Choosing your degree

IF you are good at various subjects at school but have only a vague idea of what you want to do for a living when you qualify, it can be bewildering to choose between degrees.

One way to approach the matter is to consider what you are passionate about. Are you fanatical about fashion? Keen on detective stories? Captivated by computers? If so, can you see yourself working in any of those areas? Perhaps as a fashion designer, police officer or big data engineer?

If you pick a job you are passionate about, that will ensure that you put a lot of effort into your training, which means you will have a better chance of being successful.

The next step is to see what kind of training it takes to do your dream job. One simple way is to look at the job specifications in adverts. This will list the training and experience for job positions that are currently open.

If you think you can complete the training successfully, then you can start to plan your career path.

However, sometimes our wildest dreams don’t match our abilities. If you think you can’t complete the training, then you need to move to your second dream job or find a related job in the same field.

For example, if you love fashion but don’t have the creative streak needed to be a designer, you can train to be a fashion buyer, a job where you would buy clothes for shops like all the women’s clothes for a department store chain. For this you’d study fashion merchandising, fashion marketing or business administration.

Go through this exercise a few times and build up a few possible study and career paths. When you put them all together, it should give you an idea of what you can do that will make you happy.