Challenges

In most northeastern parts of India, there is little awareness about the possibility of various career opportunities. This lack of awareness stems from the perception in some parts of India, including the northeast, where government jobs are viewed as symbols of power and comfort. Almost every parent in these regions hopes for their child to become a government official. Unfortunately, the ratio of job openings in the government sector to the number of aspirants is vast, with some positions having as many as 120 open posts and 33,614 applicants. Many aspirants persist in taking the exams until they reach the age eligibility limit, and in some cases, individuals continue trying until the age of 34-35 in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The unemployment rate in northeast India is 5.73%, which surpasses the national average of 3.4%.


Many aspirants lose their confidence and hope in the process of preparation, as not everyone clears the exam on the first try, and some even take years or never crack it. A lot of aspirants enroll in test preparation centers, and those cost a significant amount of money, with lower-income households being affected the most. Even though there are many talented people, they aren't employed, and one of the major contributors is a lack of career exposure.

What is CuriousBeans?

CuriousBeans is a non-profit community that my friend Yania Nada and I co-founded with a mission to cultivate curiosity, build awareness, and increase exposure for the people of northeastern parts of India about different career paths. It achieves this goal by holding events, sharing the personal journeys of natives from the Northeast with diverse professional backgrounds, and connecting individuals. Exposure to different experiences is one of the richest sources of life education, which can create significant impacts on the lives of people, both for the person who lived it and the person who hears that story. On July 1st, 2023, CuriousBeans hosted its very first event under the name of CreativeMusers.

People engaging during 1st edition of CuriousBeans.

Speakers of 1st edition.

Process

Realising the challenge

Often, we don’t even realize that a thing or a situation is a challenge unless we observe, analyze, or are told by someone else. In this project, the identification of the challenge was the result of retrospection into my career journey and that of people nearby me. Growing up, I only knew about jobs in government administration, engineering, and medicine. I could have never imagined that I could choose design as a profession even after pursuing engineering. Since childhood, I have seen many people attempting repeatedly for government jobs as if their lives depended on it. Whenever I questioned why this was so, the common answer was, “I don’t know what else I’ll do.”

Identifying common pattern

It’s always interesting to learn people’s stories. So whenever I got the chance to speak with someone, I asked them questions like:

• What did you wish to become when you were young?

• Did you end up pursuing it? If not, why not?

Surprisingly, a lot of them did not know what they wanted to become when they were young. Even if they did have aspirations, when they grew up they often just followed what their friends were doing or what they were exposed to. (Nada Tade, a Software Engineer, sharing his journey)

Paraphrased extracts from conversations I had:

• “I want to be a footballer.” - A primary school student

• “I am not clear on what I want to pursue. I do have some interest in studying journalism but I have no idea what to expect on and after the course. My mom was telling me to pursue medical and a lot of my friends are preparing for it, maybe I should also try.” - A high school graduate

• “I have wasted so many years preparing for govt. jobs. I shouldn’t have done my Masters as it didn’t add any value and instead, I should have sat for govt exams early on when my mind was fresh.” - A Horticulture graduate

• “There are not many jobs in my line of study. Our domain doesn’t have much opportunity.” - A Botany graduate

• “If you land a government job, you’ll have a comfortable and respectable job.” - Elders

Seeking help from the community

We realized that all we had been doing so far was just talking about the challenge, but very little was being done about it. Most of the time, we wait for others to take action, but what if each one of us puts in the effort? Could each drop of water grow into a river? So, we decided to host an in-person event in Arunachal (my home state) and kept the theme focused on creative fields for the first edition to make the event simpler and the information easier to digest. We understood that a community is 'you, me, everyone together,' and it thrives with individual contributions. Therefore, we started by reaching out for help to people we know for speaker recommendations on WhatsApp status.

After posting the status, I started getting leads for speakers, and that’s when it hit me that there are so many out there doing different things. If only their stories could be heard, the impact on the lives they could make would be marvellous. Thanks to the wonderful responses from the community, my confidence boosted, pushing me even more. Out of the recommended speakers, we narrowed it down to four (including me) for the first event based on the speaker's availability.

Once the speakers were confirmed, we initiated social activities and sent out surveys to understand who our audience was and what they expected from the event. The survey results validated our efforts, as we could see lots of support from the responses. The results were telling us that people want to break out, but they can't seem to find the door, and events like this could bring them a step closer to the light.

About 50% of the registrations were from people preparing for government jobs.

Many showed curiosity and interest for the event.

The 1st edition of CuriousBeans and it’s impact

There were four speakers sharing their stories: Gyati T.M. Ampi, Karry Padu, Michi Dusu Yama, and Yase Dusu. All of us were from different fields — Film & Production, Animation, Creative Writing, and Product Design — but we all had one thing in common: we followed our passions and turned them into something amazing. You can find the details of the event and also view the recorded session here.

The session was very engaging, with attendees putting forth their thoughts and queries. The love and support we received post-event made me emotional, as it made me realize a quote I heard from a person, which I am paraphrasing here: "Don’t worry about creating impacts, just keep doing the work you truly believe in, and people would eventually notice your efforts."

What now?

The support we received made us want to do even more, so we went on to organize additional events, but this time, they were remote. We plan to keep hosting more of such events for those who need to know the stories and are yet to discover us.

Learnings

I have had a lot of learnings since CuriousBeans was started, some around how to organize events, and some on the way of thinking about things. A few key learnings:

• Be open to hearing about other's experiences; you never know how it could help you.

• In order to create a greater impact on one's community, collective effort, even from the audience, is essential. The power of learning and growing together is incomprehensible.

• Proper planning and strategy for community work are very essential for clarity, motivation, and moving forward.

• Feedback from the community is crucial to improve their experience and address their needs because ultimately, it’s for them.

• Hosting an event is stressful but not scary if you keep doing it with passion.

Thankful to everyone who helped along the way

Everyone has been very supportive to date. Special shout out to my early believers who helped with the first-ever event.

• Vedika Parvez, my colleague and a friend, she listened to my idea patiently with sparkly eyes and donated a generous amount for the event's snacks.

• Shuvedha Subramaniam, another colleague and a friend of mine volunteered to help with the sticker expenses.

• Arunraj Balasubramani, our Design head helped with iterating the event's poster. Kirthika Soundararajan, content and marketing genius and a friend of mine who helped with proofreading social content and my talk speech.

• Usha Kalva and Dhanushi Beloskar for giving me solid pointers on how to craft the event and what to include in my talk to create impact.

• My brother Tarang Dusu, my cousin Tanyang Novin, and their friends Gyati Naka and Khyoda Rajan for helping with arranging equipment for the events and setting up things on the event date.

• My cousin Bamin Ripa, my aunt Tanyang Yami, and my friends Tasso Annu, Mirem Tabing, and Hage Sunya for coming and supporting me and helping out at the event.

• My friend Kime Sumpi who was more excited than me when I told her about the idea, helped secure the venue space. My friend Gerik Ete helped with hosting the event, without her it would have been very difficult for me to balance my talk and hosting the event.

• Yania Nada, my friend and co-founder made my belief for the cause even stronger, she helps bring contradicting yet thought-provoking ideas whenever we discuss issues.

• The speakers blindly believed in us even though we had never met before. They went out of their way and travelled kilometres only to attend the event. Thanks to Karry Padu, Michi Dusu Yama and Gyati T M Ampi.

• All the audience, who came, believed and supported us. Without them, the event would have been nothing.

• My mother, Dumi Dusu and sister, Yasa Dusu they always support and push me forward and keep me in their prayers. Thank you.

Visit CuriousBeans website.
See past events.