Based out of Bangalore, Kavitha has worked across various domains ranging from hospitality, insurance to even having the privilege to work at Oracle. In all these career paths, one thing she claims has remained constant, and that is her ambition to grow and learn. As she puts it herself, “I wanted to keep exploring and growing so I could learn as much as possible.”
Kavitha was 18 when she landed her first job, and since then it has been a journey of hard work and growth for her. It has been a journey where she didn’t look back until finally, she found the career that she truly loved. “After 25 years, I am in a career that I absolutely love, and I wouldn’t have reached here without my experience.”, she says as she thinks back at her long and successful career.
Discussing what drove her towards the career counselling profession, she said, “My daughter was in class 10 when I realized the lack of information in people in terms of career choice, guidance, and how people had no clarity regarding this.” She wanted to fill this void of information that she was seeing and realized quickly how important a career counselor’s role is, to guide the students and help them make the right decisions. She feels that growing up she did not have enough opportunities where she could get the correct guidance in terms of the best career choice for her, leading to so many changes in her professional life. Although she appreciates all her experience today, she also acknowledges that it has not come easy. She did not want the youth of today which also included her daughter to go through a similar struggle.
“I believe that if we train and guide our youth right today, then they can go pursue a career they are really interested in, which will keep them self-motivated because they will be doing what they love.”, she says as she claims that this is what will result in a more productive and efficient workforce of the future because it’ll be a happier workforce.
She has been associated with Mindler since Feb ’19 and is not only a Mindler Partner, but also a proud ICCC (International Certified Career Coach) Advanced and Masters alum. “Being a Mindler Partner and a part of the ICCC has been an absolutely wonderful journey.”, she says as she goes on to discuss her learning experience. She talks about how her heart was thumping loudly when she was coaching her first student, and she was stuck with a question that her student asked, that she did not have a direct answer for. “The thought of not having answers was an intimidating one, and this is where ICCC has helped me.”, she says reminiscing her first days as a career counsellor. According to her, the ICCC program has taught her how to connect with the students and their parents. She has been able to find that balance how to handle the two, and feels confident today in designing solutions tailor-made to fit any one-on-one session with her students, or their parents or both. “ICCC has helped me reach a position where interacting with students and parents comes organically to me.”, is what she had to say when asked about a highlight of the program. Her passion for career counselling and helping students has only been growing ever since, and she credits this to her decision to take up the ICCC program and coming on board with Mindler.
When asked about a few things she had to say about the ICCC and being a part of the Mindler Partner program, she had quite a few interesting insights to share as she goes on to say, “If it was not for Mindler, I would not have been in Career Counselling.” She talks about how she had considered other options as well, but other players did not have the element of human interaction that Mindler offers to its customers. For instance, she talks about how a few other certification programs were 2-3 day programs, which she felt could never be enough to soak in such so much of information. Another reason why “ICCC has been a game-changer” for her is due to the fact that it gives its candidates ample time to dive deep into the course material and really soak in all the knowledge and learn from the industry experts in the process.
Talking about Team Mindler and how her experience has been over the course of her association with Mindler she said, “Every time I look at the information that Mindler shares and Mindler’s own journey for that matter, you know, as a team, how much hard work they put in, and how many man-hours go into putting together the amazing database of information, is commendable.” She acknowledges how Mindler’s Partner Portal has empowered her further by providing her with the best technology-driven software and went on to praise the platform for all its features such as the Psychometric assessments, her own website, the seamless use of career mapping tools, and the vast amount of information present in Mindler’s career library and blogs. This is what she believes gives her a lot of confidence and also keeps her motivated to work harder each day.
Being associated with Mindler, constantly learning from her experiences and the exposure she has gotten has led Kavitha to even explore different verticals on her own as well, such as developing a program for young students wherein she helps them develop soft skills such as problem-solving and decision making from a young age. She has also formed a book club, where students gather once a week and discuss critically what they have read that week, which allows them not only to become avid readers but also critical ones.
Conclusion
As we concluded the interview with Kavitha, we couldn’t help but ask her about one achievement that she was extremely proud of, and here is what she had to say, “Mindler has helped me start a new career, one that I love, at the age of 44. Not at all easy, but the support and training provided is amazing, and this is the biggest achievement for me.” And there cannot be a better compliment for an organization either that its customers feel so proud and satisfied.
If you want to experience the joy and success that Kavitha has talked about, go ahead and register for the ICCC Program, and get the free trial of the Mindler Partner Portal now.
