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I am an Electrical Engineer, but I was interested in cars and businesses. My professional life and my passions both are different so what should I choose? My professional life or my passion!

I am post graduated student from Electrical Engineering string. #counseling #motivation #career_counseling #path #engineering

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NiLeSh’s Answer

Hi Shashi,
It's common to have conflicts between the passion and academics. As you said you're passionate about cars and business, I would advise you to find the opportunity with the automobile sector matching your academic background. Now you may have observed that automobile sector in India is rapidly progressing towards the electrical vehicles. That may provide you the ample opportunities to pursue your passion using your academics. Once you get enough experince and knowledge about the field you can even start your small business related to automobile electric equipment.
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Krista’s Answer

Hi Shashi - this is a great question, and one that I also grappled with during college and after college graduation. I agree with Duane's answer! With a little research and persistence - you can do both! Not only will you seek out a career that will be personally fulfilling, but as a hiring manager I believe demonstrating that the role you are applying for is a great mix of your unique skill sets and passion actually makes you an ideal candidate. I would much prefer to hire someone to my team that has a personal passion for the type of work that we do on top of the skill set, expertise, work ethic, etc. Although different than yours, one of my greatest personal passions has always been live entertainment - particularly dance, music, and theater. I studied and worked in this field through grade school, high school, and college. I also have a strong skill set in math and science. During my college years, I gradually came to the realization that I would much rather work in the business of entertainment rather than onstage or backstage - this allowed me to combine my skill sets and my passion to find a career path that is still invigorating and pushing me to grow ten years later.

Krista recommends the following next steps:

I would suggest researching companies, large and small, that hire engineers on staff. I do believe you will be surprised at what a diverse set of companies you find, particularly if you are open to switching to a more general project engineer or project management path.
Once you identify companies that peak your interest, leverage your network to try and make some contacts at those companies. LinkedIn can be a great place to start.
Ask great questions about what skill sets and experience those companies look for in their top candidates. Remember - you may not land your dream job in your top company right away, but you can continue to work towards these goals.
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Joshi’s Answer

Shashi, This is an Excellent question and one that most of us end up facing.

I agree with both Duane and Krista's views. I have seen young graduates go 3 different ways.

1. To choose a profession which they are passionate about.
2. Graduates end up choosing a profession that their parents wanted the kids to choose (of course, of late this trend is gradually reducing).
3. When one is really motivated and focussed, one could put their passion to use after their work-life (example a part-time musician).
I would recommend finding a profession that you are passionate about. Car manufacturing needs Electrical engineers so you can put your passion to work. After working for a couple of years, You could also do an MBA and learn to become an entrepreneur. With the advent of EV in the automobile industry, there is greater focus and emphasis on electrical engineering.

I am sure all of us would love to hear about how your career has shaped up.

Wishing you good luck.
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Arun’s Answer

Hi Shashi, usually only a luck few end up having perfect alignment between their passions and professions. However if you really are passionate about a particular field which is different from your current profession here is what I would suggest:

- Do a decent job in your current work responsibilities so that it pays the bills.
- Focus most of your free time in building your skills in the field that you are passionate about.
- Look for opportunities to contribute your time in helping others in this field for free so that you build up reputation and knowledge.

Repeat the above 3 steps and I think you should end up getting calls to work in the field that you are passionate about.
Thank you comment icon I really appreciate your answer, it gives me the right clarity to my situation. Thank you so much. Shashi
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Michael’s Answer

Both are important. Your career will take up large portion of your time and it makes it much easier do something that you love and are pationate about.
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Sachin’s Answer

Wonderful question Shashi!
Many students come across kind of similar queries when it comes to Passion Vs Profession. If you are really a passionate about Cars then I would say this is the right time for you to knock the doors of an automotive industry. Definitely need to prepare/equipped yourself with some additional things on top of your knowledge in Electrical engineering.
As you know, the auto industry is getting revolutionised around hybrid cars, electric cars and even looking forward for driverless smart cars. And they are definitely looking for talent there. There are different departments where you can think of going into like,
- Car contains various embedded devices which needs background of embedded device programming.
- The Electric cars contains everything that effectively and efficiently tries to run on a battery power. Almost all car manufacturers in India are investing their R&D in electric cars. IMO you have good opportunities there.
- There is also an emerging field of Virtual reality and digitalisation in auto industry. It mostly done by using various softwares out in the market. And there are various online courses to learn those softwares as well.
- If you are interested in programming and want to explore various researches going on for next gen driverless or smart cars, you can try to learn Machine Learning or couple of scripting, functional programming languages and start with internship to gain more expertise there.
At the end I would strongly recommend to connect your passion with the profession. It definitely helps to grow your career in long run!
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Duane’s Answer

Shashi, excellent question! Do both, find a way to utilize your expertise (electrical engineering) in the automobile industry or equivalent. Car manufacturers have engineers on staff, even if you have to change your discipline somewhat to a more general project engineer that leverages the electrical aspects it can put you in a position to enjoy both your passion and profession. I personally leverage both independently, I work my career during the day (managing Env. Health & Safety elements) and work my passion after hours (Coaching High School Football). Maintaining these two with a family make my life very fulfilling and exciting. Would I love to make a living just coaching, sure... but having an opportunity to "moonlight" in this manner is a blessing and keeps things challenging. Your opportunity awaits you, you just have to find it!
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Ashley’s Answer

Hello Shashi,

In life you always want to follow what you are passionate about. That is where the saying "if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life." follow those things that excite you. The money will follow right along with it as well.
Thank you comment icon Yes you are absolutely right, Following those things that excites me is a right thing to do in life. Thanks a lot. Shashi
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