Its quite intriguing how we choose or decide upon a career for ourselves .. Specially in some places even On campus career consultants arent really big help .. Infact they do sometimes confuse you even more !
Most of the time, we look around us in our family, if its a family of Doctors or Engineers , it becomes a natural choice for us too ..
Sometimes, we decide to do what our friends are doing, if they have chosen accountancy , fine , we will become an accountant too ..
Then again sometimes , you have a passion for a certain profession and you work hard to achieve it ..
**and the last category belongs to kids who are really confused about what path to take, what choices to make ..
How do you get to a calculated decision of what career path to choose? What steps to take and what do’s and dont’s to keep in mind, after all this is one of the most important decisions in life and cant be overturned easily .. **
well, my family is a teachers family...my dad was a teacher, two of my brothers are teachers. i wanted to be a medical doctor and i did manage to get into a med school but as fate fate/irresponsibility took a turn for the worse and i was kicked out of the program. i hardheartedly enrolled in for a bachelor's degree which i completed and then came to Canada and here i made the best of the opportunity that Allah offered me. i completed my higher studies and iA i too will end up as teacher.
as far as my nephews and nieces are concerned, they better knew/know what they wanted to do with their lives. we encouraged them to do what they desired. one of my nieces wanted to be a psychiatrist and she did become one, my nephew loved animals so much that he wanted to become a VET and now he is in a Vet College doing what he planned to do all along and lastly my other niece wanted to be a psychologist and she is doing her BA in Psychology and she intends to do Masters and then PhD.
so, we, the older generation, were led by fate but luckily the next generation is following their pre-planned career paths. alHamdolillah! :)
yup very true KKF , this generation of kids is definitely making planned career choices .. and that is the reason why I want to find out more about how one determines what career choice to make ..
Generally the advise i have given to kids who ask me to guide them , is to create a long list of 6 career options based on their general research . Then start speaking to friends/family/family friends who might be in that profession , so that it gives them an idea of how the career progresses and what to expect when they start work in that specific career ...
Then they shortlist two or three careers out of the longlist .. and purely focus on their own abilities/strengths and compare them to the careers they seek.
I ask them to go onto job sites and read the job descriptions and find out which career has more job opportunities available and which ones are saturated .
Once they go through this exercise, they get a very clear picture of what they want.
Once they have made a final choice, I ask them to speak a friend/family friend who may be in that specific profession and perhaps even request them to let them shadow them for a few days if possible .. if not shadow them , then have a chat with them on a daily basis to find out the day's happening at the office , that really helps grasp the idea of being in a certain profession.
This strategy has helped a few of my family friends kids here.
and i want to explore more such strategies .. hence this thread ..
I think it depends on kid's interest. They shouldn't be forced to study some thing they don't enjoy else they find difficulty.
^ CB, do you work in a Career center?
Nope I dont , Lilly .. but because I have worked in Executive Recruitment for years and have had a business of my own too, Friends and family often consult with me when their kids are undergoing these confusing times .. I give them indepth insight into various careers so they can choose wisely ..
This is where research helps alot .. Usually its not as simple as it seems to many, to be able to choose a proper career path for yourselves ..
Alot of times we tell kids , do what you feel like , what you are good at ..
That is a really bad strategy I feel .. because many atimes what kids want to be , may not be a right choice of career for them. Hence its important to educate them on what factors to consider while inclining towards a certain career. For example:
Always find out how much study v/s reward is involved. This is important because if you dont enjoy studying as much but your career demands alot of study, then you will lose interest pretty quickly. For example MBBS, Solicitors etc ..
Always find out what day to day challenges of that job are .. for example accountancy requires working long hours, needs a great commercial exposure, dealing with clients etc .. then analyzing self to see if you have the aptitude for numbers and that commercial exposure needed to be a success in this role.
Is the career saturated or has job opportunities at various levels. One of the toughest thing to face in life is , graduating and not being able to secure an internship/placement or the first job. Hence its important to keep this in mind what job prospects are available in the market in the short and the long term.
Always know what bigger career specific qualifications will be needed to progress in your career. This will genuinely help you remain focused and know ahead of time if you will be capable of accepting the challenge .. For example IT professionals must keep themselves upto date with new certifications . If they stall on that front their career progression might stop as well .
PM , its probably because back in those times there was no such thing as career counselling. Kids were never really taught to analyze themselves and their own skill sets .. but as we enter extremely competitive times, its no longer possible to let kids remain unknown to their specific winning skills and their ability to reach out for the best out there.
If parents still continue to ignore this important time of their kid's life, their kid wont be able to tackle job competition in the years to come. Its as simple as that.
This is where research helps alot .. Usually its not as simple as it seems to many, to be able to choose a proper career path for yourselves ..
Alot of times we tell kids , do what you feel like , what you are good at ..
That is a really bad strategy I feel .. because many atimes what kids want to be , may not be a right choice of career for them. Hence its important to educate them on what factors to consider while inclining towards a certain career. For example:
Always find out how much study v/s reward is involved. This is important because if you dont enjoy studying as much but your career demands alot of study, then you will lose interest pretty quickly. For example MBBS, Solicitors etc ..
Always find out what day to day challenges of that job are .. for example accountancy requires working long hours, needs a great commercial exposure, dealing with clients etc .. then analyzing self to see if you have the aptitude for numbers and that commercial exposure needed to be a success in this role.
Is the career saturated or has job opportunities at various levels. One of the toughest thing to face in life is , graduating and not being able to secure an internship/placement or the first job. Hence its important to keep this in mind what job prospects are available in the market in the short and the long term.
Always know what bigger career specific qualifications will be needed to progress in your career. This will genuinely help you remain focused and know ahead of time if you will be capable of accepting the challenge .. For example IT professionals must keep themselves upto date with new certifications . If they stall on that front their career progression might stop as well .
*I have a job but I don't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. * This better describes my position I guess.
Me getting this job is part of my research. I know more about this particular career path than I could have found out talking to others. I have some other ideas too, but I can't act on them just yet. Just waiting for a few things to come through and have to talk to a couple people about the other career, cause it isn't something you can just up and leave. This new thing would be something I'd be stuck to for at least 7 years. Just giving it some time.
Yes completely understandable Saeed .. Infact one of my excolleagues is currently undergoing a similar situation .. after having spent 8 years in a career she is now contemplating making a move into a different direction coz she feels her current profession is not for her no more … it doesnt interest her basically.
Some people have been telling her its too late to consider moving into a new profession , but I feel its still not to late .. yes initially she might not get as high a salary in the new profession but eventually she will get there .. plus the field she has now got in mind isnt million miles away from what she was doing earlier … so there is a fairly good chance for her to survive through this transition successfully.
i hope its the same for you too Saeed , wish you all the very best
Alright , Alright ! didnt mean to make you feel like a senior citizen :hinna:
How would i know how long ago you were talking about wasie to , I still dont see desi families give alot of attention to a kids professional choice .. most just go with the popular choices ..
There just ain’t many choices. Especially nowadays, you can opt to be a doctor, engineer, MBA, Accountant or whatever..all are jobless
Its not really possible to make a good living here if you don’t go for high paying professions… an artist or a teacher or anyone with humanities degrees would most likely be underpaid all their life.
yeah you are right PM, I think the key reason behind this joblessness is the saturation of the market. For years now the only few professions that everyone aimed for were the ones that you mentioned .. There is no diversity ... hence why all these professions are now facing this job dilemma :(
Cool, I thought you either work in connexions centre or in a career center for agencies. I am sure everyone who followed your advice said thanks to you? Did they appreciate your ideas? Has it been useful to them?
This is weird.
This is making me bring a new whole thread regarding what I want to do
Yes Lilly.. Indeed the pointers and the research strategy has helped them loads .. if nothing else , at least they know now how to find light in the middle of so much confusion.
The career counselling that they got in college wasnt alot of help, in setting the direction.. it was more about where to and how to secure a job once you finish your degree ..
PS: Please feel free to open up a new thread regards the last pointer you mentioned , or you can continue in this thread , which ever you feel comfortable with .. anything I can help you with?
wasie to , I still dont see desi families give alot of attention to a kids professional choice .. most just go with the popular choices ..
