Job Objectives, Career Objectives and Personal Objectives

While choosing a job, career or a profession, do you ask yourself about the basic objective behind your objective???

We all have objectives in our lives. Some have explicit objectives, others have implicit ones. Some follow with conscious efforts other follow them with intuition or unconsciously. It is observed that most of us could not work out properly the desired outcome of the objectives. In the other worlds, do our objects will result in the kind of SATISFACTION we expect or associate with them or not, is a question that merely is asked by us.  In this era of fads, trends and fashions, our objectives too get influenced by others. Most of the times, these external factors have little or no relevance to our personal lives and career objectives.

Let’s take the example of choosing a profession for life and its link with famous prevailing trends. Before 1990 there was a massive trend of joining armed forces in Pakistan. The armed forces were a symbol of bravery & charm. The permanent nature of the job and facilities were greatly admired and inspired by the public at large. During 1992 there was again rise in the trend of becoming doctors and engineers. The rise of computer sciences during 1996 in Pakistan influenced a large number of students to opt computer intensive courses in order to choose computer studies as their future area of professions.

If we conduct a survey of the students who are enrolled in different universities in Pakistan, a majority of the students will reveal some of the following reasons for their basic motive to opt for the course they are studying or the career they wish to pursue:

·         Father’s desire

·         Mother’s desire

·         Influenced by a cousin or a friend or a neighbor

·         This is what most of the people desire to do

·         Etc etc

You would be surprised to know that most of the BBA students, when they are offered specialization course options after one year of their studies, still seem confused and undecided. If they have had opted the course by themselves with a strong passion behind this decision, they have had a better idea of which specialization they should opt for. They would not only have a clarity towards their specialization options (Marketing, Management, Human Resources Management, Finance, Accounting etc… ) but would also have a good understanding of the course scheme, course challenges, future jobs, and ultimate career.  

Individuals (in shape of employees) who could not discover their personal objectives, always struggle to find true satisfaction. Given below are some of the problems that they may face:

-          High level of dissatisfaction with the professions

-          High level of stress

-          Low productivity

-          Low level of motivation

-          High level of complaints

-          High level of conflicts