HYDERABAD: Amidst the boundless possibilities and daunting uncertainties that lie ahead, children today need guidance that illuminates their unique strengths and passions. In the realm of career counselling, equipping young minds with the tools and knowledge to navigate the ever-evolving professional landscape is crucial for shaping their future.WhatIsMyGoal is an organisation that helps students experience different professions and career roles at a young age and helps them develop skills that would lead them to their ultimate aspirations.
However, several wanderings and expenditures of time and effort in trying and testing various career roles have led to the development of this organisation. Founders Chitralee Sarma and King had the same experiences of trying their hands at a variety of things before settling on a final career option. “When I started off my career, I tried several things: research, teaching, curriculum development. I joined Topper where I worked for 3.5 years. What I’m doing now is very different. I’m into entrepreneurship, so I have tried so many careers and this is not just for me. When I talk to people my age or my teammates or people who I used to work with, they all say the same thing. They talk about how we don’t really know what we want to do. We try out several things and then we realise, okay, this is something that I could probably be doing,” said Chitralee.
In 2021, the founders met and pondered upon the idea of starting something that would help guide children at a young age. “Why don’t we give them something that helps them to start experimenting and experiencing things from a young age? So this is where we want students to experience careers, for them to live in the future, by experiencing different careers. So we want them to live in the future by experiencing different careers.”
At the workshops and programs curated by WhatIsMyGoal, students get to choose from around 24 career domains. One day each for each of the career options, which include professions like doctor, engineer, astronaut and Formula E racer. Talking about how their work actually functions, Chitralee said, “We have two different models. One is a future readiness cell within the school. Every month students explore one career domain where they talk to career professionals. They’ll be doing certain hands-on activities and the life skills relevant to the career category will be developed.”
“For example, if they are experiencing entrepreneurship, they’ll be talking to entrepreneurs and they do real-time sales and marketing activities. In one of our programs, they have built their own start-ups. They’re already making some money out of it. We help them understand entrepreneurship, not just by giving them theoretical classes or lessons. It’s more about practically doing things. We go by learning by doing. And then of course, when it comes to sales, one of the key qualities is negotiation or public speaking. We help them imbibe these skills. For every other career domain, we follow a similar pattern where they talk to the career professional, do certain activities related to it, and then we help them develop certain relevant life skills,” added Chitralee.
The second model is where the organisation curates a smaller five-day program, allowing students to take up a target-based project with a company. For example, tracking the marketing campaign of the company over social media.
“We are also curating a political experience for students. We recently launched an under-18 election for students who get political experience and as part of it, 200 students from 51 visited the legislative assembly of Telangana. These schools now have their own election committees and they are going to conduct elections within the school. Each school is a constituency and they are going to conduct elections within the school. These election committee members, including an election commissioner from each school, visited the Secretariat of Telangana where they took the oath to conduct elections in their school,” she added.
She mentioned that the start-up chooses experts in various professions at different levels in their career: early, middle and senior. The content is created by a team of 15-20 persons related to that career domain. Sharing how the founders came together to work on the idea in the first place, Chitralee said, “We were semifinalists for Shark Tank 1. That’s when we met for the first time, all of us together as a team. From there we started our research work, all online.”
“We started with a school in Hyderabad called Talent Park High School, where we did a one-day demo for them, and then they joined our long-term program. Then we did a program in Guwahati because I am from there. There we got an immediate validation where students actually started exploring careers and they felt that they have so many other options out there for them. It was a 10-day long program with the school where there were 200 students who participated. We also did similar projects in Port Blair and Army Public School, Wellington. It’s a place where students get an opportunity to showcase their talents and what they are good at.,” she added.
Early this year, WhatIsMyGoal also curated experiences like Formula E racing. School students came in and talked to Formula E racer, Lucas Tucci di Grassi, and they experienced a Formula E car. Talking about the business model the organisation follows, Chitralee said, “It’s mostly B2B and B2C. For the schools, we work on a subscription model where every month they pay us a subscription fee. The pricing changes based on the mode of the program. We charge the students who come to us directly, starting with `5,000 for a program of two days.”
“My daughter has been part of WhatIsMyGoal and has learnt a lot of things about different aspects of a business, like strategies of marketing and sales. It is a wonderful program for new exposure,” said Jemi, a parent of a student from Silver Oaks International School.
Talking about the growth of the organisation, Chitralee said that it was a challenge to get across schools but they were able to get through with an entrepreneurship workshop for school principals. Now they have a community of 160 schools which they want to grow to 300 in number, reaching out to 70,000 students in Telangana and growing in other cities. “We would cross borders too very soon,” she added.
The schools collaborating with them seem to be satisfied with their progress. “Whatismygoal has consistently worked towards excellence by curating opportunities for our students. Their personalised touch in connecting with schools to involve students in some niche programs is commendable. Students of Premia Academy have always come back with insightful learning be it the visit to Telangana Assembly, the interaction with Army officials or speaking to Suresh Babu at Rama Naidu Studios,” said Trupti Rao, Principal of The Premia Academy