Saturday, November 1, 2008

how to not choose the wrong career


The craze for job has caused many youths to opt for just any job that comes their way rather than asking basic questions like who am I? Am I an introvert or an extrovert? What are my skills? What can I do? What do I really want to do if I have an opportunity to make a choice? Where am I going in life?

Sadly, the economic situation in the country has prevented many young people from pausing to ask the foregoing questions. And parents too are not helping matters. Once a child is born, most parents insist on a path the the child must toe. They do everything they can to create a mental entrapment of the child. Few take into cognizance the child's strength, skills, likes, dislikes, passion, opportunities and so on.

A few parents who observe the rule of studying a child and guiding him or her on the line he or she should take, based on the aforementioned factors are all happier for it and their children too are happy.

I have met many youths who are not really interested in the courses they found themselves doing in tertiary institutions, because such courses are foisted on them by their parents for one reason or the other.

The best way a parent can avoid friction with respect to a child's career direction is to engage the child in counselling. Career counsellors are trained to dig deep into a child's life and ask specific questions as to what the child wants to do with his or her life. Such counselling should be done near the end of the junior secondary classes, just before the child crosses into the senior secondary classes.

Parents and teachers need to make children aware of the various courses they can pursue and what they can do with them. Most youths suffer from what I call "career myopia". They only know about a few courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Accounting, Law, Computer Science, Petroleum Engineering and other common professional courses. What about courses like Sociology, Psychology, Human Nutrition, Theatre Arts, Music, Agricultural Science, Management, Library Science, Physics, Estate Management, Fashion and Design, and so on? Many of these unpopular courses are key to the economic breakthrough that Nigeria needs at the moment.

I am sorry to say, but these are the courses of the future.
For example, if Nigeria decides to venture into space technology, it will need Physics majors. When our knowledge revolution booms, we will need qualified librarians to oversee the over one million libraries across the country.

It has been proven time and again that the child that pursues his or her heart desire is happier and succeeds earlier than the one who is forced to make a detour later in life to find his or her path.

The craze for job has caused many youths to opt for just any job that comes their way rather than asking basic questions like who am I? Am I an introvert or an extrovert? What are my skills? What can I do? What do I really want to do if I have an opportunity to make a choice? Where am I going in life? Sadly, the economic situation in the country has prevented many young people from pausing to ask the foregoing questions. And parents too are not helping matters.

Once a child is born, most parents insist on a path the the child must toe. They do everything they can to create a mental entrapment of the child. Few take into cognizance the child's strength, skills, likes, dislikes, passion, opportunities and so on. A few parents who observe the rule of studying a child and guiding him or her on the line he or she should take, based on the aforementioned factors are all happier for it and their children too are happy.

I have met many youths who are not really interested in the courses they found themselves doing in tertiary institutions, because such courses are foisted on them by their parents for one reason or the other. The best way a parent can avoid friction with respect to a child's career direction is to engage the child in counselling. Career counsellors are trained to dig deep into a child's life and ask specific questions as to what the child wants to do with his or her life. Such counselling should be done near the end of the junior secondary classes, just before the child crosses into the senior secondary classes.

Parents and teachers need to make children aware of the various courses they can pursue and what they can do with them. Most youths suffer from what I call "career myopia". They only know about a few courses like Medicine, Pharmacy, Accounting, Law, Computer Science, Petroleum Engineering and other common professional courses. What about courses like Sociology, Psychology, Human Nutrition, Theatre Arts, Music, Agricultural Science, Management, Library Science, Physics, Estate Management, Fashion and Design, and so on? Many of these unpopular courses are key to the economic breakthrough that Nigeria needs at the moment. I am sorry to say, but these are the courses of the future. For example, if Nigeria decides to venture into space technology, it will need Physics majors.

When our knowledge revolution booms, we will need qualified librarians to oversee the over one million libraries across the country. It has been proven time and again that the child that pursues his or her heart desire is happier and succeeds earlier than the one who is forced to make a detour later in life to find his or her path. thanks to punchng.

so long, i know but life changing too.

3 comments:

Cappuccine Baby said...

You are so right, you don't know how many times i have changed the course i wanted to do because I never really asked myself if I really wanted to do it, just dived into it.

LOL that picture is classic! :D

Chris Ogunlowo said...

Thanks for sharing this post, though i wish my parents had read this before I gained admission into the Uni. But for all I care, I'll still bag a degree in my first love if I must consider myself fulfilled.

Anonymous said...

Hmm -- wonder if there's any hope for us who have completed two degrees and are chasing the third one.. Too late maybe.... Cheers