Career choices: It pays more to follow passion over perceptions

It has been evidenced that majority students who graduate from high schools hold certain perceptions towards different careers, a tendency that influences some to make choices that often put them on unguided boats, thus ruining or limiting their career evolution in life. Regardless of the different passions and academic abilities that students hold, majority are guided by their career perceptions after high school when choosing a course to pursue at the university. This eventually makes students ignore the importance of passion in both academic and career success, and go further to consider what they usually call “cool “ to them. Some of these common perceptions include some students believing in only high paying careers, professions that are perceived to make them look superior to their colleagues, and jobs that make them gain a lot of respect in the community. They also tend to prefer occupations with fancy working environment, among others, regardless of reality on the ground. Pascaline Uwituje is a 25-year old university graduate. She bears witness that her career perception from high school not only denied her many potential job opportunities, but made her endure four years of education at the university pursuing a course she had no passion for. “Regardless of my career guidance at school, I paid a deaf ear just like majority of the students. I admired bankers and their working environment, and thus I was determined to be a banker at any cost, regardless of the fact that I had passion and ability to pursue a medicine course,” Uwituje explains. “I enrolled for a banking course, and during my first years at the university I was offered different job opportunities, which I unwisely declined since I only wanted to work in a bank. This, eventually, kept me unemployed and I came to realise later I wasn’t even enjoying what I was studying, and started envying my colleagues who followed their passion for medicine,” she adds. Uwituje says she shared her experience with many of her colleagues at the university who let their unrealistic career perceptions take the best of them. On the contrary, Ronald Turatsinze, after three semesters at the university in a course he initially considered ‘high class’, he realised he had made an unwise decision, and he moved to another course. “When we were in high school, we barely paid attention to the career guidance and other lessons regarding career choices, which eventually made us give a golden chair to our perceptions, most of which we later realised were unrealistic. From my experience, despite my teachers and people around me endorsing me for journalism, the perception I had for media held me back. I always thought people in media were paid peanuts, and this made me spite that career choice,” explains Turatsinze. The 24-year-old, who is currently pursuing his degree in mass communication at Mt. Kenya University, ditched his course ACCA and enrolled for a media course due to the inspiration from some of the people in the media industry who are living large whom he got acquainted with. “It was sad that I realised later after wasting money and time that I had no future or passion in accounting which was the source of my poor performance in the ACCA course. However, after joining journalism, I have realised that it’s where I belong, and my future career depends on it,” says Turatsinze. Turatsinze’s case has become commonplace in universities as many students, after realising that they have made unrealistic choices, switch to other courses, sadly after losing a lot of time and resources. Both Uwituje and Turatsinze urge students to shun career perceptions they hold, and embrace the approach of seeking acquaintances with careers, most especially through talking to professionals to share with them their experiences in those careers. Most importantly, they urge students to value passion over the unrealistic benefits associated with certain careers. According to professionals, though career guidance is good, it is still not enough to help students make realistic career choices. To Wilson Habimana, the managing director of Wilson Tours, a local tour and travel agency, students need more exposure and acquaintances with careers and the realities of the professional world in order for them to make the most out of both their higher education and future careers. “I don’t doubt the great job done by schools in promoting career guidance; however to enthusiastic learners we have today it’s not enough. I think students can be given more exposure and get more professional career experiences through workshops, seminars, conferences and trips to different companies to gain more insight. Such would enable them to acquire a first-hand understanding of their desired future careers,” Habimana explains. He adds that, “enabling students to get such first-hand information regarding careers would be an ultimate way to mentor them on the value of passion, avoid future unemployment and help them set realistic goals for greater results,” he says. However, to Juma Ndayambaje, a young entrepreneur who runs a wholesale business in Kicukiro District, teachers’ role in helping students change their career perceptions is limited, which calls for parents to make a contribution. “At the end of the day parents are the ones who finance students to pursue their higher education which mostly determines their future careers. So, it’s important they take a step to hear out what perceptions their children hold towards different careers, and guide them if they find them not on the right track,” explains Ndayambaje Education Times talked to several parents on the budding students’ career perceptions, and majority held the view that students who are lazy and less ambitious tend to have poor career insights. “Recently I asked my 21-year-old high school graduate son what his dream career is, and he told me he was considering careers with easy working conditions and a very high pay. His attitude towards careers gave me an impression that a lot has to be done beyond career guidance in schools to help learners make the right career choices,” Gustave Benegusenga explains. The father of two boys, who is a trader and dweller of Remera Sector in Gasabo District adds that, “some students are ignorant and less ambitious which makes their career choices biased in favour of their comfort zones. It’s up to us as parents to support teachers and get concerned about our children’s career choices.” Experts define passion as an emotion that comes from within a person; one’s enthusiasm, zeal, drive and motivation to succeed. It is for this reason that Benegusenga and other parents advise students to think beyond their comfort zones, value passion, work hard, and shun popular, but misleading perceptions regarding certain careers.