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Choosing one's career is perhaps the most important decision that we take in our lives. Interestingly, the seed of one's career gets sown while still being at the school level, at a tender age of 14-17 years.

Almost two decades back, when we in India were still under the socialist hangover of the Nehruvian era, Engineering and Medicine were considered as the only meaningful career choices. All other callings were for children with "less or suspect" intelligence, who could not get admission in one of the very few engineering or medical colleges that we had at that point in time.

Then about 10-15 years back, getting an MBA degree became the choice of the new "liberalized economy" generation.

Today, we live in an era where, on one hand, there is plethora of lucrative career choices, and on the other, there are too many influencers, who try to influence the career decision that the young student has to take. So how does one decide to choose one's career?

A recent research study by Bupaworld reveals that over 80% of people at the workplace feel stressed out because of being "Career Misfits". Why does this happen? Why do so many people land up in careers for which they are not really meant for? Well, it is because most of us just go with the flow and do not really take a hard look at who we are and where we will fit the best.

Some feel that we should choose our career based on what "interests" us. This is a definite improvement over choosing a career on the basis of "herd-mentality" mindset (If my friend and my friend's friend are choosing career "A", then I might as well choose the same career!). However, "interest" is something which is very floating in nature. Our "interest" keeps changing with the impact of various influencers like the T.V., the internet, friends, peers etc. The question remains, how does one decide to choose one's career?

We get some directional cues from what some famous people have said. Renowned management guru, Peter Drucker said, "Most people think they know what they are good at, they are usually wrong … and yet, a person can perform only from Strength". German literary genius, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, said "The person born with a talent, he is meant to use … will find his happiness in using it".

So, if we find out our inherent talent (our strengths) and use it at our work place, then we will enjoy the work that we do at our place and excel at it. The usual metrics of success, like compensation or money, naturally follow in all the situations when one is enjoying his/her work and excelling at it.

The Aptitude-Personality-Interest or the A-P-I model is the model through which we can scientifically map the "strengths" of the young student and directs them to their "best-fit" careers.

What is Aptitude?

Simply put, Aptitude is the "potential" that one is born with. It is an ability to learn/perform certain tasks with ease. It is an innate ability that one gets endowed with at the time of birth; it cannot be acquired. Some people are good at generating ideas; some are good at analyzing numerical information. Some people are good at visualizing in three dimensions; whereas some are good at putting things in nice, orderly manner. These are some of the examples of Aptitudes or our inherent talents.

They are those essential elements which combine in each of us to define what we do easily and well. Some Aptitudes are so firmly implanted in some of us as to control virtually every moment of our lives. Mozart was impelled to compose his extraordinary music from the age of five. Dickens had finished The Pickwick Papers by the time he was 24. Einstein wrote his first essay on the theory of relativity at the age of sixteen.

But, only a very few of us are embryonic Mozarts or Einsteins. In fact, most of us actually are a combination of aptitudes, some more compelling than others, no one of them so predominant as to drive everything we do. What separates and distinguishes us from other individuals is the way in which our unique abilities are patterned or configured in each of us.

Behavioral scientists believe that one cannot learn or develop Aptitudes. Aptitudes have little to do with knowledge or culture. Most importantly, every career or work requires certain combination or patterns of Aptitudes to perform that task or work properly. The work or task that one is most likely to enjoy and be successful in, is that work or task that utilizes and fulfills the Aptitudes that one possesses. By correct measurement and definition of one's natural abilities, one can not only learn what he/she can do the best but also knows how to apply these natural abilities to do their best in studies and in work. Therefore correct mapping of the Aptitude becomes the most critical point in understanding one's "Strengths".

What is Personality?

Personality, in most simple words, is the behavior that one reflects or shows most naturally. It basically tells us what motivates the person and what doesn't. How one would behave in a particular situation; whether one is a thinker or a doer; whether one is an extrovert or an introvert? Quite unlike Aptitude, Personality is something that can be improved upon. In fact, history is replete with examples where ordinary people have transformed their personality to become extraordinary achievers. Personality of an individual is really the sum total of various traits that are present or absent in that individual. There are many theories developed by behavioral scientists over the years that measure certain important aspects of one's personality. For every career or work, possessing a certain type of personality helps the person do that work or task effortlessly. Therefore correctly mapping of one's "Personality" becomes the second most critical point in unraveling one's "strengths".

Therefore, if we are able to measure the inherent Aptitudes and map the Personality of a person, then we can determine the "Strengths" of that person.

What is Interest?

Interest is the result of what one does, what one learns and what one knows. As mentioned earlier, Interest is quite floating in nature. Interests can change from time to time as one acquires more knowledge and experience. Also, interests can also be guided by the presence of inherent Aptitudes.

The most ideal situation, that one should strive for, is the one where the individual's "strength" matches with his/her career Interests.