Career planning
Many students go to college, select a field of study, spend the next four years to study but do not think about careers or jobs until they graduate. That may work in the past but may not in current environment. The world is a much different place today than it was a generation ago. Job opportunities are also more competitive today than few years ago. If you do not plan your career earlier and select your field of study in alignment with the market demand, you may be in for a surprise. If you are lucky, you may find job in your field of study. It is possible that you may find job in area that has nothing to do with your education. Sometime, you may not find any job at all and you will be frustrated.
When students go to college, they are often advised to select a field of study based on their ability and performance in high schools, which is their PAST but few receive guidance on planning a career, which is their FUTURE. Some schools do not consider career advising until much later and some students confuse “Career planning” with “Job finding”.
Career planning is a process that helps students to determine their strengths, weakness, aspirations, and ability to determine appropriated trainings for them to develop the knowledge and skills required to achieve their career objectives. Today, it is important that college students set career direction and goals as early as possible so they can select their field of study that can help them build a better career. Deciding on what to study, plan careers, and set goals requires a lot of efforts, research, and action by the student. It is their future and no one can do it for them or make decisions for them.
Of course, if they plan to work in family business, whatever field of study they chose, what kind of degree they get may not be important because their parents will give them jobs anyway. If students do not know what they want or what they will do in the future, they should think about what they like, what excite them and select the field of study based on their interests. However, they need to consider the “Practical” aspect of their choice as well as the “Job market” potential before selecting their field of study. Few years ago, I had a very good student in my computer class but he liked music and wanted to select music as a field of study. I asked him whether he wanted to be a professional musician and he said no but he liked to play instruments as an enjoyment. I suggested that he selected computer science as the field of study: “You can get a good career as a computer engineer then you can play any instrument that you like as a hobby.” He agreed and now works for a software company but plays piano on Saturday in a local coffee shop. I often stop by to listen to his music and he told me that he appreciates the recommendation: “If I did not listen to your advice, I probably could not find a good job that allows me to play music as a hobby.”
In this highly competitive world, students need to be more prepared. If they know what they want or what industry they like to work in, they should plan their career, set goals, and select the field of study that correspondent to their career goals. They need to prepare early to obtain scholarships, internships, summer jobs to get the necessary experiences so they would have better chance to get the job that they want. Today technical knowledge is NOT enough. Most companies prefer to hire graduates that have experiences as well as soft-skills. Unfortunately, some of these skills are not taught in schools. Many schools consider soft-skills are things that students must develop on their own, on their internship or on their summer job. Last year, Information Technology (IT) industry has sent an urgent letter to many universities suggested that soft-skills, especially teamwork, communication, and problem solving skills be taught in the program as requirements.
I always advise students to plan their career early and align their field of study with it. Of course, you must select the field of study that interests you; the field that you know that you could does well, or challenge you to do well. There is no reason to select something that you do not like just because it has good future. Once you have made your selection, you need to identify a “career path” or a roadmap by doing research on the jobs available, identify market opportunities, and talk to people working in that field on what skills that you will need. If you are passionate and show interests in a career, industry people will be impressed and help you to set your career direction. You need to keep your knowledge up to date by reading technology news in area that interests you so you can identify trends on whether a field is growing or shrinking.
Students need to look at specific area in a field of study. For example Information Technology (IT) is a very broad field. You have a choice to select Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Information System Management. Even you have selected an area to study; there are several specialties that you may want to build your career on. By asking advices from people who work in the industry, you can focus more on the area that give you the maximum benefits. For example, if you select Information System Management, do you want to specialize in network management, service management, or database management? Having advices from people in that area will help you to prepare better and by the time you graduate, you will not having difficulty finding good job.
Of course, students often change their minds. There are several reasons: Either they lose the interest or they did not do well in that field. However switching field of study during school is better than continue to study something they do not like and feel miserable then graduate and cannot find jobs. Switching field of study is expensive in both time and money. That is why I often advise students to plan their career and select field of study carefully by doing thorough research to avoid expensive switching midway in their college years.
If your field of study does not help your career by the time you graduate. If you could not find a suitable job then there is another choice. My advice is to take additional courses for a second degree in a field with better job opportunity. Today many colleges allow students to graduate in “dual degree” program. You may have a degree in Architecture and a second degree in Information System Management; specialize in Web design or Graphic arts (Video game graphic or special movie effect) that can utilize your artistic skills. Today there are a large numbers of students in business and banking switching to Information Technology (IT) because there are few jobs available in business area but a shortage of workers in IT field.
There is no perfect career or no perfect job as everything will change over time. Your field of study or your degree does not dictate what you will do for the rest of your life. It only provides the foundation that you can build upon to develop your knowledge and skills and prepare you for your career. It also helps you to develop your own character as you are maturing into an educated person, a professional person, an ethical person, a responsible person, and a good citizen. That is the ultimate goals of education.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
