Where to go after completing MBA?

After completing engineering from IIT if I do not have any interest in my field of study then why shouldn't I chase money and go for an MBA in the IIMs?

• Answer:

  As Jaya Jha has said, there is nothing wrong, per se, in leaving your field of study and doing something else, including chasing money. There is a lot of useless and misleading rhetoric around choosing careers. First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with maximizing for money. We are constantly told that money does not bring you happiness. This is somewhat incorrect. Money alone does not bring you happiness. But money is one of the several things needed to bring you happiness. And it is an important one. Chasing your dreams or passions might not be as fulfilling as you're told if you're struggling to maintain a lifestyle that you want. The second misunderstanding is the nature of passion. Passion is not something that is innate to a person. Instead it is something that is cultivated and acquired. If you haven't found a passion yet you need to seriously give some thought to it. Passion and consequently work satisfaction comes from the three C's - Competence, Community and Control. You need to be competent at something to feel passionate about it. When I was at IIT, acquiring competence was underrated. It was assumed that IITians were somehow super competent at everything. Hard work was disparaged. People spending hours with their course materials were called 'maggus' and made fun of. If you went through a similar education you might not have the necessary skills to develop competences and hence passion. There is a lot more that goes into developing competence but that is probably an answer for another question. Second, you need to have a community. You need to be interacting with people with similar interests. People you can learn from. People you can connect to and people you care about. A cause you care about. Believe it or not, this too can be very hard to find. The third is control. Creative freedom. This comes when you've found your competence and your community. You need to be good at what you do and people need to respect you for that before you will be given control over what you do. Mostly this comes much later in live and most certainly not until you've reached the middle management level. You could try starting something of your own if you want control earlier on in your life. You need to consider these things because if you've not managed to find a passion in your four years of college education, it is very unlikely that doing an MBA or something else will help you find it. And research shows that it is difficult to be happy with money alone, even though you will be reasonably satisfied.