Finding Your Career

THE BRAND YOU REVOLUTION SERIES

FINDING YOUR CAREER

ARTICLE

If you were invited to give a Career talk to young people on the careers they could follow, you would most likely suggest several logical approaches. You would talk about finding what they are good at/ their passions, you would also probably ask what they wanted to get out of their work and their values. You would try to help uncover career growth fields of the years ahead; even going as far as carrying out informational interviews on people who are already doing the kind of things they are considering as possible careers.

You would do all these things despite the fact that you most likely did not do them yourself, you would do this inspite of the fact that, of all the people you know who are currently experiencing fulfillment in their jobs, very few of them chose their careers by that method; even most of the current career counselor’s in the worlds prestigious University career centres , did not themselves do what they advised others to do.

Our Situation in Nigeria

No University in Nigeria has a functional career development center (in fact most graduates in Nigeria today were never given any form of career education throughout their school years), most only started thinking seriously about their careers just before a major transition – entering /leaving the University to the world of work – so the wakeup call for most Nigerians, usually comes, in most cases, 3-6 months into a job that was never prepared for.

A Pennsylvania State University study conducted in the 1990’s found the following:

·        80% of their freshmen were undecided about their career choices even though they had declared a major leading up to that goal.

·        As many as 50% of their students change their majors at least once.

·        And that 64% of their seniors said they had serious doubts that they had picked the right majors.

A recent Gallup survey conducted by asking 1.7 million employees in 101 companies from 63 countries, several questions, one of which was, “At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best everyday?  Findings revealed that only 20% surveyed felt that their strengths are at play everyday. In order words, 80% of today’s workforce feels miscast in their roles and most organizations actually operate at 20% capacity.

Globally, institutions of higher learning measure their impact through the success of their alumni – their placement in other top schools, the jobs and starting salaries that they receive and the businesses that they eventually establish.

The workplace of today demands graduates who can integrate, adapt, work in teams, technically astute and bring out the best in others. Yet these are not the skills that most graduates are asked to master as part of their curriculum training.

It is time for you to leave the domain of psychological manipulation

Welcome to the BRAND YOU Revolution!