ready to fulfil your parents’ ambition. No doubt every parent wants their child to live a happy, peaceful, and lavish life. But, is this only possible by becoming a doctor?

What if instead of becoming a doctor, you turn out to be an IAS officer or a general manager in one of the world class MNC’s or renowned artist, or a famous actor or be your own boss by developing yourself as an entrepreneur. Will your parents not be happy? Will their aspiration of seeing their child living happy won’t get fulfilled?

Of course, they will not only be happy but feel proud to have a child like you. They will not get tired of praising you before your relatives, friends, or other member of the society.

So, my objective is to awaken you from the fallacy and help you think about what you want to do, to find the right direction for yourself, to design your own career path.

All of us have some or the other skills, talents, hobbies, and intelligence that make us successful at the jobs that tap these talents.

Thus, the objective of this chapter is to find a focus and a direction in which you can channelize your talent and realize your true potential for professional and personal success.

Let’s now begin by finding the right direction.

What’s YOUR Right Direction?

This section deals with the journey of self-discovery i.e. who you actually are. It starts with identifying your core strengths and weaknesses and then discovering your true potential which finally leads you to the career of your choice.

Where do you begin?

There are three basic questions that you need to ask yourself. I call this ‘the 3 Step Potential-Realisation Approach’. Let us understand this approach to find a career direction.

Discover Your Best Career Options

Once you understand the importance of finding a direction in life, you can follow this approach to find the right direction.

The three steps are in the form of questions for which you need to find the answers. Don’t worry; you don’t have to do this on your own. Throughout the chapter, I will keep equipping you with tools that will help you answer these questions to find your focus.

Step 1- Who Am I?

Step 2- What Is The Right Career for Me?

Step 3- How Do I Get a Job?

Let us see how we can answer these questions in detail.

Step 1- Who Am I?

First of all, we need to discover who we actually are.

There are two aspects to this question:

Discovering your Interests

Exploring preferences

Let us see both the aspects in detail.

Discovering your Interests

Hide not your talents, they for use were made, What’s a sundial in the shade?

– Benjamin Franklin

Think about the answers to the following questions. From there you will come to know where your true potential lies.

Learning Activity 1: Think & Write

What interests, hobbies, or tasks are you most passionate about?

..............................................................

Which activity/activities do you like the most that you enjoy doing creatively?

..............................................................

Write about a decision that you have been absolutely sure about and have not regretted.

..............................................................

Write about your greatest accomplishment that you and people around you consider as successful.

..............................................................

What aptitude or talent/s led to the success in most or all of these situations?

..............................................................

Now you can make a list of all your talents and interests and get ready for the next step.

List of Interests

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

Exploring Preferences

The next step is to explore and analyse the preferences and see which one will reap the maximum benefits in terms of personal and professional satisfaction. With the help of Rank Analysis, you can choose top three career preferences.

Rank Analysis to Discover the Aptitude

From the answers given in the Learning Activity 1: Think & Write, identify the talents. Once you have identified your talents (at least five of them) mark them from A-E randomly. Now the table given here will help you identify the top three talents from your list.

Learning Activity 2: How to do Rank Analysis

Table No. 1.1: Ranks Analysis

Write your talents in the row and column headings on table 1.1 to compare talents with each other.

Evaluate the choice in the row with the choice in the column. Choose your preference and write the letter assigned to that preference in the blank cell.

Now from the two talents, calculate the difference in significance between the two preferences based on the following parameters:

0 = no difference or equal importance

1= little difference

2= significant difference

Lastly, tabulate the results by totalling the values corresponding to each talent.

Scoring

___

___

___

___

___

My Top Three Talents

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

Let me explain with the help of an example:

Rank Analysis: An Example

Ravi is a college graduate trying to identify his talents. By answering the five questions he identified the following five talents:

Accounting

Web designing

Singing

Dancing

Motivating

He did a rank analysis and found the following scores.

Scoring

4

2

2

3

1

Ravi’s Top Three Talents

Accounting

Dancing

Web designing and Singing

Out of these three talents Ravi can now explore his career options.

As you discover your qualities you will realise that your choices will shape your personality and by making the right choice, you can actually achieve the things that you want.

Summing It All Up

Let us sum up the entire exploration with my Who Am I declaration.

Learning Activity 3:

My Who Am I Declaration

My talents are:

____________________________________

____________________________________

I achieve the most with this talent:

____________________________________

____________________________________

I get the most satisfaction by doing this activity:

____________________________________

____________________________________

My Rank Analysis guides me to this talent:

____________________________________

____________________________________

Career Options related to this talent are:

____________________________________

____________________________________

Where talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation.

–Aristotle

Step 2- What Is The Right Career For Me?

After discovering your true self, the next step is to explore your aim and goal.

Your career and who you are need to be aligned. Once your aspirations and talents are in sync, you can achieve success in your career at a faster speed.

I had a friend whose intention was to earn money. He would look for jobs that paid well. He got a job with a handsome salary package but eventually suffered a burnout because of work pressure and because he did not know what to do as work. He was a talented musician and eventually quit his office job and became a music teacher. Now, after ten years as a music teacher he owns his academy.

So my friends, there are no shortcuts to earn money. Your intention must be to do what you are best at and not what gets you more money. Money will automatically follow if you are good at your job... and the arrangement to earn will last longer if you are talented. You must inculcate in yourself values and perseverance that can help you move towards your aspiration and for that you need to choose the right career that enhances your talents.

Let us now start exploring your career options that are in sync with your talents.

Before you start applying for jobs, you need to research on the options and top careers to identify opportunities.

Let’s assume you discover three top talents (dancing, management, and finance) that you can explore to pursue as your career. Now, for example, if you choose dancing as your first option, research on that area would tell you that you could become:

A choreographer,

A dance teacher,

An instructor in national and international events,

An entrepreneur by opening your dance academy etc.

Explore the Choices that You Are Aware of

Here, your Who Am I Declaration will be put to use. You have already noted down the choices that you have awareness of. Explore the options within your choices; are there any variations in the job profile that you can capitalise on or not?

Vocation Tests to Explore Other Options

There are various online tests available that can cover the options that you might have missed. Use these tests as a starting point in your research rather than the end point and see what the various options available for you are.

Shortlist Your Best Options

Once you have identified all your options, you can shortlist