A U-Turn at the end, has always some consequence.

Dad, I want to get to a premier institute of India like IITs and do a start up - that was his answer two years back to the question "what do you want to do ?" That was just after he passed the Board exam and and on our way back from Kashmir.

Really, that's exciting, but do you know you belong to the Dalit (General) caste ? Do you know the competition level to get into a premium institute like IITs ? Why don't you first finish your Intermediate (10+2) and then take a year break and prepare ?

NO, I want to prepare and try the first time itself - fair, as you wish. I will provide all the resources but you will have to drive it all.

Two years went away and the kid did prepare but then he definitely did not score enough good in JEE Mains to get into IITs. He was disappointed, and we tried to provide all kind of counseling to try it again this year. Coincidentally I met one of my friend after twenty two years and upon discussing about kid's studies, he revealed about the IPMAT (Integrated Program in Management Aptitude Test) program which her daughter was trying. The IPMAT program allows to get into premium management institutions like IIMs and the kid never explored this because he solely focused on Engineering. So when I asked the kid to look at the program details, he found it interesting, but unfortunately by then the last date of applying to most of the institutions were gone. He could apply for only three IIMs, and few private institutes like NIRMA, NALSAR etc who take that score. And all he had is twenty days to prepare for the exams, that includes a written ability test followed by a personal interview.

And to our surprise he did well, considering such a small preparation, and got shortlisted for personal interview in IIM Shillong, NIRMA and NALSAR. That motivated him further to prepare for the interview and he got admission offer in NIRMA and NALSAR, but got a high rank in IIM Shillong putting him in wait list. All the interviews were done in online mode and IIM Shillong even put a restriction saying, No one should be in that room during the interview. So we gave him all the confidence and waited outside the door and the kid did really well. Wearing the perfect attire from a management perspective and appearing a personal interview himself, first time in life was no easy task.

Interestingly another twist came in - he got an offer from another baby IIM - IIM Sambalpur from my state that offered him to do a B.S. in Data Science and AI. Recently it got upgraded with a huge 400 acre campus and being in our state, everyone in family was in favor of allowing him to join that course - Grand parents always want to see them near, isn't it ?

So everyone was pushing me to allow him join that course and it was not an easy decision - each of these course costs a very high fees of 30 lakhs (3 million INR) and its about his career that he has to pursue for his entire life. So I called him for one final conversation to take the decision.

Do you want to code and do a technical job ? It's a promising course in the most emerging field, but you will have to make your hands dirty and work for at least 5-6 years before getting into management, which is your interest area. You always said you don't want to do a job like me sitting in front of the laptop for the whole day, but if you choose this career, then you will have to do that.

Well, I can do that, even though it's not my best interest - the kid replied.

That's it then - you took a U turn very late switching from Engineering to Management, so face the music. Had you prepared for IPMAT from beginning, things would have been different. So take your time, dedicate and prepare well for next year and get into management. I gave you control first time and it's my turn now - You should not choose a career that you will not enjoy.

Our generation was different, we took a lot of hardship and have enough patience to deal with anything. Career for many of us did not happen by choice, but we adopted and made it a part of life. But their generation is not the same - they quickly get frustrated, if they don't get what they want. So it's better to take time, prepare well and join a career of their choice. Later you should not blame me saying, you were in the same field - you should have denied me. As far as I foresee, the stress of an IT job is going to only increase as AI takes more control, so unless someone is not passionate about coding, they should not join this field.

What do you say ? Is it a right decision ?

This post is in response to the Creative Nonfiction Prompt #152


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