Board exams are approaching and it is a scary time for students. There is a ton of pressure on the kids to score well and to get into a good college.
How do I know? Well, I gave my 12th Boards in 2013, that’s six years ago, but I still remember how big a deal it was made out to be. “Bina baat ka hauwa” (mountain of a molehill), is what I would call it. I got okay-okay marks in my Boards, probably because I was never interested in science or maths. I always had the inclination towards literature, arts, politics and all other things that were not considered mainstream per se.
But today, I am working at my dream job and in my journey marks hardly mattered!
‘Your Career Depends on You, Not Your Marks’
Today, there is a plethora of options one can choose from after school.
For me, it was always about becoming a journalist, and I have completed almost a year in this field.
I was one of those unlucky few that were enrolled in the experimental Four-Year-Undergraduate Program or FYUP rolled out by the Human Resource Development Ministry. So as an outcome the entrance tests for my two primary options, English Honours and Journalism Honours, were scrapped.
Out of the options I had, I chose to do my honours in Home Science. It wasn’t a conventional choice but I learned so many diverse things and had the time to nurture my writing as well.
After that, for my Masters I applied to all top schools like Jamia Millia Islamia’s AJK Mass Communication and Research Centre, Tata Institute, Symbiosis, NIFT etc. And guess what? I got through all of them!
Before I even completed my course, I had offers from two of the best media organisations. To be honest, it was me who took the major calls in my career and not my marks.
You could do the same, because #MarksDontMatter.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)