It’s my first job ever. Should I leave my family to live outside of Dhaka to work as a Territory Officer because it is paying me more? Or should I live here with my parents, friends & relatives, sacrifice my salary, enjoy Dhaka life to work as an Executive?
I am sure that most of us face these dilemmas at least once when it comes to making career choices.
The thing that probably bothers us the most is, we are afraid of choosing a job where the pros outweigh the cons but figuring out that maybe a job with lesser pros, yet lesser cons were better. Sounds confusing? Don’t worry, we will have a thorough discussion.
I was having a conversation with my mentor - Manzur Bhai the other day about this. He said, career choices depend on so many factors, because of the multiple outcomes that can come out of a single decision.
It is very crucial to note down the factors in terms of importance, and think of the impact of the decision you make for certain scenarios.
For example, after working at multiple multinational corporations, I did note down the factors that would be vital to consider if I’m moving to The Daily Star. It went like this.
Cons of working at The Daily Star:
- Print Media is dying in the digital era
- No corporate fringe benefits
- Maybe the salary won’t be high, and a few more disadvantages.
But these are the Pros that I was considering:
- The Daily Star is the most trusted and the biggest English print daily
- Mahfuz Anam, an amazing leader- Editor & Publisher of The Daily Star-
-The opportunity to give it back to the society
- The ability to build my own culture, and work with new things without any limitation, and the other pros eventually convinced me to shift to a local company.
Manzur Bhai also said, we will often find that one or two of the factors take precedence or have higher priority/relevance at this particular point in time.
That means we might end up 'sacrificing' the other factors, and this has to be of our OWN accord/choice, because these sacrifices come with risks, starting from the risk of losing job security to having a bad boss. And we are willing to take such risks only because we want to gain some reward. You, and only you, will know what reward you want! And you have to know what you're willing to give up for that.
However, if the reward is worth it to you against the risks, then you go for it. If you're not sure, then decide what is the MOST important reward to you and if that is a valuable asset for the future. If so, then you will know what to do.
To my brothers and sisters who are about to graduate, or shift from one job to another, or take a step in a new career, you can’t achieve 100% perfection. We seek perfection in imperfection. Rewards come with sacrifices.
In the end, it’s not about making the right decision, it’s about taking a decision from your heart, and making it right.