THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE CHOOSING A CAREER
From Goodluck Odili goodluckboogie@gmail.com
Venturing into career of one’s talent pleases God in the sense that such talent or gift was given to you for a reason – to serve Him and the society at large. A man’s make room for him, and brings him before great men (prov. 18:16).
Career is an occupation undertaken for a specific period of a person’s life and with opportunity for progress. According to oxford dictionary, career is the period of the time that one spends in his/her life working or doing a particular thing e.g. teaching, singing, football playing, engineering and many more.
Making a right choice of career is very important. Wrong choice of career has driven a lot of people to mud. Your career generally influences you in every sphere of lives; even your health and life span, e.g Ibeto cements production worker, drivers, teacher, doctor, nurse, lawyer and more. Wise choice career is very important.
Some careers are meant for special talents. Venturing into such career without talents or skills, one might not excel in such career and in most cases, faces frustration.
CONDITIONS FOR CAREER CHOICE
- Self Assessment/Examination
- Job Opportunities.
It is imperative for one to sincerely examine himself with respect to choice of career. This was contained in 2Corinthians 13:5. It says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your won selves. Know ye not your own selves, how Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
For you to choose your career wisely, you must assess yourself to know the jobs of interest, talents, value, job satisfaction and skills.
How can you carry out self-assessment/examination? Self-assessment tools require you to sincerely examine your value, interest, personality and talents.
Values
Values are important in life like achievement and status. It is advisable for one to choose a career that pleases God.
Interest
This is what you enjoy doing; you have passion for it. For example, someone that loves music can choose music or related career. Someone that finds pleasure at writing might choose career of journalism, secretarial studies or other related professions.
Personality
Personal attitude can be a drive or motivation in one’s career. A giant and gallantry attitude is better fitted in military; attitude of defending people’s right can take career of human right activist and many other examples.
Attitude is very important because it helps to promote competence and contribute to success of the company.
Talents and skills
These are the activities you are very good at. You do them at easy even when others are struggling with them. It could be natural skills or acquired through training and/or education. Venturing into a career of one’s natural talent is important and helpful because you love and enjoy what you are doing, hence, excel in the career.
1 Corinthian 7:7, says; “For I wish all men were given as I myself. But each one has his own gift from, one in this manner and another in that”. It is obvious that all humans are given different gifts from the heavenly father. James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. The gift given to man by God is not by mistake because God is error free. It was given to you to serve and please God and help people of world. My dear, do not run away from your gift and talent, it will make way for you in life.
After self-assessment, make list of jobs and explore the job that appeals to you based on your traits. Go for training and acquire the entire necessary requirements to excel in the job including certificate, license, and government permit as case may be.
Eliminate jobs that have weak outlook and do not please God. Part of exploring career or job of choice entails making research on the job, getting information on negative and positive aspect of the job. Get information from someone taken such profession as a career and learn from him/her.
- JOB OPPORTUNITIES
It is also very important to consider job opportunities available in the labour market and deciding what you to do. Due to population increase, there are jobs that have less opportunity to secure and impact on few people. Such jobs should be given less attention while jobs that impact on the lives of majority of people like education, medicine, ICT and many more should be given more attention.
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF CAPABILITIES ON CAREER CHOICE?
It is significant for someone to consider his capabilities while making a decision in career. Someone that desires to become a medical doctor or an engineer but lack the required abilities in science subjects may has a rethink because the ingredient that will make it a successful career is not there yet. Thus, choice of career with your abilities is better.
More so, I believe more on nurturing a child from kindergarten. If you (parent) desire a particular job for your child, start the preparation on time towards that direction. The mindset that my child is not good at mathematics, he/she is not fit in science should not come up. Something has to be done. Proverb 16:3 says, commit your work unto God and He will establish you. God can establish your child that in that field of your choice but you must play your part very well.
Conclusively, one’s success is directly or indirectly dependent on his/her choice of career. Choosing right career at right time within the area of your natural skills will make you more competent and successful on that career.
Someone may be retarded or incompetent because he/she wrong involvement in a particular field.
ADVISE TO PARENT
Carry out thorough examination on your children to identify their talents and do everything possible to help them. Do not force job or career on your children because they may not be successful, especially if they do not desire that job. Consider their interest. You may go for career counseling if in doubt.
