Sunday, September 02, 2007

Choosing a career path

I have always been a strong advocate of choosing a profession based on one's interest rather than some market-condition or financial basis. I know this may not be particularly easy, especially for someone living in Pakistan, but I, for one, can't imagine how people can decide to study something or become someone they never *really* wanted to! To me that is totally absurd!

Take my case, I have always been fond of Computers - Computer Sciences in particular. I was fortunate enough to pursue a degree based on my interest rather than on some shabby market condition. I was always going to become a Computer Engineer no matter what. And for all those who thought the market had been saturated of Computer Engineers and there were going to be no more jobs available for a while - I would just like to say that instead of using your short-sighted thinking and going after the market, why not concentrate on getting a professional degree of your liking and working hard to be the best in it. It is only through love and passion for your interests that you will be able to go the extra mile and contribute to its advancement. Alhamdulillah today, there are plenty of job opportunities available for software and system engineers in Karachi and the rest of the country.

Someone forwarded me the following link some time ago, and I'd like to share it seeing that we're talking about CS. It's a nice little article on the several attainable degrees in the Computer Sciences discipline. Check it out to figure out the nuances of each of those degrees:
http://compsci.ca/blog/6-degrees-of-computer-science/

Also, what ticks me off a lot is the lack of research aptitude in today's students. Nobody likes to work independently and pursue a specialization - at least in the several engineering fields that I know of. That may well be because of household pressures etc. but how can you expect a country to prosper when there are little or no specialized people being produced every year! Just compare our research publications with those of other countries and you'll know why we are where we are - staring at the abyss.

3 comments:

Malaika said...

well not every one is gievn the oppertunity to persue a career that is of their interest. due to some reason or the other...but not everyone able to do that.

Unknown said...

Agreed. I just detest those people who are blindly and purposely choose a career without thinking, for a second, what would happen in the long-run only if they were to lay less priority on the so-called financial benefits of a job.

Reza said...

Having followed both a Bachelors and a Masters in Computer Science from the US, I do agree with your logic. Going for what you love is something that will help you succeed in it. Going for something based on purely material gains will only frustrate you when the going gets tough. Studies show that only people who love what they do are likely to get somewhere to the top.

Keep up the good writing. I am adding you to my blogroll.

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