If it's your dream - go for it

By Ruhanie Perera, Laila Nasry and Harendra Alwis

Doctor, proctor, coolie, clerk' , may have been an amusing game for a five-year-old, but when you grew up to learn that the future meant choosing between the accepted 'doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer', it might not have seemed too funny. What happens when you don't want to choose one of the 'accepted' careers? What if you want to be different?

Thilanka Wijesinghe has her heart set on a field that gives her, "maximum personal satisfaction". At present she is participating in a course that will see her become a fully-fledged 'speech and language therapist'.

"This is a completely new field that I had absolutely no idea about while I was in school," says Thilanka, who however, always wanted to be part of the medical field. "I could never see myself cooped up in an office. I wanted to do something that would involve people and provide some sort of a service for them. Naturally I wanted to be a doctor." Fate, however, had it that medicine wasn't an option for her. It was at that point that Thilanka started looking for something new. Looking beyond the narrow boundaries of being the typical 'doctor', she ventured into what is known as the para-medical field. There she found a whole new world of options. Although Speech Therapy was a relatively new field, it was to her liking and she decided to plunge right into it.

It was a teacher in school who first introduced Speech Therapy as an available option to Thilanka and after that she made her own inquiries. "I knew someone who had studied the field and spoke to her about the type of studying she had done. I also spoke to anyone I knew within the medical field about considering this avenue as my future. Even some of the foreign doctors I knew had to undergo my barrage of questions. This was how I began get some sort of understanding of the type of work I was about to study," she says adding that constant checking up on the internet enabled her to do more reading up on this subject. "Since this was new to me I depended on the advice and information I got from these sources."

New though the field may be, she has managed to fit in remarkably well. At present she is studying for a Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy conducted by the Disability Studies Unit of the Ragama Medical Faculty attached to the University of Kelaniya. It is a two-year course of study, which encourages practical training. "On the University premises we have a clinic run completely by the students. We also participate in what is known as Community Based Rehabilitation projects where we go out to various centres that work with the community in the area. We share our knowledge with those at the centres and they in turn help us with meeting clients and their carers, the practical aspect of this sort of work. There are also cases which have to be dealt with through home programmes because the clients involved don't want to come out to the centre." In her opinion, it's experiences like this that have really taught Thilanka the demands of her chosen field.

In this demanding field that she has chosen for herself, she is called upon to play the role of 'doctor', 'teacher' and 'counsellor' - all rolled into one. "There is no real clear cut definition of the job, because you need to be the essence of all three roles. We help adults and children; our concern being to improve the communication of those who for various reasons have problems with the part of the brain that deals with language."

Explaining her work she says, "In Sri Lanka we come across many children who are autisic or have Downs Syndrome or Cerebral Palsey. All cases where the child's mental development is slow, but each case varies; some may have only speech defects, others would be not interactive and there may also be those who are physically challenged. In the case of adults we have those with stammering problems coming to us for help. In addition we see many patients who have suffered from strokes and as a result have problems with speech and many other similar cases of those with acquired speech defects as a result of accidents etc."

It's ultimately the job of a speech therapist to improve the communication skills of such patients. "We first teach our clients language. If that's too much for them we use alternative methods like communication through pictures, signing, gestures, pointing and for those who have problems controlling their limbs we use methods like eye pointing and responding." Their job also involves some sort of training for the parents or the carer of their clients, who need to be familiar with such modes of communication.

To Thilanka, the most important of the skills needed for the job is patience strengthened by an open mind and the ability to listen. Of course more skills are required for this field like inter-personal skills, decision making skills, leadership skills and being in control of situations. "I think I learned to be a leader, because all my life I was quite comfortable with doing what others said, despite all the training I had in school. But I know I came in for this with the ability to listen to people and the patience needed. A lot of the training I received as a Girl Guide has helped me here." Judging by the enthusiasm with which Thilanka speaks about her field of work it is obvious that she loves what she is doing; she certainly has found for herself not just something that she is good at, but something that she finds stimulating, thrives on and loves.

As a child 22-year-old Deshani Caldera always visualised driving to work in a pin stripe suit and doing something computer related. "When I was in school I knew I wanted to do something in the computer field, a job that would not disrupt my studies as in something I would do with my hands instead of having to put my mind to totally." However she had no clear idea what it was she wanted to be.

The job title graphics designers existed but it wasn't very popular and Deshani really didn't know anyone who was in the field. Neverthless graphics designing seems to offer her an opportunity to work and earn on the side while studying part time "So I started off as a graphics designer."

At the time web development was far from popular and most of the renowned institutes didn't offer any diploma or certificate courses in that field and if they did it was very rare. However Deshani felt she had what it took for such a field. "Painting was my hobby. I used to do a lot of watercolors and oil on canvas being a pupil of Mrs. Lathifa Ismail, who taught me to be a good artist. I used those skills to create computer graphics."

Graphic designing according to Deshani would be best suited for someone with a good eye for colour, a person who possesses a good imagination to visualize a work of art, and then create it. Being able to paint or sketch will be an added advantage "Everybody can't be a graphics designer. You have to be born with skills or develop creativity. If you are born with it you're lucky." Developing one's creative skills are not easy. "I guess learning to paint both in school and in private helped me a lot to be a good graphics designer." The knowledge of colour and the ability to balance, match and contrast colour is essential. "The knowledge of using the application is vital but any one can learn to do that. The hardest part is cultivating a creative mind," she says

But the subjects one does in school has an effect to some extent. For example for graphics designing one needs mathematics as well as visual (artistic) skills. "Our posture and language skills which we learnt while in school also help us to go out into the world offering better chances of holding high positions."

In the latter stages when her graphics-designing career turned into that of a web developer she had to take a basic course on HTML at the Colombo University. From then on it has been RND. "RND is a great way of learning. The time spent figuring out something yourself maybe frustrating but one thing for sure you never forget it."

Nevertheless the necessary assuarance that this field was definitely her field came with her first job. "In my first job itself the graphics I created were greatly appreciated by the clients as well as in the work place, which was great. Then at one job interview I pleased my panel so much that they wanted me to join them as soon as possible." Things like this made her realize that this field was very satisfying and she should stick to it. Most of all because it was something she loved doing.

Currently managing Skyberlink Internet Solutions (SIS), incidentally her own company, her work has been a lot more than graphics designing.

"A bigger responsibility of building up good business relationships and striving to offer the best for your customers has been the objective."

Further with an increasing growth in web companies in Sri Lanka it's a challenge to get out there and do better than the rest. "But I haven't forgotten to pay attention to the designing part of the company. I make sure the standards of the designing of SIS will always remain," she's quick to add.

Deshani feels the most important thing is to do what your heart tells you. "Take a job if that is what you love doing. If you like what you do, then you do it better than any one else. Don't do anything just for the money or the perks. Do it because you wholeheartedly enjoy and love doing it."

Tanya Jansz is not someone who can stick to something if it's not interesting. "I need some kind of stimulation to sustain my interest and zest for whatever I do." And when she left school, although she had no clear idea of what she wanted to do, she was sure it wasn't going to be the "typical and rather boring lawyer, accountant types".

"I know that there are lots of people opting for marketing today but in my mind it sounded far more interesting than the other options we were open to while in school." It was while she was following classes in marketing that she decided to take up a job in the advertising field. "I had never thought of it as a career option while I was in school, but this friend who suggested that I take up advertising told me that it was interesting and since I knew that this would be a job that would complement my course of study and vice-versa I decided to go for a job in this field."

Today Tanya is a media executive attached to Q&E Advertising. Her job involves planning the media strategy for her clients. "We are briefed about our client perspective like what they are looking out for, their budget etc, and using our research we make up a plan for them. We also negotiate with the media to get a better deal for our clients." For her this is not a difficult job, "it is challenging but you have to be prepared to meet those challenges". Sometimes it's in fact the challenges that make the job interesting.

"To do this kind of job it is important that you can get on with people," says Tanya with conviction. "You also need to be able to put yourself in another person's shoes and see things from their perspective. I think if you are outgoing this comes naturally to you, or you learn by talking to people, finding out how they feel about issues and then thinking the way they do." For Tanya the communication business is the perfect field for her. "It would be nice to stay on here, because above all it's a field that's open to new ideas."

The perfect career choice

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