The Career Conundrum — An Open Letter to a High-Scorer

Hey there!

I heard you got your SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) results sometime last week.

Looks like you’ve done pretty well, huh?

The whole of Tamil Nadu rejoiced that over 40 students had scored 499/500. What fierce competition! And for something as trivial as memorizing a certainly erroneous textbook.

Surprised? Didn’t you realize how silly your syllabi were? How can you claim printing blunders as petty?

Plus, the top people in the education department worry about the falling standards. At this rate, they say, top-scorers wouldn’t stand a chance in a nation-wide evaluation.

Some even suggested new syllabi for better education.

No worries though. This result is still a big deal.

Your parents know it. But it seems you don’t. And that’s why I decided to knock some sense into your over-creative head.

How come you haven’t realized it yet? This result determines your future! The more you score, the greater your chances are for groups 1 or 2 — which is eventually Engineering. Or Medicine  —  if you’re that ambitious.

But I hear you have something else in mind. Trust me, you don’t want to hear about the third group.

Only those who are too stupid and lazy to study choose the Arts. Oh, yes.

As Indian, nothing is more prestigious than becoming an Engineer or Doctor. They are the highest-paying jobs and will earn you a lump dowry in the marriage market. Why would you want to give up on that?

There’s a saying, “Indians become an Engineer first and then decide what they want to become in life.” Like most people, you probably think it’s just another of those Facebook fads, but it sure as hell is not.

True, most Engineering graduates spend four years discerning the mechanics of things they care naught for.

Then there’s the MBA infatuation.

After wasting years and parents’ money, they spend a couple more years suited-up in college. They hope it’ll be their cherry, but none of them notices the ice-cream melting.

Because it’s all part of the social convention. The more you follow the common folk, the less they’ll look down on you.

Besides, melting ice-cream’s pretty amazing, don’t you think?

Choose the Arts, and people would judge you sooner than your high-school teacher. Arts graduates spend the next five to all their years explaining to an unbelieving mob why they don’t like Engineering.

And how can you not like Engineering? It’s not like you have a choice  —  it’s like primary education.

Denying a degree in engineering is declining a basic need. After all, in today’s India, engineering is survival instinct.

Choose the Arts, and you’ll be lower than everyone else who were wise enough to avoid it.

Choose the Arts, and you’ll drabble in unemployment and poverty for the rest of your life.

Choose the Arts if your Dad’s a money machine. Otherwise, be wise.

Unless you can become the next Shakespeare or Michael Jackson  — just  don’t do the Arts. Only a fool picks the Arts over Engineering.

Trust me though; no one else will say this to your face. Instead, they’ll tell you it’s awesome to follow your dreams  — because no one else dares.

There’s a reason no one else dares.

Your classmates  —  the would-be engineers who hope to land an unrelated career  —  would tell you how pitiful their life is. At least your family considered your interests.

Whereas your family would counsel you on how foolish it is to choose the Arts. How it’s a dying breed, how doing Engineering before anything is a backup if you ever flunk your dream  —  because hey, shit happens.

If you come out of it, and still wish to do Arts, then perhaps I underestimated you. Perhaps you do have a strong will.

No matter. The rest of society will succeed where your family didn’t. A month or two in the real world and you’ll probably run off to an Engineering college, realizing  — but not accepting  — ‘Mom knows best.’

There aren’t many people who endure all that negativity and still stand their ground.

Of those few, just a handful succeed. Most of the Arts folk are just depressed, alone and bitter. And definitely cynical.

Because that’s what society does to you. They’d tell you to be yourself  — but if you do, they’ll crush you.

You could be unknown, you could be broke  — but remember one thing. No one knows Banksy, the person.

And real Artists don’t care.