When A Career Is A Life

- Pooja Dantewadia

Growing up we’ve dreamt all of the things we want to be: from an astronaut to the Prime Minister. But little did we know that choosing a career is a complex, multiple-step process. A starting point is the choice of subjects you make in high school. At this point thinking of a career path can be a daunting task, but choosing subjects for high school is a start. Based on the choice of subjects there are a variety of options one could choose post 12th grade. A few common streams are business, law, engineering, medicine and humanities. A choice of a career path almost always starts with an interest in the subject or a goal to achieve through it, although aptitude, job scope and finances are important factors to consider.

Choosing the career path

An ideal choice of career involves the students’ aptitude, interest and financial commitments.

Commonly, there are two paths students can take to pursue their career. One is to enter a professional course straight after 12th like engineering, medicine, business management, pharmacy, design, hotel management, architecture, IT or any other.

Here students need to apply for and write course-specific exams that are mandatory to being accepted into their chosen college to pursue the course. The other route is to choose an academic degree in science, commerce, arts or humanities and then diverge into a profession after undergraduate or postgraduate studies. Also, at this point, if a student wants to work for any branch of the government, he/ she can start preparation for exams such as the civil services, banks, railways or army. Pursuing teaching after +2 is also an option. Depending on what level one wants to teach, there are mandatory tests that need to be passed for primary, high school and university level teaching.

Courses and career choices in Science