GUIDELINES ON THE CHOICE OF A CAREER IN NIGERIA

GUIDELINES ON THE CHOICE OF A CAREER by Bunmi Arowosafe.

 

WHAT IS A CAREER?

A career can simply be defined as a job or a profession that one has been trained for and intends to do for several years especially for the purpose of earning a living.
WHY CHOOSE A CAREER?

There are many things that one can do in life but there are a few or even a particular one that one can do best.

Having to choose a career in the beginning of life. Time spent in primary school, secondary school and tertiary institutions are years of preparations for life. So making career choice will help an individual to be focused and know what he should spend his strength and time doing.
GUIDELINES ON THE CHOICE OF A CAREER

Since career is not a thing of a day, there is a need for every student to be well guided before he/she chooses any career at all. If you choose a wrong career, there is a big trouble for you in the future. In making this choice, a lot of things must be put into consideration which has been classified into three broad ways.
(A) UNDERSTAND YOURSELF

There is a need for every student to have an adequate understanding of yourself or herself before choosing a career that he/she will be committed to in life. You must know your strengths, values, personality and skills. Figuring out what you should do with your life may sometimes require you to get to know yourself better. If you want a career that will really make you happy, you have to have a good understanding of what you want and what you enjoy.

Such things that must be considered are discussed below:

1. Consider your dream career: There is an old saying that if you are trying to choose a career you should think about what you would do if you didn’t have to work. If you had a million dollars and you could do anything. What would you do? Your answer to the question may give you an insight into what you should do.
2. Consider your hobbies: it is very easy to turn you hobbies or something you love doing into a future career. Consider what you like to do and how that might fit into a career. E.g if you like drawing or art, consider becoming a graphic designer.
3. Think about what you are or were good at in school: think about the subject you excelled in in school. Though it may not be your favourite thing to do, choosing a career based on something you are skilled at can help you excel and provide yourself a secure future.
4. Consider what skills you excel in: if you are particularly good at certain skills,
5. Interest: Interest is the state of wanting to learn or know about something. Some people are interested in careers that involve frequent interactions with people and they show their love for people by being humorous, friendly, helpful, sympathetic and understanding towards others. So understanding oneself, interest must be considered seriously. And if you as a student know areas where you have special interest, it goes a long way in helping you to practice whatever career you choose. Where your interest does lies? What are your areas of interest? Find out your interest!
6. Intelligence: This is the mental ability that each individual has. It has to do with the power of learning, reasoning and understanding. Mental ability and capacity differs from person to person and each student must know this.
   Some students are so good in any subject that involves calculation, while others are at their best in subjects that does not involve calculations. So each student has different mental capacity and ability and each profession/career requires a level of intelligence or the other.

 

(B) KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROFESSION
Another side to consider in making choice of career is the knowledge of the profession. There are five sides to this.

1. Requirement: – Every career/ profession has entry requirement i.e., what a candidate either at the ordinary level (O/L) or the JAMB or even both. Students should know the requirements and the things that qualify them for the course and where the course can be studied or where one can obtain training for it.
2. The Period of Training:- i.e. the number of years one need to train for the profession.
3. The prospective students should also know what the career they are choosing has for them in the future and be able to answer the questions, is this something I will like to do forever or where can this profession take me?
4. The Employment Opportunities
5. Details about the profession:- What the profession is all about.

Academic excellence is the demonstrated ability to perform, achieve, and or excel in scholastic activities. It has been identified with achieving high grades and superior performance. It is more than just making good grades. It is the maximum development of your intellectual capacities and skills in service to humanity.
Excellence is a quality of being outstanding: it is not a trait, hence it cannot be inherited. There is one way of achieving excellence academically: it is how you apply the principles governing it that determines the outcome. Excellence comes with a price, only those who understand its worth can pay for it.

These are tips that can help you excel academically:

1. Put God first:

God himself is a God of excellence and he also expects us to excel in whatever we do. Everything he created was good. He has given you all that it takes to succeed at whatever you do, it is just for you to believe and tap into the resources. Do not allow your studies to compete with God’s time in your life because you need Him to sustain and see you through.

 

2. Prioritize:

Many people have problems of misplaced priorities because they find it difficult to order things according to their importance. You should understand that your primary reason for being in school is to study in order to come out with good grades that will give you an edge in this highly competitive world: every other thing is secondary such as, club, associations, parties e.t.c if your academics is important to you, you will do anything to get the right materials and textbooks to upgrade you and make you a better student, but if you pay more attention to trivial things: you might soon be a failure.

3. Be disciplined:

Discipline is a very essential principle of excellence that is lacking in the lives of so many youth hiding under the shadow of freedom to do anything. Self-discipline is a conscious control over your lifestyle and you need to nurture it because it is one of an achiever’s greatest weapon. You should be disciplined enough to have a study time table that guides you like a map in a journey. Be committed to your study time and you can be sure of remarkable results.

4. Stay focused:

Distractions can come in any form such as businesses, relationships, friends, families and so on: note that not so many things can travel with you on the way to success; a lot of unwanted baggage’s have to be dropped because they might slow you down. There are things that can wait because they will always be there; however if you cannot make sacrifices for your academics. Then don’t think of excellence. When your eyes are fixed on something, you can hardly miss any detail and even when there are times when you are tempted to shift grounds, return as soon as you acknowledge it because the farther you move away from your goals, the lesser the chances of achieving them.

5. Keep the right company:

You are who you move with there are different kinds of companies you can keep in an academic environment but the choice of those that can make or mar you is entirely yours to make. Students form cliques for different reasons, to some , it gives them a feeling of importance while for others it’s a way of being a part of something. For good companies it has to do with mingling with people of similar interest and goal, people of likes mind, passion and vision who have excellence has their watchword, people who believe in your dreams and are ready to push you through. It can be a study group where you exchange ideas, learn and impact others.

Although , you must develop yourself  independently, you cannot be an island because the more you share your knowledge, the more you know. Also maximize the time you spend with them.

Bunmi Arowosafe

Proprietress

Life Moulding School

Mrcy_bunmi@yahoo.com