Careers and i-become

[kidakaka]

Dear All,
With so many engineers graduating every year, it becomes necessary to ensure are we getting into the right jobs? A recent article in the FT also speaks of this.

In the quest of this right job, I present to you i-become.com

The purpose of i-become Initiative is to enable multiple communities of job seekers to find fresh points of view and new ways to think about their careers.

i-become, as the name would suggest is essentially about making people realise their own potential and knowing the importance of being and becoming. People should see their work as something with which they evolve in life, they grow as a person. Its about people becoming the conscious designers of their careers instead of picking the job which is in trend, taking a degree which is hyped etc.

Why should one become designer of their career?

• When you know what you want to become (which itself is tough), you become a contributor in your life and you have a chance to maximize your compensation i.e. You lead a fulfilling life
• Organisations today need contributors and not just workers. Contributor owns the work and pushes the benchmarks for him and the industry ahead.
• Contributors are the ones who eventually create knowledge in their areas and they become practitioner in their field

So how does one become a designer of their career?

• Knowing their own self (get visibility into yourself - who you are, what are your natural traits and aptitudes)
• Know each industry really well. Know what is it like working as a s/w developer, i-banker. what are the contribution possibilities in these fields, capacity development opportunities, future career pathways, compensation models etc. i-become defines these descriptions of industries as "Role-States"
• Charting a map from where you are to where you want to be

Do read more details on the thought blog.

i-become initiative is for everyone, right from students, early professionals, career 2.0 professionals and others.

As of now, we have started building a community around these concepts and also started development of role-states for all industries. You can see IT and Finance RoleStates as well. We will be doing more such things as we go along

We need volunteers to help in this and spread words of i-become among people We need leaders who can take up this challenge of making people aware of their infinite potential ... make people aware of the fact that their career is an infinite potential to contribute

Related Links -
i-become initiative - I-become Initiative
i-become tool - i-become
i-become philosophy - ibecome think

PS - Admins, I had a consent from Biggie to post this.

[English-Scared]

I have checked your site yesterday itself

OK, Can we post our questions here?

Moreover, what we need to tell students to introduce them to i-become?

I mean can we get some summary which can be easily explained?

I mean do you help people in finding their passion?

[kidakaka]

Sreeram,
It's good that you have started this discussion. More CEans can join in!!

i-become is about gaining visibility -
1. internal visibility to know who you are, what are your capabilities
2. external visibility to know who you want to be. Getting insights in different careers and understand which career suits you the best.

People already have a passion. The problem is that they do not know how to pursue it as a livelihood. If you start applying your passion to your livelihood, you will notice that even the most mundane job becomes that bit interesting!!

[English-Scared]

People already have a passion. The problem is that they do not know how to pursue it as a livelihood

This is perfectly correct!! So its a good go!! Sure I have got the point to tell to my friends about this!

[The_Big_K]

People already have a passion.

My observations are bit different. Lot of people aren't aware of their passions. Mere liking for something is often thought of as 'passion'.

Let's take IT (software) engineers. How many of them are 'passionate' about coding, programing and Computer Science problem solving? Or do they do it just because the salaries are relatively higher?

I personally believe there should be a mechanism that helps people identify their passions correctly and then help them figure out how to build a career around it.

How can i-become help people identify their passion?

[kidakaka]

Good question Biggie,
Let's take software/IT as an example. This is where I want to tell you about the compensation you get as a software developer.

If you think CTC (salary) is the equivalent to compensation you get as a software developer, then it's definitely not your passion. It might be your career, but it's not your passion.

Compensation encompasses all the pay-offs you get by working as a software developer. One part is the salary, perks, bonus, on-site trips, etc. There are other parts - getting famous as a rockstar programmer (MaRo comes to mind ), people turning to you for their problems (Biggie, your inbox is an open testament to this).

For IT to be your passion, you need to get a kick out of coding ... the happiness you get when you create a particularly clean piece of code to solve a difficult problem, the elation of creation ... I can't completely describe this ... it's an achievement. That is when IT would be your passion.

For you to find out your passion, you need to know that the compensation comes from within. Not from a company, not from your peers ... but from yourself. Mayur, asH and MaRo come to mind as I say this.

i-become aims at giving you visibility within different career spaces, if you can identify with the compensations outlined in that career, especially the ones that come from within, then that's your passion.

Hope this helps you to introspect and find your passion.

PS - We are currently working to see how we can help individuals introspect through workshops and peer learning sessions. Where friends who know each other can help each other out.

[The_Big_K]

Kidakaka : How about a short introduction of the people involved in this awesome initiative?

[kidakaka]

Thanks Biggie, I have invited them to come over and introduce themselves .

[The_Big_K]

That's very good. I have been on the i-become list and your team has contributed excellent articles. It would be nice if those articles are shared here

[shabo]

Hi all,

I am Sowjanya, team I-Become.
I am a small town girl with a big aspiration to become an engineer. I thought it was the most logical thing to do because I was good at Maths. With the limited coaching and unlimited interest in Mathematics I landed up in Computer Science Engineering in a premium Engineering college. First year course was a horror story. I never understood why I became an engineer. However to my relief in my second year the programming, networking and compiler logic courses caught my interest.
Fast forwarding to final year, I celebrated my campus placement in Wipro Technologies (As someone said Ignorance is bliss). One year later I am struck in a testing job, in telecom domain. I wanted to become a programmer because network programming was the coolest thing to do. It took me 6 months to prove that I am a good programmer and another 6 months to actually become a programmer.

Two years into my work life when I reflected back on my career, one thing struck me. I am what I am due to sheer luck. I never steered my career. I was blown by the wind of opinions of people around me.

Then I decided to do my Post graduation in Management (For an exception this was a conscious decision). While working as the placement committee member in the premier institute I realized that the best of the best talent of this country also have no clue about their career choices.

So here I am with an endeavor to help others design their careers!

Happy becoming