Wed, 12 Feb 2025
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Putting the cart before the horse
Published on: Tuesday, June 04, 2024
Published on: Tue, Jun 04, 2024
By: K Krishnan
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Putting the cart before the horse
YOU have your SPM results. Good or bad, those are your results, and you can’t change that for now.

Last week, we looked at the various options available to you. If you had browsed through the options, your vision would be clearer by now.

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Otherwise, go back and read the various options. Let’s look at some examples this week.

Jenny

She got good results in her SPM. She hasn’t decided on what course to take. Her mom wants her to be a nurse. Her father wants her to take accounting.

Her relatives are telling her to be a teacher. Her peers are inviting her to study psychology. But what does Jenny want to pursue? She is confused.

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Raymond

He has been following social media quite a lot. There are many stories of how people have become millionaires by selling insurance, real estate, and some products.

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He is thinking of getting into one of these, but he feels he is not suitable for sales jobs. He doesn’t like begging people to buy his products. But he likes to be a millionaire.

He really can’t decide.

Tina

Tina wants to study AI. Her teachers in school have been talking about future careers. They say all jobs will sooner or later be taken over by robots.

She has heard about drones, electric cars, robots, and new technologies. She doesn’t know whether she has the aptitude to study IT. 

Sunny

He wants to study medicine now. Last year, he was interested in IT. A few months ago, he wanted to be a pilot. He keeps changing his ambition.

Whenever he learns about new careers, he too wants to go pursue them.

The main problem with all these people is a lack of career planning. They do not know where to start. No one has told them about career planning.

They have started exploring careers before even knowing about their own passions, skills, values, skills, occupational interests, etc.

They are putting the cart before the horse!

How do you choose a career?

For those who are still new to this column, welcome. There are four steps to career planning. The steps are:
  1. Discovering Yourself
  2. Exploring Options
  3. Deciding
  4. Taking action

Discovering Yourself

This is the first step in career planning. Before thinking, searching, exploring, or spending time choosing a course, learn about yourself.

What is there to learn about yourself ? All of us have strengths and weaknesses. We also have our own skills, values, hobbies, likes, and dislikes. We need to identify our own strengths first.

There are many inventories that can help you online. Visit the free career test at ark.com.my.  Within a few minutes, you will learn about yourself.

For example, if you are a person who likes to help people, care for people, like people, work with people, talk to people, and nurse people, you are a social person. 

Careers that you can explore include teaching, counselling, nursing, social work, religious work, community work, etc. Once you know your strengths, it is easy to look for matching careers. 

If you are a creative person and prefer expressing yourself through drawing, painting, designing, singing, acting, etc., you are an artistic person. An artistic person likes to choose careers such as graphic designer, landscape designer, musician, singer, architect, etc.  

Career Tips

Learn about yourself first before choosing the courses. Once you know about your passion, it is easy to choose a career.

If you have a career question, write to: [email protected].
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