How would you have shaped your career differently?

Around 8 years back i have completed by B.Tech. I got selected for TCS in my final year of engineering. As my college is from a small town we rarely know about career prospects after B.Tech. Adding to that having a job offer in my hand made me not to think of anything else. Finally joined TCS as if that i the only option. Till date i regret that decision. Frankly once joining IT you can rarely come out of it unless you are driven by high amounts of passion. Had i not got selected for TCS that time i would have done MS in US. Now my friends who finished engineering in 7 years are in US driving Jaguar XF, Audi, accords etc. Here i am fighting with my manager for Onsite, contacting banks for auto loan to buy alto.
 
ayanavish said:
I could have paid more attention to my studies during my educational days, but then again the end result could have been same.
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I sometimes feel that I could've had more fun during my studying days. I was busier with studies back then than now with the job...
One more regret was that I should've moved out of country some 8 years back instead of last year.
 
Well, reading most of facts here, I feel this is a topic that relates to everyone. Very good topic @Renegade

First things first - I am no IT guy. I just have an interest in it and hence am here. Now coming back to my career choices, it is no different than what many have already posted.
I was always a bright student. Now my parents had a way to lure me to study more, they bribed me. :D So, my dad said if you get a distinction in 10th, you get a PC. My prelims already had me scoring 85% + and my dad out of excitement got me a PC 2 months before my SSC (Big Mistake!). Finals were done and all I managed to score was 64% - I still remember the embarrassment. Anyways prior to the finals, had appeared for a Career Aptitude test - The one that ruined my career.

The results showed that I was not so good at Maths. (Reality : I dint give the exam with all my might as I wanted to just end the 4 hour long exam as soon as possible) It resulted that I am good at managing things and not really good at anything technical. Heck did I know that, the professors and my parents had already plot my way into my career path. It said - Commerce -> BMS -> MBA -> $$$$$$

My parents were innocent enough to follow expert advise for their kid. And after doing my MBA in Marketing 3 years ago, I realised that all this time, I have been following a chart drawn as per a Kid's mind, who wasn't even in the mood to sit for that exam.

My choices left me where I am today. Post MBA Marketing, I was clueless what I wanted to do. I joined an advertising agency and was a junior client servicing executive. The job was great but I could not give it my desired time as it was in Malad - East and I stay at Panvel, the Pendora of Mumbai. It cost me 5 and half hours of daily travel to and fro. And all this time, I was only paid my travelling expense since I was a junior. I quit it after 6 months, when my confirmation was based on Project completion - a project which was never gonna complete. Moved on because Ad Agencies want you to work late (I could not as I lived ~2 hours away and my trains were limited), paid less than college mates were minting and the travelling was nightmare!

I was always fascinated by the retail market. Got into it immediately, and grew at an awesome rate thanks to my qualification and my marketability. Within a year, I was already the Assistant Manager at Zara India interacting with actresses and actors. But everyday travelling back to Panvel - Pendora (Another 1.5 hours travel), left me questioning - darn wtf am I doing with my life, I reach home at 1.30am everyday and at times leave at 6.45am just because there is new stock arriving at the Store. No weekends off and the day you have an off, all friends and family are working. Let's not mention the body pain and the loss of personal life.

Eventually, there was a love issue and ended up married in the most filmi style possible! Could, or must I say - did not want to continue with Retail as I wanted to spare good quality Personal time for my family.

Now, currently working at a small firm, near my house since a year, handling 3 or may be 4 roles, being paid for just one. Not earning any better than my previous job. Just that my house is easily accessible and now again looking for a something new.

All this time, I always had a passion towards technology and hardware. Regret that I did not pursue my heart and just went on with the mindset drawn by others influenced on my Kiddish results some years ago. Today, I can't spare to take the risk to go for a course change and get a technical degree since I have dependents and some responsibilities I financially cannot ignore. Basically, I would love to create something tangible or intangible as my job profile rather than investing my brains worth to get a workaround done for an already existing matter!

Let's create a thread where in we post Job openings that we find around or in our organisations that would help the fellow members. I'm a marketing guy for sure, but would love to do something in technology that could give me a passion filled career. If you guys know of anything on this front, do tag me or let me know in any means possible.

Sorry for the long post and it's great to know people on a personal front.

Cheers everyone :)
 
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I should have gone into commerce-->CA/CFA or commerce --> MBA line instead of Engg--Job--MBA--Job line. I was also keen on civil services and had qualified in Prelims then. But I had an offer to go abroad for six months and chose the later option and had to drop the Mains. Never attempted the civil services again thereafter. I still regret the decision to choose the foreign trip over Mains exam.
 
manoja2k said:
I should have gone into commerce-->CA/CFA or commerce --> MBA line instead of Engg--Job--MBA--Job line. I was also keen on civil services and had qualified in Prelims then. But I had an offer to go abroad for six months and chose the later option and had to drop the Mains. Never attempted the civil services again thereafter. I still regret the decision to choose the foreign trip over Mains exam.
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Maybe you would have had regretted it if you chose Mains exam over the foreign trip. With India being such a corrupt nation, I feel really sorry for the people who are in Civil services or Police services.

P.S - You will get what I meant if you are following what is happening in West Bengal.
 
hotshot05 said:
Maybe you would have had regretted it if you chose Mains exam over the foreign trip. With India being such a corrupt nation, I feel really sorry for the people who are in Civil services or Police services.

P.S - You will get what I meant if you are following what is happening in West Bengal.
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May be you are right, because grass appears greener beyond the fence.
 
Do all of you really think that jobs in IT are that bad in India? This might sound crazy for some of you but I'm actually thinking of returning back to India, a little scared after reading your comments.
 
At some point in life when we get bored of doing same thing everyday this thought come to our mind that we would have done this and that but again we get back to same work and live our life. Very few take it seriously and change the career for job satisfaction.
 
Archana Nair said:
At some point in life when we get bored of doing same thing everyday this thought come to our mind that we would have done this and that but again we get back to same work and live our life. Very few take it seriously and change the career for job satisfaction.
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Very well put !! Do what you love or Love what you do !! Choice is yours ...
 
I love mechanical work and fascination about automobile. After completion of BE Automobile engg, I wanted to do higher education and I got MS Aerodynamic engineering in collaboration with Jaguar design studio. Dad got VRS when I was studying engineering and naturally I was looking for a good pay out job after my engineering course. Only IT is supposed to pay good salary. Even nowl after 10 years in IT (Admin/support)industry, I repent my decision. Seriously pay is good only for the freshers in the comparative field, nothing for the Production support/Admin. Once you cross certain experience pay is nothing. I wish , I quit this job and going to start garage and be happy with what I tinker around
 
@Renegade -Thank you for creating this topic. Well, I wrote about what I wanted to do and what am not doing. This was several months ago. Writing it, made me realize what I truly loved. Today, I've ditched my past career path, a path I knew would leave me unsatisfied.

A few months ago, I wrote my views on a topic and submitted it to a media firm. Today, I review exotic automobiles and tech, wear casuals to work, have a hairstyle that can qualify me as a rock band cover boy and get paid for everything I ever wished for. Life is a series of unexpected twists and turns.

I wouldn't say I'm the perfect guy at what I do, but I am learning my way each passing day. I have got an opportunity and I banked on it. My friends envy my job profile and this feels great. It has been great to document this growth via this thread. Hope everyone gets the same fate. Until next time. Cheers. :)
 
I would have been an animator or a 3d modeller in some international production co. as my vision way back in early 2000 was literally out of the box! All the institutes I approached then used to get stunned hearing my ambitions goals etc. When I used to tell them that I wanted to work in EA they were like acha that NFS vala co.o_O
I had heard and tried hands on softwares these institutes never heard about and yet they were charging then 2lacs for poor animation pursuers who used to only get basic max,maya and ps handson!
But back then India was nowhere in this field..

No dependency but my family bg wasnt that great at all to sponsor pursuing all this in some abroad UV and thus unfortunately had to leave my aspiring dreamy dreams behind to earn daily bread and start my career... and here I'm ripping my a$$ in IT now got totally bored and mechanically doing just for that monthly paychecks...
 
Renegade said:
Several of us have some regret or many when it comes to our careers. Even if we are doing well in our lives there is always this one pinch that we should not have done this or rather have done that.

So now that we are wiser in retrospect how would you have shaped your career differently?

I always have this regret I should not have wasted two years of my life before and after engg and that I should have probably gone in for a different stream. I followed the herd and landed up in EC when I should have taken up something to do with computers, web, designing or programming. Something that interests me. I am doing fairly decent professionally but I always feel drawn to what could have been and what if I could go back in time.
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In retrospect, I'd have tried to find out what my interests were and started working in that industry at the lowest level to really get a hands-on experience of what goes in that trade. Nothing works better than on-the-job learning and training. So, I'd always say - Figure out by 22 or 23 what you want to do and then plan accordingly. Preferably work in that industry to see if you're meant for it or not and then after some experience go for a degree.
 
Vivaan08 said:
This is also one of the reasons why career counseling is must. Everyone should go for it at least once and at the time time if possible
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Agree but way back in early 2000s career counseling wasn't at all popular at all just like how it is now where parents taking their kids as some macho gadgets to churn every ounce of juice while sending abroad and churn ambani type monies. Everyone is expecting their kids should play in at least 50lacs or Crs.
 
Stupid me.
I come from a very humble background, never had any knowledge of corporate world in family/friends. Using loan, completed BTech and got into Capgemini Hyderabad.
When I was 3yrs exp tried to change and got selected in SAP Labs Bengaluru(after clearing 6 rounds with basic DSA and JAVA) and TCS Hyderabad. Both were offering similar package and I (the idiot^n) choose TCS.

I had no idea about service / product based companies.

Now doing pretty okay as a service company employee.
Had I chose SAP labs, now I would have a career not just a IT job. :oops::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling:
 
avinandan012 said:
Stupid me.
I come from a very humble background, never had any knowledge of corporate world in family/friends. Using loan, completed BTech and got into Capgemini Hyderabad.
When I was 3yrs exp tried to change and got selected in SAP Labs Bengaluru(after clearing 6 rounds with basic DSA and JAVA) and TCS Hyderabad. Both were offering similar package and I (the idiot^n) choose TCS.

I had no idea about service / product based companies.

Now doing pretty okay as a service company employee.
Had I chose SAP labs, now I would have a career not just a IT job. :oops::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling::bawling:
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Its never too late to try and get out of the service industry (if you want).

I have done that after working in service companies for 12 years (5 in TCS :) ).
(this might be motivating :D )
 
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