NATASHA’S CHRONICLES : CAREERS, WHAT ABOUT THEM?

I recently attended one of our class career guidance sessions that are conducted by the school’s Director of Studies. My mind was opened to the dynamics of careers and career choices; this got me thinking that someone out there might need to know this and I can only hope that it’s you. Your career has been defined as a chosen pursuit or a general course or progression of one’s working life or one’s professional achievements. I cannot explain it any better than this. The choice of what career direction we choose in life is one of the biggest decisions we shall ever have to make. Therefore this requires deep thought and very careful scrutiny especially for those of us who still have a chance to make a long term impacting career choice. I learnt some necessities about choosing a career; 1. You need to know yourself and be sure about your decision, 2. You must be very honest with yourself; know your weaknesses and accept them, know your strengths and make the best use of them. 3. Consider your interests; you do best in that which you enjoy doing. 4. All the above will sure lead you into the path of a successful career. This means that we need to be careful because NOT ALL careers are successful! Let’s get it right here; successful does not necessarily mean rich and everything that comes with riches. Many of us may do not take into account the necessity to find out who we are and whether our choice of career is our passion and not just that of others. We need to be reminded that the two influence either success or failure. Secondly, some of us may be inconsiderate of our personal preferences and choose a career in which we are weak. Just because we want to please someone else (this is mostly common with parents who literally decide which direction their child goes and impose it on them whether they like or not) or you believe money will automatically follow whoever is in that particular career path, second thought is required. Thirdly, and very important yet often despised, is that one’s interests boost the success of one’s career more than they imagine. Imagine waking up every day to a task you enjoy, giving it your whole heart and only getting better at it. Most definitely the results will put a smile on even a puppy’s face! And of course compare it to the opposite situation. We should never base heavy payment as the core reason for your career choice unless you have no more options! There are as many miserable rich people as there are joyful poor or middle class people! Fourthly, we need to take our career choice very seriously and choose wisely if we do not want to be wishing we knew better, if you do not choose wisely, no one else will. The author is a S.6 student at Riviera High School hozatash@yahoo.com