YOUR CAREER IS YOURS, FIND YOUR

NICHE!

The MBA is sometimes described as the single most impactful agent of

career transformation in the lifetime of a professional. For those who have
gone through the grind, the years spent at B-School are looked back upon as
the proverbial “summer(s) of ‘69”, for hundreds of thousands of
undergraduates it is an aspirational golden ticket to the next orbit in their
careers.

The reason for such reverence lies in the fact that an MBA opens up more
career opportunities than any other professional qualification for
graduating candidates.
But, too much of a good thing is no good thing, right?

MBA candidates have been known to face a serious dilemma over their
post-MBA career choices. It is not uncommon for MBA grads, even those
with the most popular jobs on campus, shifting jobs within a few months
of graduating. Here’s an attempt to decode why.
B-Schools work exceptionally hard to facilitate the generation of several
hundred job offers for graduating students in a matter of a few days. In the
melee of on-campus placements, students seldom objectively
evaluate the “why” behind the jobs they seek. Career choices are
mostly made basis heuristic principles passed down from their seniors,
folklore around the “prestige” of certain roles/firms, and
information provided by recruiters during campus outreach programs.

As a result, a large number of graduating students end up aspiring for a few

“dream” jobs in the domains of Consulting/ Investment Banking/FMCG etc.
Securing such a job is often viewed as the hallmark of success among peers
and celebrated as the beginning of all good things in life. Disturbingly, for
those who wish to yet fail to secure these “dream” jobs, such
rejection can cause deep mental trauma and a sense of absolute
dejection.

What students need to ask themselves is, whose “dream” is it anyway?

As someone who’s been through that rite of passage, here’s my best advice
– don’t go by popular perception of a job’s desirability to you. Invest
time in identifying what gives you the real kicks in life. Identify your
best skills and what you want to achieve as a professional. That should be
the only reason “why” you want a certain job.
Does this work? Here’s one name that’ll dispel any doubts on the practicality
of such an approach – Cheteshwar Pujara.

Pujara was REJECTED by every IPL team & went unsold at the IPL 2019
auctions held on December 18, 2018. In short, he was found UNFIT to play
the most “popular” cricketing format on the planet! How did he react to this
seemingly disastrous outcome?

Eight days later in Australia, playing in the test series against the home
team, he came out all guns blazing in the 3rd Test Match and scored a
match-winning century for India. He didn’t stop there, he also scored a
masterful 193 runs in the 4th Test to become only the 3rd Indian ever to
score 3+ Test centuries on an Australian tour.

Resultantly, he won the “Man of the Series” award. Basically, declared the
architect for India’s first ever Test Series victory in Australia!

Cheteshwar Pujara created history BECAUSE he had clearly identified his own
niche (Test cricket) and gave his 100% to succeed at it!

If you are an MBA candidate and nodding along, you can do it too! Find your
niche and become the best at it. If at the end of this analysis, that “dream”
turns out to be yours, GO GET IT!
Your career is yours. Build it wisely and systematically!