CHOSING A CAREER

CHOOSING A CAREER
According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, career is a job or profession that you have been trained for and intend to do for several years. The author defined career as a job or area of life which one has capability and passion for, acquires skill on its performance and makes one’s living through it.

What career field are you planning to enter? Why? How much do you know about the field? Do you know what is required to enter the field? Are you familiar with the nature of the work? The working conditions? In what ways do you expect the work to satisfy your needs? If it is assumed that your chosen career will earn you enough money, will it help you satisfy your self esteem or make you fill fulfilled in life? Answers to these questions are very important to career selection, planning and satisfactions during the adult years.

Before deciding the profession you want to pursue, decide whether you merely want any profession or the profession for which you are best fitted by desire, education, temperament and native ability or talent. Decide which occupation you like best, careful analysis of many thousands of men and women has shown that one experiences the greatest and most enduring success when engaged in the work which one likes best. When one enters into that sort of work, it is with enthusiasms and zeal similar to that employed when playing a game.
One of the most pathetic sights I have ever witnessed is that of a man who has committed himself to the worrisome treadmill of toil for his entire life time, where he must spend six days out of every seven days at labour which he does not like. The man is not better than a prisoner; the only difference is that he has a slightly wider scope of freedom one day out of every seven days. People should try and choose an occupation which they like, because service rendered in connection with an occupation which one enjoys is never burdensome, because it is a form of labour which one enjoys. People get tired, not from over work but from lack of interest in what you are doing.

One of the commonly observed mistakes students make in their choice of occupation is that they go in for occupation that require mental ability that is above them or occupation that do not suit their personality. Some choose occupation for which they do not posses the essential skills in subject required for the occupation. Sometimes, a student who is very poor in Mathematics and hates calculations will go in for Engineering course. May be because he/she believes the field is a lucrative one. Such people usually end up constituting a nuisance to the university, because they are always trapped in frustration, hence they resort to clandestine activities.
There are careers that are less crowded, with good pay packages, provide a higher standard and quality of living than some of those professions people usually see as gateway to riches.






Things that should influence you most in your choice of career are your talent, interest, temperament {the kind of person you are} possible job opportunities, high school courses in which you did well, reading about career, friends and teachers in the field that you have interest on.


My dear young man, young lady, do you like that course, do you think you have what it takes to excel in that field or you are going into it because all your friends are into it, you have not heard of any other course or do you believe that being in this field will make you become a millionaire overnight. Well, whatever answer you have, remember according to Psychologists, “an ideal self is the thought of an individual of what he would like to be” You should also note that many people are poor or leaving below their natural capacity today, not because they are not hardworking, but may because they made wrong career choice, as God has destined his people to succeed.

The willful desire to pursue a career in higher institution depend on the amount of information made available to the students on the need to further their studies in higher institution, information on admission process, requirements and various occupations that can be studied in higher institutions. It is important to note that the adequacy of choice made by an individual depends on how well he/she knows about the requirements and opportunities of different occupations. There is need to be conscious of the saying, if you are not informed, you will be deformed, the holy bible even confirmed the importance of information in Hosea 4:6. John Foster said, ‘It is a poor disgraceful thing not to be able to reply with some degree of certainty, to the simple question, what will you be? What will you do? Unfortunately, most students lack information about themselves, occupations and training opportunities, hence they do not make appropriate career choice while in secondary school

To make a wise occupational choice, a student should accept the idea that he must be as objective and sincere as possible in the analysis of his/her own qualifications or merits in relation to occupations. If the students do not accept this idea, they are likely to make an unrealistic career choice. Sooner or later, the decision may lead to feeling of emptiness, disappointments frustrations and Inferiority. However the tremendous reward of making the right choice is that it makes you feel positive and happy about yourself.

In my subsequent posts, I will take you through solid steps in making wise career choice, role of parents/guardians in making career choice of their children or wards, Career choice and temperaments (your kind of person; which career is adequate for different kind of individuals), descriptions of various courses of study available in higher institutions, their job opportunities, and aptitudes and subject requirements etc.