From your primary school days, you have always thought of a career and profession where you can fit into. From medicine to economics to automobile engineer to mechanical engineer to electrical engineer but finally, I studied Information Management Technology (IMT) in Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and yet I am not regretting it.

In trying to pick a career, there are lots of considerations in order not to make the wrong choice. Many people get admission into higher institutions but not to study the course of their choice. My advice to every upcoming and prospective student is to patiently wait, pursue your dream at all cost.

Let me ask you a question. What is your intention for going to school? I discovered that most people go to tertiary institutions just to be referred to as a graduate. Many people just go and study any course they are been given. It’s not supposed to be so. Have a plan and a direction in your life and it will help you a great deal. Plan your life and follow your plan. That’s all I can say. There are a lot of factors that can influence your choice of career some of which are outlined below.

Your Passion

The greatest influencing factor of success is to pursue your passion. Your passion is a burning desire that cannot be quenched except it has been achieved. Everyone has a unique vacuum he/she is to fill. When this vacuum is discovered, it arouses the passion for fulfillment. With passion, you work hard to make sure that your destiny is fulfilled. I met a young man who according to him, gets so annoyed whenever he hears that someone died and in most cases as a result of an avoidable carelessness. This aroused that passion to save lives and as such, he decided to study medicine and surgery in order to save as few as he can and as many as he can. Passion for saving lives was the propeller.

There was also another lady who had a dream of becoming a mouth of the poor and oppressed. She wanted to defend the law and stand tall for justice and this led her to study law. Passion initiated and influenced her choice. All the most celebrated football stars today were stared up by their passion for soccer. Some of them started as early as before age 10. You might have seen some of them in your area carrying their soccer boot every evening and Saturday morning and you might think that they do not have any plan for their lives. You might think that they are only wasting their lives but it is not so, these young boys know what they are pursuing. Their passion is simply what they are pursuing.


Do you think that there is anything that when you are been given the opportunity to do, you will do better than the people who did it previously? That could be your passion. The passion to do things better is the basic backbone of innovation and technology. Never pursue a career because other want you to. You will be the one spending half of your life at the job, therefore pursue your passion. Oprah Winfrey said, “make it your intention to serve through your life with purpose you will have a blessed life”.

Your Advisers
Your advisers could also influence your choice of preferred career of study. When we are surrounded with godly and reasonable advisers, we tend to move in the right direction. For example, I planned studying electrical or mechanical engineering in higher institution but my brother advised me on the importance and relevance of Information Management Technology, which I adhered to his advice and currently, I owe it no regret.

Mind you, you are the person to choose the course of field that interests you since it’s your life and not anyone else. But in choosing your career, you must also give heed to advice from elderly ones who have gone before you. Their responsibility is just to advice you, not to force or compel you into what was not initially your intension.

May I use this opportunity to correct the error some parents make. Some parents tend to decide what their child would study. They believe that since they are the ones to bear the financial responsibility, therefore, the child must study whatever they tell them to. That’s wrong, even God who is the master of us all never compels anyone to do anything but rather permits us to make our own choice. Advice the child only and let him make his own choice because he will be the one facing the rudiments of that profession and not you. Young one, listen to advice and take counseling but weigh them accurately and appropriately and then go with the right advice. Probably, it might be the same with your passion.

To Solve A Problem.

There are lots of problems in our environment and nation, ranging from sickness to poverty to inadequate technology as the list continues. Therefore trying to proffer solution to any of these problems could also influence your decision on your course of study. There is no environment without a problem and there is no problem without a solution. You could be the solution provider or problem solver.

Discovering a problem with the goal of solving it will make you more focused than you would have been because you are studying the course not just for the passion or because of advisers but because you want to solve a problem. In a bid to be a solution provider, there are three thing to take to heart viz; yearn, learn and then earn. To yearn means to have a strong desire. Desire that a problem could be solved through you.

Learn everything needed to provide solution to that problem. To learn means to gather knowledge about something. When you yearn, then you learn. Get a lot of relevant materials that will aid you in acquiring the needed knowledge and after you must have learnt enough and deployed your knowledge, the next thing is to earn. There has never been a solution provider at any level that never made money through his/her innovation. Many of the multi billion naira businesses that exist in our country today make their money by solving a problem. When you solve a problem, those who benefits from the solution you provide will in turn pay for the service.

Available Opportunities
Bill Clinton said, “the future is full of challenges but there are even more opportunities”. Another factor that could influence your choice of career and course of study is the opportunities available. This will need someone who has fore sight (the ability to see far) to be able to predict the opportunity that will be readily available soon so as to start preparing in time. Have you observed that things move in trend? Twenty years ago, engineers were most sort after because of their relevance in the society and industries.

Currently, people with computer skill and knowledge are now the most sort after. In the near future, another aspect of Information Technology will be relevant whereby if you rely on the skill you have currently without upgrading, you will become irrelevant and obsolete. For example, we are in the era of application development in which if you are good in any programming language you are good to go.

Opportunities abound everywhere and every time but it is only few that sees it. Also, in this 21st century, the fashion industry is having its greatest boom in history and as such, there is much money to be made through fashion and design. No wonder we have many graduates today who after spending about 4 years and more in the higher institution still condescend low to learn tailoring. This is another great opportunity. Also in this era, the use of electronic devices has increased greatly, therefore people who are involved in the repair of this electronic devices turn in great fortunes daily.
https://infoducation.com.ng/2018/04/28/career-choice/

Not Nigeria. Here, we don't choose careers, it chooses us. Very few people have actually succeeded at what they had chosen as their career path.

Your fantastic opinion.

I studied Engineering in Fedponek (op, must u advertise your school?). So, what do you want me to do now?

zicoraads:
Not Nigeria. Here, we don't choose careers, it chooses us. Very few people have actually succeeded at what they had chosen as their career path.

gbam

no matter what engineering can never be obsolete, we keep the world moving

Hmmmm! For Nigeria we no dey choose career na career dey choose us. Make we take me for instance.. My papa na poor Nigerian and me wan become pilot....I been wan fly plain but now ordinary bicycle I no sabi ride.

zicoraads:
Not Nigeria. Here, we don't choose careers, it chooses us. Very few people have actually succeeded at what they had chosen as their career path.

You said/typed it all.

We need to have specialists in career counselling at the secondary school level, so as to lessen the rate of graduates who have no sense of direction after graduation because they travelled through the path that did not align with where they could self actualize.

do what you love

zicoraads:
Not Nigeria. Here, we don't choose careers, it chooses us. Very few people have actually succeeded at what they had chosen as their career path.

By success you mean, accumulating wealth?

pocohantas:


By success you mean, accumulating wealth?

Fulfilment, happiness, wealth.

How many people actually look forward to a Monday and are happy getting up to go to work?

Ok

After getting screwed many times by JAMB, you'll settle for anything less than what you had in mind.

zicoraads:

Fulfilment, happiness, wealth.

How many people actually look forward to a Monday and are happy getting up to go to work?

I think people doing what they love to do are fulfilled and happy, maybe not always wealthy. To some, it's all about the making impact in their chosen field.

zicoraads:
Not Nigeria. [s]Here, we don't choose careers, it chooses us[/s]. Very few people have actually succeeded at what they had chosen as their career path.

Here, we don't choose careers, they choose us...

pocohantas:


I think people doing what they love to do are fulfilled and happy, maybe not always wealthy. To some, it's all about the making impact in their chosen field.

But the percentage is probably around 00.5

U put up this just for writing sake, cus this is africa if i said nigeria its an understatement, do u knw how many people that ve played football in nigeria, even play better more than mo salah, but they end up being in the farm or being a taxi driver, what u need here is luck cus life is all abt gambling here in nigeria

GrammarNazi1:

Here, we don't choose careers, they choose us...

I see you've been following my comments since I took you to the cleaners

I see I have a fan

zicoraads:

I see you've been following my comments since I took you to the cleaners

I see I have a fan

This one that doesn't know subject verb agreement!
You took yourself there.

GrammarNazi1:

This one that doesn't know subject verb agreement!
You took yourself their.

I'm the last person you should be thinking about doing this with. I do this for a living son.

And it's "there" not "their."

zicoraads:

I'm the last person you should be thinking about doing this with. I do this for a living son.

And it's "there" not "their."

GrammarNazi1 saw that even before you did.

Nice one
Fromluvmp

GrammarNazi1:

GrammarNazi1 saw that even before you did.

He corrected it when I pointed it out

zicoraads:

But the percentage is probably around 00.5

Welldone. NBS secretary...

To aid the discourse:

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Most marketable courses in Nigeria

Lucrative career fields in Nigeria

I think since we've found ourselves in a Country where they chose what we do in School for us instead of we choosing what we like to do by ourselves, I will advice we love everything we find ourselves doing in school or even outside the School environment so that life cane be easy and interesting for us.

Pressure from family and how to feed yourself will make you forget bout passion and sacrifices you've made for your choice of career. Only God knows the talented footballers musicians and artist in the Nigerian army kawai

This is a topic that should go beyond here. I see a bigger picture where we can volunteer to discuss this in secondary schools. I know of a program called "Catch Them Young" which is targeted at secondary school students to understand the rudiments of Engineering (i.e Problems that Engineering has solved thereby opening their minds beyond the classroom).

Back to the subject: I am a product of Passion and doggedness, I was denied Engineering severally but I kept trying against the odds even with parents denial to throw me off because I became talk of town: I got that same course, graduated top of my class and currently practicing. I believe if it was not engineering I wont be relevant.

Useful information.

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