On the occasion of Children’s Day, MINDLER conducted a social initiative to help shape the future of 50 needy students by gifting them career assessment kits and one-on-one counselling sessions by experts.

“Guidance by the right people at the right time can help the deserving make the right choices.”

Problems with the traditional approach of choosing a career:

Career decisions, initially, were a function of parents’, relatives’ or teachers’ choice of the ‘perfect’ career (one that would balance the financial well-being), or to be worse, a result of the herd behavior. However, in the last decade, there has been a noticeable change. There has been a rise, especially in metropolitan India, in families seeking advice, or counselling from a third party because they are realizing that the children deserve more than the financial stability, they demand emotional stability too. Also, there has been a realization on the front that the number of career options available in the country have increased manifold, and it’s better to rely on a well-researched platform and assessment to short-list the best career options meant for their child.

The Aim of the Gift A Career Campaign:

While there’s a part of our population which can afford such services and help their child secure a bright and happy future, more than 40% parents in the country still battle to send their children to the high-schools, leave career assessments aside. The students, thus, lack opportunities, knowledge and the right guidance to make the right career decisions and as a result, fall prey by settling for careers not meant for them, despite being bright.

The campaign “Gift A Career” by one such career-counselling platform, MINDLER aimed at making career guidance accessible to 50 deserving, bright students who belong to economically weaker sections of the society by gifting them career assessment kits and counselling sessions by career experts worth INR 6400 each.

13^th November 2016- The Day of the Campaign

How it went:

50 government high school students were invited in 2 slots (of 25 students each) for the career assessment and counselling sessions to a co-working space, Awfis, in Connaught Place, Delhi.  The primary focus was on providing the best possible environment while they give the online assessment and choose the top 5 career options meant for them.

The day started with making them aware about the innumerable list of career options available and the path and opportunities available in the same, explaining them the importance of career guidance and how important it is to settle for nothing less than the right career. This was followed by a 3-hour long online career assessment offered to the students, on completion of which they received an auto-generated 40 pager career discovery report, which explained the 5-best fit careers, in detail.

Career experts and counsellors from the team explained the report to each student individually. Counselling started out primarily as a way for young school-students to explore their passions, and thereby find a way to make a career out of the 5 dimensions (personality, orientation style, interest, aptitude and emotional quotient). The major question of ‘what should I be doing in life?’ was more easily answered with the help of the professionals. A plan was suggested, with inputs from the teachers and students, to help them ‘get on the right track’. They were introduced to the various scholarships available and how to be consistent while chasing their careers. The same cycle was repeated for the second slot of students.

The activity for the entire day saw great enthusiasm from the students and the teachers. Various organizations like Fever FM, Chai Thela, Awfis, Lasie Foundation, Mash Project and Kindness Café contributed to Mindler’s initiative for the noble cause.

In a time, when doing the right kind of work is a pre-requisite for satisfaction & happiness, children fight the confusion, frustration and distress that comes with career ambiguity, on a day-to-day basis.  It is a delight to know that someone is out there, thinking about students who cannot afford career consultations, and empowering them to make informed choices.

In a country of over 1500+ career options, how does one figure out what’s right for them?

Kudos Mindler, for this awesome initiative #GiftACareer.

MINDLER is a technology enabled eco-system for career planning & development for students that leverages technology, research, machine learning and algorithms to minimize the human bias in career decision making process.