Building a dream career; maintaining a work-life balance : Dr. N Chandrashekar, VP, Take Solutions, explains in a thought provoking manner

Dr. N Chandrashekar, VP corporate affairs, Take Solutions addressed the MBA students as a part of the activities organized by the 'Corporate Wisdom' team. Dr. Chandrashekar spoke at length about the concept of a 'dream career' and then later moved on to explain the nuances of work-life balance.

He started the session with a myth-shattering note that there is no such thing as a 'dream career'. But as the talk evolved, the audience identified and appreciated the relevance of his statement. He centered his talk around the mid career crisis felt by the brightest of the minds in India despite alluring first job offers. On an average, people tend to quit their first jobs within the first 17 months, the reason being inadequate research on their part about what the job has in offer apart from an attractive compensation. As the organizations are getting flatter and the jobs becoming extremely performance driven, pressure is building up. This coupled with unrealistic ambitions; make people stressed with their work. The fear of being evaluated and comparisons with the peers make one continue in the rat race, without being able to think of ways to make things better off for oneself.

Although competitive intelligence is taught in schools, when it comes to applying it in one's own life and career, people tend to fumble, making the mid career crisis unavoidable. Before deciding to work for a company, one should be able to identify the opportunities for growth. Also management graduates should be able to analyze a financial statement thoroughly to identify if the public account of the company is dependable, especially in these difficult times. The best of competitive information about a company can come from the suppliers, placement consultants and people who quit the company for better. He urged the students to take charge of their own career and warned against the tendency to compare one's stature with that of peers and choosing jobs that supposedly positions one in the social scale favourably with respect to peers. One should be truthful to oneself and be able to acknowledge and accept one’s weaknesses. He mentioned that it has been observed that the maximum number of corporate crimes are engineered and committed by people in the age group 30-40 in a desperate move to gain more wealth and power.

He mentioned that the rush in pubs during weekends has become commonplace and said indulging in excesses to vent out stress and frustration and not striking a right balance can catch up with one eventually. He emphasized on the need for spending meaningful time with family and orienting oneself towards highly satisfactory family life with holidays and celebrations occasionally. He also urged the students to get involved in socially relevant and meaningful activities. Each one should invest in creating social asset, so that the society can be better off. He said one should never worry about the results .

He ended the talk by urging the students to believe in whatever they do and to do it with passion and conviction. The students were spellbound by the appeal and cognizance with reality. The session ended with Mr. Chandrashekar letting the students introspect for themselves and absorb all the 'gyan'.

Team DoMS Interface

Batch of 2009-11