Turning passions into professions, engineers, bankers and CAs are doing the unthinkable
It’s the age of ‘do-it-now’. If you’re chasing a dream, then the time is just right to pursue it, make a career out of it and even build a new viable venture from it.
Experienced professionals across sectors are going by their gut feeling, quitting jobs, taking risks and starting afresh into something totally different from their corporate profiles.
Take mechanical engineer turned bookstore owner and bread-maker Subodh Sankar. After working in the technology and tech start-up world in the 1990s and 2000s, he actualised his (and his wife’s) dream of owning a bookstore that specialised in books by Indian writers. What started out as a ‘break’ from the technology sector resulted in a bookstore and a bread-making unit. Sankar created a chic space in Bangalore called Atta Galatta that not just sells books, but provides a unique platform for like-minded people to connect and interact creatively over book readings, storytelling and poetry sessions. He soon realised the need to have a bakery attached to the bookstore that sold a variety of breads. “Today my breads produced under the brand, Bagels & Bakes by Atta Galatta, are available across 120 organised retail stores,” says Sankar, adding that his career detour has been more of a ‘gentle meandering’ into distinct fields.
Chartered accountant Niveditha D made what she calls a ‘lifestyle choice’ when she bid adieu to her corporate job to start a quirky neighbourhood lounge, Sotally Tober. “I am a foodie and while working, I nurtured the idea to get into the restaurants space. Initially, I didn’t really have the courage to quit a cushy job and take on something different. I soon realised that as a CA, I had to put in long hours and travel extensively. That’s when I felt I’d rather work longer hours for something of my own,” says Niveditha.
The professionals say that it’s not really ‘boredom’ with present jobs that propels a career shift, but the yearning to chase passions. “I had always pursued ambitions of doing something around chocolates, rather than continuing to chase targets in sales and banking,” says Nitin Hiran, who has left banking to open ‘Chocolate Room’, a bistro lounge cum café themed around chocolates.
Learnings
Secure jobs guarantee a whole host of benefits which being on your own does not. “When I was with KPMG, everything was organised and streamlined. In the restaurant space, things get cluttered. But this keeps me on my toes as there are a new set of challenges each day that provide new learnings. I get to learn from scratch and get my hands dirty,” says Niveditha, who is now looking to open more outlets of Sotally Tober.
Moving out of air-conditioned offices brings an individual face-to-face with real-world problems and experience distinct cultures. “In the tech world, I was a manager to white collar employees. I am now a manager to 70 workers in my bakery. Managing these people is totally different from technology professionals,” says Sankar.
STEPPING IN THE SUN
- Professionals across sectors are starting afresh into something totally different from their corporate profiles
- Moving out of air-conditioned offices brings an individual face to face with the real-world problems
- Professionals say it’s not really ‘boredom’ with present jobs, but the yearning to chase passions that propels a vocation shift
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