By Preena Gadra:
Making the right career decisions isn’t easy. There’s just too much pressure. What if one gets it wrong? What if one ends up in a career, which one can’t relate to? Right from selecting the wrong stream, to finding the unsuitable career and college – students today are falling into the career trap, left, right and centre. Many students in the country make uninformed choices that are purely driven by popular opinions of parents and society, rather than thinking for themselves.
The situation is even worse in some government schools, where the students are not exposed to any career options beyond a few popular ones. The students strive to find their right career. Neither the students nor their parents are aware of the ways careers are transforming today!
In such times, career experts and counsellors from Mindler initiated a movement called “Gift A Career”.
On the occasion of World Kindness Day and Children’s Day, Mindler, a Delhi-based career guidance platform organised a social initiative to help 50 government school students find clarity regarding career choices. The initiative saw children take the online Mindler career assessment and discuss possible career options with career experts and counsellors.
“Children are our next nation-builders. It is pertinent that we help them figure out what they need to do in their life,” said Mr Prikshit Dhanda, Chief Strategy Officer, Mindler.
The children raised several questions about the need for career clarity, various career options prevalent today and how they could achieve their dream careers. They were quite perplexed by how an online assessment can help students identify what careers they should go in.
Mr Prateek Bhargava, founder & CEO, Mindler solved their queries and went on to explain how the assessment works. “The assessment is best in class, and factors in elements like orientation, style, interest, personality, battery of aptitudes, emotional & social intelligence while recommending career matches that best fits a student”, he said.
The children were thrilled to see the results of their assessments and talk about their career plans with the Mindler team. They deliberated over the various career options, and crafted their own action plans. The counsellors discussed possible scholarships that the students could use for pursuing higher education, and helped them know more about their career options.
In a time, when doing the right kind of work is a pre-requisite for satisfaction and happiness, children fight the confusion, frustration and distress that comes with career ambiguity, on a day-to-day basis. In a country with thousands of career options, how does one figure out what’s right for them?
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Mindler is a technology enabled eco-system for career planning and development for students that leverages technology, research, machine learning and algorithms to minimise the human bias in the decision making process regarding careers.