My ultimate dream was to become a doctor (and no I wasn’t playing up to my parents/Asian stereotypes lol), but I’m a not A* student by any means and my maths is horrible, so that leave me with a question, what should I do? I’m 15, and it is young, however it about 6 months time I’m going to have pick my subjects for A Levels, which will then help me determine my subjects in University, which will then plan to my future career. I am not good in particularly any good subject field, although I do like some aspects of history, it’s mainly about Asian/Greek History, one of my hopes it to become a documentary journalist or an author studying different Ethnic groups in Asia, I’m not sure though, anyone, I’m really struggling, I just want one career path goal that I’ll have to work hard towards.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Im going to tell you something that youre not going to like to hear. Instead of thinking about a future career that you will work hard at in the future, work hard right now to get to the career you want in the future. You said you really really wanted to be a doctor. Work hard right now, get your grades up, so you can take those A level subjects that will take you into medicine. There is no point thinking "I will work hard in the future, but right now I can slack off". If you keep that mindset now, you will keep that mindset in the future, and it won't help. If you need to retake your GCSE subjects, or get extra help through after school tuition/programs, do it now, because it will be a lot cheaper, and easier to do all of that now, than to switch your subjects/career path later on in life.
BTW, it totally sucks that 15 year olds have to decide their own life at that age. Most 21 year olds don't know what to do.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
If your maths sucks u should either work on improving it or move in with some Sub-Saharan tribe or become an amish
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Thanks guys, though Doctor would be my first choice I got many other career paths to take to.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Thanks guys, though Doctor would be my first choice I got many other career paths to take to.
If you didn't have 6 months to choose what you wanted to be for the rest of your life, I would agree with you here. However, you don't have any time left to choose "many other career paths". What I would strongly suggest you to do right now is scope out the market, see what future careers will still exist 7 years from now, or which will be up coming in the next few years. This will require you to do some serious researching, opening up journals, magazine articles, watching/reading news stories, and actually talking to people who are in those career fields. Based upon that, choose one of your "many other career paths". Unfortunately we live in an age of information, and what was relevant 10 years ago isn't relevant 10 years later, so what you think will work out for you right now in the future, may not work out for you in the future.
Also, don't forget, you spend 8 hours a day at your job. You have 16 other hours of the day to do whatever the heck you want. Instead of going down a career path of documentary journalist, which btw, will be nothing but sar khappa, unless you're David Attenborough, do that as a hobby instead. If in the future you are actually making money out of your hobby, you can leave your 9-5 paying job, but don't think what you're really really passionate about can make you money. It might seem like it's easy and intuitive, but unfortunately, that's not how the real world works.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
If you didn't have 6 months to choose what you wanted to be for the rest of your life, I would agree with you here. However, you don't have any time left to choose "many other career paths". What I would strongly suggest you to do right now is scope out the market, see what future careers will still exist 7 years from now, or which will be up coming in the next few years. This will require you to do some serious researching, opening up journals, magazine articles, watching/reading news stories, and actually talking to people who are in those career fields. Based upon that, choose one of your "many other career paths". Unfortunately we live in an age of information, and what was relevant 10 years ago isn't relevant 10 years later, so what you think will work out for you right now in the future, may not work out for you in the future.
Also, don't forget, you spend 8 hours a day at your job. You have 16 other hours of the day to do whatever the heck you want. Instead of going down a career path of documentary journalist, which btw, will be nothing but sar khappa, unless you're David Attenborough, do that as a hobby instead. If in the future you are actually making money out of your hobby, you can leave your 9-5 paying job, but don't think what you're really really passionate about can make you money. It might seem like it's easy and intuitive, but unfortunately, that's not how the real world works.
Okay, so what jobs do you think will be avaliable in the future 7 years now that I should research on
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Okay, so what jobs do you think will be avaliable in the future 7 years now that I should research on
Well first, write down what you're interested in, or something you can do, based on your GSCE subjects and scores. Then start your research based on that list. Do a general search, eg, engineering. Then look up what's available in engineering, electrical, civil etc etc. The more you research the more you will find out what is an up and coming field within that field.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Hi Dragon, I have read through the discussion and amongst some good advice you received I would like to add a few things:
A career is a one time choice in life , first time deciding is much easier , if you are pushed into changing it down a few years , it can become really challenging. So you have to be extremely clear about a few things : how passionate are you about your chosen career? Are there enough jobs in that sector or is it saturated? What kind of working hours and salary is offered to people in your chosen field. The generic ups and downs of that career.
you can do this by going on to big job sites like Reed and Monster and type in various job titles to see what is expected of individuals in certain roles. If you look for a job description for documentary journalist and read them in detail. Then try to approach someone who you might either know or have heard of and see if you can speak to them or request them to allow you to shadow them for a few days .. this will give you an accurate idea of the challenges.
Its difficult but very doable. It is the best way to determine how passionate you are about a certain career and it will increase your knowledge of the risks and benefits associated in that field.
If you go on to Monster or Reed and look at various catagories, take time to go through as many categories that interest you , your goal will be to read through job descriptions in detail and once you have marked down the potential categories that interest you , go through the job descriptions at various career levels . For example, if its accountancy then go through the job roles of Auditors, insolvency administrators, tax consultants etc , then a level up , senior auditors etc , a level up , audit manager, senior manager , director etc .. focus on the types of personality they are looking for , often times they mention it in the job description for example , "attention to detail" "excellent commercial knowledge" etc ... look at the salaries offered ..
If you still find yourself lost, then visit a few companies websites in that particular field that you are researching. find out how these companies are structured and what products they offer. Many a times they will have a careers page , click and read through the job descriptions .
I think the basic confusion you feel right now , will get sorted once you have gone through this research. It shouldnt take you more then a month to do this and once you have a shortlist of 2-3 fields in mind, ask people around you if they can help you shadow people in those chosen fields. A lot of times this can really really help , even if you cant shadow , speaking to the relevant people can give you tonns of ideas.
Hope this helps , if you have any specific field in mind , feel free to ask questions and we will help as much as we can. Good luck :)
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Thank you all for your advice, I have seen that becoming a documentary journlalist/journalist may not be up to my standard at all now, perhaps I should go into something more sensible instead.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Accountant job is good for you.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
I would disagree that a career locks us in as a one time thing. But let's get to that later. You should have an idea on the general area you want to be in, it's easier to move around in it as you know more, market shifts etc. eg you can go into healthcare and decide you don't want to be a doc but a biomedical engineer, a healthcare mgmt professional, but moving from that to fine arts is a bit tough.
Same goes for moving within finance, economics, econometrics, Accounting etc but to move from that to dentistry is much tougher. But I know an accountant who is now a chef, a doctor who is now a healthcare mgmt guy, a teacher who is president of a healthcare products company, a banker who is now a musician, and engineer who is now a doctor...
Some of the key gigs for the last decade or two are brand new. So if career change is not possible how did people get into those. People reinvent themselves, focus in new areas, build new skills etc.
Some of us are blessed with an interest, aptitude and opportunity for a fairly stable type of role... Let's say a dentist, others either are not certain or only have an idea of what they like, or have an interest based on limited exposure.
All I know is I would not want a 15 year old me making a call for me right now. :-) years from now you may feel the same way. So figure out what general area you have a passion for, go for it, if you need to course correct in 2 years or 10, so be it.
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Dragon90:
I will tell freaks that it is karachi that send mohammad abroad with a new name when their khir is all around delhi! so zainab aur chorro! pak pattan mai! sea-view acts more expensive than suburbs, as if the thaika is taken of clifton not becoming commercial! of course it was taken. so anyone thinks zainab is fehsh? I do, why, because one, she wasn't very memon. and I appear to be dying to! no ethnic clash forgotten is the clear line of people in the midle-east! dear friend I know these ten years r libra years! and then next ten will be cancer! my dying years! I am already seeing signs!
I wish to be scorpio logo. I am a born leo at that!
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Study Original news! 
Re: What job should I plan on doing,
Dragon90: I will tell freaks that it is karachi that send mohammad abroad with a new name when their khir is all around delhi! so zainab aur chorro! pak pattan mai! sea-view acts more expensive than suburbs, as if the thaika is taken of clifton not becoming commercial! of course it was taken. so anyone thinks zainab is fehsh? I do, why, because one, she wasn't very memon. and I appear to be dying to! no ethnic clash forgotten is the clear line of people in the midle-east! dear friend I know these ten years r libra years! and then next ten will be cancer! my dying years! I am already seeing signs! I wish to be scorpio logo. I am a born leo at that!
what is this ? Word salad?