How do I choose a career?
Johann Meyer
If you know what career you want to follow, then go for it. Wanting to do something is the simplest and best reason for doing anything. An approach like that cannot, however, always be applied to a field of study. Often people think they know what they want to do, but they do not really know who they are and what they are capable of. Prospective students also do not always know about other possible fields of study, except those they have in mind. It is therefore a good idea to get professional help in order to determine what you really want to do and what fields of study are available.
An appointment with a guidance counsellor and completing at least one good interest questionnaire is a very good idea. It does not require much effort and is a small price to pay to prevent several detours. There are so many fields to choose from that you need someone knowledgeable to lead you through this maze. You have relatively little to lose and a lot to gain. After all, you make your own decisions.
How do I make the choice?
Sometimes we tend to think that the choice of a study field only depends on personal interest and the available courses offered by universities. Although it is the right starting point, you need to consider three important additional factors, which I need to explain briefly .
1. Be realistic
Being realistic means your ability to pass/succeed in a field of study. It won’t work if you attempt something that is beyond you.
Your school achievement will give you a good indication. Let me give you an example. If you have struggled to pass mathematics at school, the chances are very good that you will fail it at university. That means that Engineering, BSc and some BComm degrees are out of the question. A broad guideline for many prospective students is that you can expect to drop approximately 10% in direct continuation subjects like mathematics, chemistry, physics, etc. You need 50% to pass university subjects, which means that you must achieve more than 60% in your matric subjects in order to feel safe. Usually this “safety zone” is set by the admission requirements of the different faculties. You will, for example, not get admitted to Engineering if you don’t get at least C symbols for mathematics and physical science at school. Nearly all research studies show that in the case of most students current or previous achievements are the best predictors of future achievements.
School achievement is, however, not always an indication of how you will fare at university. It may be (the case) that the majority of your school subjects do not interest you and that you were unmotivated to study, but that it is not the case with your university course. Sometimes school learners, especially boys, are not yet study ripe. Sometimes they focus too much on sport and extramural activities and find it difficult to spend enough time in front of their books. In some cases the home and study situations are not ideal and this makes achievement at school difficult.
However, it is a fact that no one can afford to skimp on his or her school education. It is the foundation on which you continue to build and your admission to courses is subject to good school marks. If you rather prefer doing practical things and cannot always master the volumes of work, are not prepared to sit and study and do not feel up to coping with larger volumes of work, then university might not be a realistic option.
Although it is important not to be unrealistic about yourself, you must also not dampen your idealism. It is good to have a dream, but when you reach for the stars, first make sure that your feet are on the ground. Failure at this stage in your life is something you must avoid at all costs. Materially and psychologically it is just too high a price to pay.
2. Be wise
This means that you must make sure that you will get work with the course you follow. If you only find out afterwards that you can do little or nothing with your qualification, then it wasn’t a wise choice.
The general economic law of demand and supply applies here. If the demand for you qualification is higher than the supply, you won’t need to look for work – the work will look for you. In this regard matriculants also need long-term advice and not just advice on where you can find work after your degree. For example, look at the projections of the Institute for Futures Research to see how the job world is busy developing and changing.
One of the tendencies that are currently coming to the fore in the Western world is that students first do an academic degree, for example a BA degree in Humanities or Arts and then add a job qualification to it in their fourth and/or fifth year. The English call it “first an education and then a vocation”. In practice it means that after you have received a broad academic education (for example a BA degree) you get a job qualification in, for example, Tourism, Public Relations, Event Management or Journalism. With this background you should be able to do your job on a high level.
Something you should not lose sight of is the fact that your academic achievement, as well as other achievements at university level (for example leadership and community service) can make you a sought-after candidate for employers, even if you follow a popular field of study. The employers are interested in the best students. You should therefore be ready to achieve wherever possible.
3. Be logical
Does the course that you consider suit the type of person you are? Here the focus is on your personality. Are you shy, reserved and very private, or are you very sociable and like to perform in front of people? Do you like working in a group and leading, or do you prefer one-on-one situations? Are you mainly task-oriented? Do you like persuading people? Can you handle conflict? Are you curious? Do you see yourself as thorough and a perfectionist? Are you adventurous, impulsive, energetic, or more careful and methodical?
How will you know? Although personality tests can be very meaningful, it is not always necessary. Often your friends and family can give you good feedback on what you are like. You yourself will know what is really applicable to you, especially if different people tell you the same thing. Know however that you are a unique person with a set of characteristics that defines your personality and distinguish you from other people.
There is a specific connection between your personality, your field of study and later on, your job. Every job has certain personality requirements. If for example you want to be a public relations officer, beside your aptitude for language and a feel for style and finesse, you need to be a social, responsive and extrovert person who blossoms when performing. If you are an introvert, this job will place a lot of pressure on you, despite your aptitude for language and your creative ability.
You need to do your homework with regard to the requirements that your choice of profession will entail. Many career guidance sources provide this type of information, but it will also be good to talk to a couple of people working in the particular field. It is a good idea to not just speak to one person; else you might get a skewed perspective. Job practitioners are usually flattered when asked about their jobs. They like to talk about all the relevant plusses and minuses. Their perspectives can be very valuable to you, as long as you remember that you are looking for information and not for advice. People often give advice because they make the mistake of thinking that you will experience things the same way they do. But you are a unique person. In this regard work shadowing is a good idea, because it helps you to get a realistic perspective of a certain field. Also try to do a search on the Internet on your field of interest.
Other factors that will also determine your choice
Many decide for or against courses based on their values. Sometimes the material value, making money and getting rich, is a dominant value. It means you choose a field in which you will realise that goal. It is not immoral to argue like that – it is just another way of choosing. What you have to take note of, however, is that research indicates that mere material success seldom leads to job satisfaction. If you like what you do, it is easier to get up in the morning, you will do more than is asked for and your work will become such a positive factor in your life that it will also have a positive influence on you free time and family and community life. If you don’t experience job satisfaction, then the opposite is true. Besides making money there are also other values, which could have a directive influence on your career decision. Humanistic or religious values come to mind. Someone can for example feel called to help the destitute and can for example go and work in the inner city or the mission field.
It may happen, however, that values and needs are confused with each other. Values are the things that are important to you and that you believe in, while needs are the things you want from life. You can for example have the need to use your intellect, or to work independently and make your own decisions, or to work in a beautiful environment. A very general need for several learners is that they don’t want to end up in an office. They want mobility and to be able to work outdoors. I can understand this, but the fact remains that only 10% of jobs are outdoors and that these people also have a number of administrative job aspects, which need to be done in an office.
Where does “aptitude” come in?
You might wonder why I haven’t yet spoken about aptitude. Ought it not be the main consideration in choosing a field of study?
What is aptitude? It can be described as your ability to do a certain aspect better than other aspects in your spectrum of abilities. Sometimes it is in your genes – if your father or mother was excellent in mathematics, music or languages, it might also come naturally for you. Sometimes it is a good talent that you have developed through exercise and commitment, for example gymnastics or ballet. Naturally this talent or “aptitude” will play a role in your choice of a profession. If you have already received prizes or junior national colours at school, the chances are good that you will be able to make a career out of your talent or aptitude (without it necessarily being one of your school subjects).
Aptitude for academic contents, for example languages or mathematics or business studies, will usually be reflected in your school achievement. But an aptitude for study material also has a lot to do with exposure and knowledge. We know that a highly intelligent person’s fourth or fifth best aptitude is still good enough for him/her to be successful at university. The best aptitude field is therefore very important for somebody with more limited or average intellectual abilities, because it will probably be the only field in which he or she will be successful.
Parents
Why does it happen that matriculants choose to study in the same field as one of or both their parents? A few reasons can be given. I’ll only mention two:
The first is that you have inherited your parent’s aptitude for a certain field (for example mathematics, medicine, accounting, languages or music). It is also your strongest field and that is why you follow it. The benefit of this is that you have a very realistic idea of what the studies and career entails. It will be a firsthand and well-informed decision.
The second reason is that you often have to take over you parent’s business enterprise or practice. It is also not necessarily bad for your development and your relationship. However, if you only choose your parent’s career path because it seems familiar and safe, then it probably is not a good decision. You then need professional guidance to find an appropriate field of study. Never underestimate the influence and interest of your parents in your decision: you cannot really choose independently of them, because you need their moral and material support; your parents also know you very well and with their experience they will be able to give you useful tips on where your talents can be put to good use. Conversations with them on what you are considering are therefore appropriate, but in the end the decision should be your own. It is you and not they who will have to follow the field of study and the career. You must take responsibility for it.
What other influences sometimes influence our career choices? The mass media, especially television, can easily give students a skewed idea of what a profession entails. The medical profession or legal practices are often portrayed on TV series as romantic and attractive. Sometimes they only focus on the exciting aspects and not on the hard and dedicated work that is required. Advertisements are also inclined to emphasise the positive characteristics of a profession and sometimes give adolescents an unrealistic view of the profession.
What should I do if I remain unsure?
Despite everything that was said so far, we know that uncertainty is still a big factor. To tell you the truth, many prospective students are paralysed by it. For those, on the other hand, who know what they want to do, it is normally better to continue their studies directly after finishing school. They are in a study rhythm and their basic knowledge is still at the tips of their fingers. Never the less uncertainty or doubt affects most people.
It is necessary to distinguish between two types of uncertainty. Most students experience temporary uncertainty from time to time. There are obviously many first-year students who are still very unsure during their first months of study. Every university has departments for student counselling where you can go for help with your study choice. These professional persons won’t be able to decide for you and remove your uncertainty, but they will make things a lot easier for you.
Usually you can still change your course or subjects within the first three or so weeks. Despite being three weeks behind in the new subjects and/or course and, that isn’t ideal, it is still better than studying the wrong course or subjects. If you struggle to decide on your subjects, it often helps to take more subjects than necessary and to then choose the four or five you like best. Choose the subjects where you experience chemistry between you and the subject. After a few lectures you should know whether you are going to blossom in the subject or not. Also remember that you will probably not have the same lecturer for longer than a term.
Some learners and students remain chronically unsure. If you have followed all the above steps and are still totally unsure about your field of study, you are probably not ready to go to university directly after finishing school. Rather than just choosing what you feel you must, it might be better to first do something else for a year and to see if things do not become clearer with regard to your field of study. However, you must not just stay at home and do nothing. Psychologically that is very unhealthy. Rather go and work somewhere in South Africa or overseas, do a service year, or do a course to become computer literate while you work on a part-time basis and earn money. Often you also find learners who feel that they need a break after school. They are tired of learning and within a year or more will once again be ready for studying. In that case it is not a bad idea to have a gap year and do something else for twelve or more months.
It is important to keep in mind that uncertainty can be overcome. If you study hard right from the start and feel like you are in control of your course, the uncertainty will start to disappear. You must believe in yourself. You must believe that you have the ability to be successful. You have chosen the field that really interests you and the one that you know you can be good at.
We live in a work-oriented society. If you can realise your career potential by making the right study choice – something that is realistic, wise and logical for you – you will have a happy, productive and meaningful life ahead of you!