World changes fast and careers cannot be otherwise. Some occupations just vanish; others change the form and a third kind surfaces from nowhere and take the front seat in the job market. In this turbulent world you find a person who practised as an engineer last year now working as a management consultant or businessman (doing a business that has no relevance to his field of specialization). Many students try to acquire more than one specialization. While graduating as a scientist the person also gets through CIMA.

One stop jobs are going out of fashion. Anyone sticking to one organization is becoming increasingly rare. Unlike yesterday, occupations at the top of the social hierarchy no longer are limited to engineering and medicine. The career world is becoming chaotic and turbulent. Paths are numerous that finding what path to follow and where to go are perhaps million dollar questions (mind you not Rupee but Dollar).

Guiding someone through this chaos, hence, is not easy. It is also difficult because many don't appreciate the changes taking place. They are being controlled and led by the information of the past (that is dead and gone but still haunts in the corridors of our minds). Sometimes they use new information (such as IT taken as an emerging trend) but use it in the old framework (get the top IT job if you can make it).

Conventional advice was study hard, get good grades, go to college, earn a degree, get a good job (good jobs could be named) and climb the career ladder. The advice would have been to select the best that suits you out of the listed good jobs. If you cannot live up to the expectation of the top most jobs in the social ladder, settle for the next. What was expected of the career guider under the circumstances was to match the person with the top most jobs that the person could take to. It is not that simple any more. But people expect the same kind of advice taking new information into consideration.

Career guidance is difficult not only because we live in a fast changing world but also because many, in spite of the changes, are prepared to make only minor adjustments to their thinking. They are not ready for the paradigm shifts required to face the new chaos, but old paradigms with a new set of occupations introduced to the same. They insist on order without appreciating the chaos all around.

Taking note of all these developments, a series of articles on career guidance would commence with this initial entry. It will question what you already know about career guidance and also to facilitate you to think fresh on the subject. This article will let you understand the parameters of the total equation; just an introduction of those.

Mission (Calling)
Everyone has a calling that comes from inside. Some people call it the mission of life some, the duty bestowed by God and yet others, the larger objective of life (why one lives and what one lives for). In selecting a career one need to identify what this calling is (whether the chosen career will give enough room to carry-out this life's mission)?

Vision (The dream)
Everyone has a dream to fulfil. Before selecting a career one has to visualize what his/her dream is. Career should give enough opportunities to realize this dream.

Values (What one will fight to protect)
To deliver the mission of life one need to be equipped with a set of values that is normally arranged in a hierarchal order. The career thus selected should be in a place where those values are upheld in somewhat similar order.

Targets (milestones in the journey towards the vision)
Nobody insists that the set dream should be immediately realized. Every one is willing to wait some time but still would like to know that it is being reached. For this to realize one need to set targets in the journey towards the vision. The career should be such that the initial targets could be met within a reasonable period.

Strategies
Targets could be achieved only if adequate strategies are thought of. The occupation and career path should have enough room to implement such strategies. There could be short term as well as long term strategies, former for the immediate survival without compromising the values and the latter for the long term growth again not compromising the values and mission and also giving room to realize targets and the dream.

These five parameters act as a composite whole one contributing to the other one influencing the other one supplementing and complementing the other in getting us to decide at an unconscious level.

But many fail to appreciate the presence of these parameters fully and therefore end up in other decision traps (at the conscious level) and fail to satisfy the compelling needs of these parameters. As a result they feel the frustration (at the unconscious level) but do not know why they feel so. Let us take each in detail.