1st-May-2023 | 2.4 mins read
How Do I Choose From One Career To Other?
Early this year, I gave a career talk to Form 2 students in a Nairobi school. One of the exercises was to come up with a list of careers they know. There was a loud chorus of lawyer, doctor, engineer, architect, journalist, IT…and the chorus started going lower and lower. We could not reach 10! I decided to give a different scenario; their school. What careers do we come across? Teachers, cooks, security officers…yes, their mind started opening up but still, not wide enough!And that is the predicament that the young have when trying to choose from one career to the other. Career development practitioners in Kenya have developed 15 careers clusters and their pathways, the courses under each cluster, the subjects required, skills required for each course, among other considerations.
A career cluster is a group of occupations with similar features. Even with this kind of information, one still asks themselves; how do I choose from one cluster to the other? From one occupation to the other? What considerations should I make?
Conversations on career must always begin with self-examination; whom am I? What are my talents and natural gifts? What are my strengths, weakness, abilities and capabilities? What is my personality type? What do I value the most?
Knowing the answers to these questions unlocks a world of increased possibilities. It is this knowledge that will give you the right fit to a course, whether in university, Technical & Vocational Educational Institutions (TVET), other colleges, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship and work.
Let me give some examples: If you are a people person, then you will excel in a role that requires interaction with others (e.g., teaching, human resources, police officers etc). However, an introvert, may be better off in a role that doesn’t require a lot of social interaction to be productive (e.g., data analyst, financial analyst). If you love working with your hands and tools, you may love careers that require physical manipulation like engineering, cooking, construction among others.
Some of the questions that we ask ourselves are: why are some students so good in some subjects and others poor in the same? If we are taught by the same teachers, we read the same books, learn in the same environments, why should we be so different? Studies have shown that every human being is unique and wired different. It has shown that a match between our interests, strengths and abilities; with subjects, course and work leads to high motivation and satisfaction. A mismatch gives the very opposite. Its therefore important for one to deeply reflect on oneself before choosing their subjects or the course to take post high school.
Margaret Waithaka is the Board chair of Career Development Association of Kenya (CDAK) and administrator of College of Career Guidance and Development. She can be reached at maggie@careerguidancececollege.co.ke