Majority of the aspirants complain about the sacrifices the CSS exam seeks from them in order to get induction into the civil services of Pakistan. Even the most capable and intelligent aspirants are witnessed grousing and grumbling about the tedious, lengthy and hectic procedure for recruitment into the civil service.

A few days ago, I was wondering about only one thing. In order to be inducted into the forces like Army, Navy or PAF, all of the aspirants go through almost the extremely rigorous procedures and tasks to get their desired job into these services. As a matter of fact, those exercises of forces are much more stringent than the recruitment processes of civil service.

Now, all of the afore-mentioned fields are not just services. These are “careers”. In our country, we always consider two bureaucracies; military bureaucracy and civil bureaucracy.

We are very much willing to go through all those brawny tasks of forces to get allocation/induction into them but on the other side, we jeer and scoff at the procedures employed for recruitment into the civil service.

Why so much hypocrisy? CSS exam is not just an exam. It’s certainly not just an ordinary job either. It’s a career just like forces. And career of the sort which is a kind of short cut to reach the upper echelons of the administration of this country. It gives you prestige, honour and authority to bring a change in the entire country and not only on the local or regional level.

To speak my heart out, if anybody does not have the guts to sacrifice everything to be allocated into civil services, then frankly do not step foot into the arena of CSS exams. It has become that brutally competitive and cruel nowadays. It’s hell difficult to take along your job and exam preparation side by side.

I would go to the extent of saying that if you are not willing to put your professional career, your academic studies and most of all your most precious next 4, 5 years at stake, do not think about appearing into the CSS exam because you will be just wasting your time.

I know, most of you would say that I am discouraging the new aspirants by writing these words but I am not here to paint rosy pictures like some of the other folks do so. There is no gainsaying the fact that CSS exam is absolutely possible to qualify and get allocated into the central superior services of Pakistan. It is not impossible at all.

But unlike other exams of our academic studies, luck matters the most in CSS. It’s so uncertain as well. Even after qualifying the mains, psychological tests and interview, you are never sure about your allocation. In addition, all the afore-mentioned steps take about 1 year to complete and that is quite a time period to do anything.

So, coming back to the topic under discussion, if you want to do CSS, be ready and be willing to put everything at stake. Do not whine about its tough, nerve wrecking and lengthy process because this is how it is. They are not going to offer you such a prestigious job on a silver platter.

If you have the guts, the courage, the stamina and the will to compete, this (civil service) is where you belong. CSS exam will test them all. The only condition is the sacrifice it will seek in return.

"Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice". (Napoleon Hill)