VICTIM OF PRESSURES - Finding the Right Career

Many students end up making wrong career choices because of parental and peer pressure. The consequences can be alarming.

It is admission time for the 10th and 12th grade kids. And many of them are caught between two

fires. On one hand, their parents want them to opt for careers of their choice. On the other hand, they are surrounded by peers whose choices might be different but trendy. For a student whose heart lies elsewhere, such social and domestic burdens can lead to inappropriate career choices. Needless to say, that doesn’t make them happy.

Meet Rohit, a dejected student, “I scored really badly in my board and CET exams. But the marks are enough for me to switch to B.com and pursue that. My friends are all doing B.com. However, my parents are making me retake 12th as well as CET. I do not know how to convince them that my aptitude is better suited to commerce as compared to engineering.”

Psychologist Dr. Swapnil Deshmukh says, “As children grow up studying at home, they become attuned to their parent’s expectations. They study as per their wish and keep their likes aside as they actually believe that they want what their parents want.” They pursue their own likes as hobbies and extracurricular activities. Along with this is peer pressure that has the most adverse effects in closed groups. A student who has talent for writing and mass communication might chose engineering just because all his/her friends are pursuing engineering. Dr. Deshmukh adds, “It is the fear of being alone that makes them act in such a manner.”

The results of these combined pressures affect the student’s mental health tremendously. Child psychologist Dr. Seema Darode tells us, “Pressure leads to depression, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, performance anxiety and anticipatory anxiety.” She backs up her statement with an example of one of her own patients. He was an extremely intelligent and hard-working boy who came in the merit lists of both 10th as well as 12th board exams. However, as his parents wanted him to pursue engineering, he blindly enrolled for it without imagining the consequences. He failed his first year of engineering due to anxiety and depression.

‘Follow your own heart’ is the best remedy to combat these pressures. Let us hope students learn to choose careers they like, and not what others do.

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Sources: Pune Times (Shibani Gokhale)