I should have listened to my Dad...!!!!

When we were in our teens, there would have been a lot of people who would have given us advise on various things in life, most of it being with respect to our career..."Do this..Do that....it has a better scope....it will do wonders for your career"..so on and so forth....needless to say most of these come from our parents......we like it or not (which most of the times we don't) it keeps on coming and we have no option but to listen to all of them.....let alone following it for the time being

So why do you think I am telling all these??? Just read on for one such example in my life which has left a deep impression on me...a deep regret that I am not able to reverse......and I can stick my neck out a little bit and say most of you might relate this to similar incidents in your lives too..

Just after I finished my school, as all my friends did, I wanted to take up science too......but my dad had different things in his mind. He wanted me to take up commerce as I had not got very good grades............. especially in Science and Maths (which was unfortunately true).Though I secretly revolted the move, I had no option but to buy my dad's words to take up commerce....I had this revolt in my mind right through out my PUC...but since I had not good grades in my previous board exams and since I had a faced a little criticism from some stupid relatives of mine, I was determined to put up a better show this time around.....with some efforts I got a decent grade in my II PUC...and by the time I finished PUC I took a a liking towards this stream and started to enjoy it....but I still had this revolt in my mind that my dad did not let me pursue what I wanted to.

Now comes the biggest turning point of my career. I joined degree and when I was in my first year, my dad gave me another shock and asked me to do Chartered Accountancy (CA). He also got me enrolled to the foundation course (which was those days the gateway for the course).....This disappointed me to the core and with that earlier revolt in my mind still active, I decided to go against my dad's will....I faced him and told him that I did not want to do CA and wanted to do an MBA (I'm still not sure what made me take up the course). Fortunately my dad agreed.... I gave the entrance....courtesy a good rank, I got into a decent Institution...my 2yrs MBA went on smoothly as any other college life and god's grace, I got an offer from a reputed company wit a decent pay...I was thrilled.....parents were happy too...

While all these things happened, subconsciously I still liked commerce.....The talks of Profit and Loss account and Balance sheets were making me feel more comfortable than strategic and project managements. 2 yrs into my career, I started feeling that I was in a wrong stream altogether......I wanted to get into audit/accounting which I was more comfortable with and which I thought would be my long term career stream and rightly so. From then...till now I am putting all kinds of efforts to get into that profile but unfortunately for me...I did not have the required qualification nor prior relevant experience to get in!!

Now guess what was that qualification that I needed to get into Audit/Accounting???? It was Chartered Accountancy....a course that I had blindly and foolishly rejected and ignored a few years back..the course that my dad wanted me to do....the course that if pursued had put me into a very good position in my career.

I have been trying to do different things to gain entry into this field..I am doing my CWA (which is considered to be an equivalent to CA but with limited scope)....I am trying to do some certifications too but none of them is proving to be as good as the Chartered Accountancy course...

26 yrs under my ass....4 yrs into my job.....I cannot do CA now because of the time frame of the course and also because of some financial commitments......trying desperately to finish my CWA...struggling with work and studies together.......lost some very good opportunities in my current profile because of all these career talks that I had with my manager......I somehow get a feeling that I have totally messed it up.

Every night before I go to sleep....I keep thinking "If only I had listened to my dad".....but its all too late I guess....and I have this strong feeling that this regret is here to stay....and I have to live with it for the rest of my life!!!

Signing off

Sethu :-)