There is a distinct difference between the career books and publications that work in India and those that are popular in the West. In India, it is really a magazine — Competition Success Review — that is the winner by a long way. In the US, it is What Colour is Your Parachute.

This says a lot about the Indian attitude to jobs. The student at the snooty Delhi college might claim that he doesn’t have to bother about placement; half-a-dozen companies will be begging him to join because of his contacts. His uncle is a top bureaucrat and his aunt a minister. But, make no mistake, these days he too is boning up on civil service examinations and CAT. In India, you study to enter a lucrative career.

According to an Aviva Life survey, the three top choices among Indian schoolchildren were doctor, cricketer and engineer. A cricketer one can understand. There is a touch of hero worship there. Who wouldn’t want to be a Dhoni? But the numbers who want to play test matches for their country were much smaller before our batsmen started making big money. Medicine may appear to be a noble aspiration. But everybody and his uncle knows that doctors make huge sums (in many cases, tax-free). Engineers make money too. But it’s a curious choice; what do kids know about what an engineer does?

It may be simplistic to say that in the West people choose the careers they really want. Neither are the Gordon Gekkos going to disappear nor the people who would emulate them. But there is a serious attempt in schools to match personality to career (India has that too. But when the brightest go into predetermined lines, it becomes quite farcical.)

What Colour is your Parachute has sold 10 million copies in its numerous editions. (One a year since it was first published in 1970,) It tells you that you first need to look at yourself. Set down your goals and ambitions, your interests and what you consider to be your strengths.

Many other career books fall into the same category (see box). Here are three from the list that eminently fit the bill: Discover What You Are Best At by Linda Gale, Do What You Are by Paul & Barbara Barron-Tiegger and Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar.

Why is it different in India? It’s a one-word answer: shortage. When jobs are scarce, you take what is going. That applies to the large mass of people. A second Assocham survey — released to coincide with Independence Day 2014 — confirms that 65 per cent of MBAs prefer the public sector to the private sector. (The IIMs were left out for purposes of this analysis.) Steel Authority received 2.2 lakh job applications from various B-schools this year against 1.2 lakh last year. Applications to ONGC increased 120 per cent.

The study rationalises that salaries have gone up. But the real truth is that the PSUs offer job security. PepsiCo India is known for its marketing skills. It has built up this team by encouraging risk-taking.

Says former senior executive Ravi Dhariwal: “Pepsi rewards people who take risks and pull them off. At least in my time, Pepsi operated in a very unwelcoming environment. As a result, we tried harder. Winning was everything.”

For an MBA at a PSU, however, risk is the last thing he takes. Life is all about passing the buck.

Yet change may be in the air. At a recent discussion at CiteHR, a corporate community of HR professionals, the best Indian books on the discipline were sought to be identified. Among the frontrunners were: Five Great Myths of Career Building by Sanjiv R. Bhamre; The Greatest Secret of Success by Virender Kapoor; Profitable Passion at Work by Promod and Vijay Batra; Passion to Win by Abad Ahmad; A Double Life: My Exciting Years in Theatre and Advertising by Alyque Padamsee; Break Free: Discover Your Leadership Signature by Debashis Chatterjee; and The Case of the Bonsai Manager by R. Gopalakrishnan.

When passion makes an entry and the bonsai manager gets a look in, there surely are small signs of change.

A JOBSEEKER’S LIBRARY

The best career books

50 Best Jobs for Your Personality
J. Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Robert Fulgrum

6 ptComing Alive from Nine to Five in a 24/7 World
Betty Neville Michelozzi

Cover Letters for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us
Joyce Lain Kennedy

Discover What You Are Best At
Linda Gale

Do What You Are
Paul & Barbara Tiegger

Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood
Marsha Sinetar

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff…And it’s All Small Stuff Richard Carlson

Field Work Savvy
Joan Milnes

Free to Succeed: Designing the Life You Want in the New Free Agent Economy
Barbara B. Reinhold

Source: Selected from The top 50 career books compiled by Tom Denham