Why professionals opt for new careers

A mid-stream career change for many is unthinkable. Students at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), however, thought differently. The students, who came with prior work experience, used the skills learnt during the one-year course to move on to new areas.

For instance, Neeraj Mehta was a practising dentist before he took to management education. Now, he will not wield the scalpel anymore. Instead, he will dabble with markets, numbers and charts for making informed decisions at Grail Research in Delhi.

Why give up a chosen career?

Neeraj answers: "Making an impact matters." He opted for a career change for both personal and professional reasons. "I felt I was not doing enough by just attending to patients," he said, adding he often wondered what happened to those who could not afford his treatment. In his new role, though away from dentistry, he will still be connected with life sciences -- his mainstay.

"There is need for an efficient and affordable healthcare system," said Neeraj, who believes that public-private partnership is the main tool to build health infrastructure. He has no regrets for calling it quits for the apron. "There is no scope for change if I continue to be a doctor," said the ISBian, who equipped himself with advanced computer and research skills in the year's stay at the ISB.

Prakruti Singh, a software engineer, put an end to a career with TCS Limited to join ISB. And during the recently concluded placements, she made up her mind to turn a consultant. The decision to swap domain areas, she says, is part of her larger plans to move towards a diverse profile. "We should be tuned to learn continuously," she says on why she took up work in a new domain in West Asia.

There are also people like Jitesh Shah, a native of Raipur and an alumni of IIT Guwahati, who see career shift as a tool to break the monotony of a job. He felt that his career was stagnating. In his earlier stint, he worked on chip designing, coding and testing. Now, he will be a consultant with a reputed firm. "A job in the IT sector stops exciting you after two or three years," he says.

ISB dean M Rammohan Rao says career shifts are a regular practice at the institute. This trend started in 2001, when the school was set up. Initially, corporations were slow to respond.

In the last few years, however, they have responded very well. All the 10 doctors who joined ISB have sought a change in profession. Eighty per cent of the total 422 students achieved career shifts, according to Bhuvana Ramalingam, director, Communications, ISB.

But how does the industry see this trend? D Rajappa, president of Everest Brand Solutions, the Mumbai-headquartered advertising agency says: "Advertising thrives on lateral thinking and innovation. Cross functional roles create opportunities." Everest has had many people moving into new roles--from servicing to creative and creative to planning, he said in an email-interview on career shifts.

Infact, companies like Webdunia, a multi-lingual portal, actively support role changes across industry segments for gaining new perspectives, according to the portal's director Vinay Chhajlani.