Lakhs of students sit for the Civil Services exam each year. Not making it to the elite list doesn’t mean there are no other options, says NIRAJ KUMAR
The Civil Services (Preliminary) exam 2020, was conducted on October 4 last year. A total of 10,40,060 candidates applied for the exam, out of whom 4,82,770 appeared. As many as 10,564 candidates qualified for appearance in the written (main) examination which was held in January, 2021, and, of them, 2,053 qualified for the personality test (interview), from which 761 candidates have been recommended for appointment. Going by the volume of the data, only 0.073 per cent who applied for the exam could make it to the final elite list. The rest 99.92 per cent could not make it.
For those who could not make it to the merit list, it is not the end of the world. It is difficult to console for initial couple of days which is very normal and all those who have ever attempted civil services exam can understand it more empathetically.
Failure leaves you with anger, frustration, loss of self-esteem, diluting confidence and regret which is difficult to overcome, especially in ecosystem of Civil Services preparation with underlying social beliefs, status accorded to the job of Civil Servant and worst is fear of failure.
Dealing with failure with so many attachments is not at all easy and there cannot be any recipe to deal for it either. It majorly depends on the learning and understanding of your own experiences. Don’t make the failure personal and don't try to attach with your personality or personal identity. Identifying your failure with your personal identity can ruin your self-esteem and confidence. Every success story is also a great story of failure too.
Obsessing over your failure will not change the outcome. In fact, it will only intensify the outcome, trapping you in an emotional vicious cycle that disables you from moving on. You cannot change the past, but you can definitely shape your future. The faster you take a positive step forward, the quicker you can leave these debilitating, monopolizing thoughts behind.
Introspect, learn and adapt to the situation will help getting out of the failure situation faster. Analysing the failure is important to understand the causative factors which led to the failure. Mind it, it will be a great learning experience and learning from own failure makes you more stronger and future ready to move ahead in life with far more energy and determination. Remember, Thomas Edison too failed thousand times before he finally invented the light bulb.
Changing the negative attitude attached to the failure to the positive will help you a lot. It is just an exam and failing in it is not synonymous to failing in life. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Fear of failure, mostly due to our upbringing in a society where a lot of social status is attached to the success. Don't give your control in hands of others, be your own master.
One just needs to overcome, concentrate and carefully choose what to do as during your preparation it might be that you had lost some of the crucial years and keeping that in mind further planning can be done. Options ranges from higher studies, joining NGOs , attempting other job oriented exams like Provincial Civil Service exams, public sector exams, banking, Railways and NET, which will not only make you financially stable but in a way you can contribute to the society by creating employment for others.