 |
If you have been looking at the Best Jobs lists that come out regularly at this time of the year — this is apparently the season for making choices — you cannot help but be struck by their remarkable diversity. In one place, it may be a software engineer hogging the top spot. In another, he doesn’t make it to the Top 10.
The CareerJournal has come out with a list recently (see box) and all sorts of strange creatures seem to inhabit it. There are teachers. (Didn’t that go out with To Sir, With Love?). There are hospital managers, medical researchers and physical therapists. What happened to the high-flying CEO and the money-grubbing finance types?
CareerJournal explains that its methodology is a bit different. It didn’t go around asking people what they would like to be. Instead, it asked them what made them satisfied with their careers. The journal’s editors then went around finding careers with such qualities.
The four key satisfiers were good intellectual stimulation, strong job security, high level of control, and extensive direct contact with customers and clients. “Keep the last point in mind,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant Shashi Rao. “That will also decide how secure your job is. You will never get a machine to replace a hospital nurse. The demand for nurses may decline, but nursing as a profession will never die.”
Coming back to the lists, Fast Company has also come out with its top jobs of 2006. “Compensation is always a consideration,” says the Fast Company. So the list runs thus: lawyer, personal financial advisor, sales manager, management analyst, computer and information systems manager, financial manager, securities, commodities, and financial services sales agent, marketing manager, computer software engineer, and chiropractor.
Money magazine and salary.com have produced a list of their own. This is the way it runs: software engineer, college professor, financial adviser, human resources manager, physician’s assistant, market research analyst, computer IT analyst, real estate appraiser, pharmacist and psychologist.
The Fast Company and the Money lists have an inevitable bias towards remuneration. You can’t really blame them. These are US lists and that country has always chased the biggest and the best.
Is it any different in India? Rao says there are no authentic studies available. “Who are you going to survey?” she asks. “If you look at the entire community of students, you will end up with absurd findings as the large majority of them are content to get a job — any job.”
It’s a little better if you consider a premium educational institution. But, then, choices are narrowed because of the very nature of the institution. For the record, however, the IIMs are putting finance at the top of their preferences once again. Marketing is catching up. Foreign offers are no longer automatic choices. Technology is falling out of favour. And entrepreneurship is the way to go.
Rao is sceptical about these Best Jobs lists. “Eventually, you have to find a job that suits you,” she says. “It doesn’t remotely matter what others think.”
In a lighter vein, she advises a visit to tarot.com, which offers career path suggestions for every sign. Here’s a sampler:
Aries: Energetic Rams do best in jobs that are challenging, competitive and entrepreneurial…
Taurus: Sedate Bulls enjoy careers that afford plenty of stability…
Gemini: Clever Twins need work that affords plenty of intellectual stimulation…
Cancer: Compassionate and perceptive, Crabs do best in nurturing professions…
The truth, with apologies to Shakespeare, may lie in our stars after all.
TOP CHOICES
The best careers of 2006*
Curriculum and instructional co-ordinators
High-school special-education teachers
Hospital and clinic managers
Management consultants and analysts
Medical researchers
Physical therapists
Sales, marketing and advertising managers
Social workers, counsellors and related managers
* In alphabetical order
Source: The Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal
