By zafar.hussain September 17, 2020
Deciding what to study is not as simple as reading off a menu. With more and more education facilities offering a seemingly endless array of courses, finding a course that will not only suit and interest you, but one that will also get you somewhere afterward can be a little hard. If you’ve got yourself to the point where you know you want to study, whether you have just finished school, are looking for a career change or would like to upskill to enhance your current position and employment offerings, finding the right course is the next step. So, what are the key things you need to consider before choosing a course?
1. What do I want my day to day life to look like?
Sure, this seems obvious, but so often we think about what we would like to do in relation to finances, what careers are ‘in demand’ or what sounds like a cool job. But if you study a course on information technology when you know you can’t stand sitting in front of a computer, then you’re probably not going to enjoy the career that course takes you down. Consider things like creativity, time spent on a computer, how much interaction you like to have with other people, do you like your days to be varied and un predictable or do you work better when you can plan tight schedules that don’t deviate.
2. Do I want this study to lead to a new career, or do I want to diversify my skills?
If you are straight out of schools or looking for a career change, finding a course that will lead to you in the direction of a new career path is the obvious choice of study. If you are looking for further education and skills but are happy in your career, make sure you choose a course that will give you skills you can’t learn on the job. This not only saves you time, but if you can learn the skills on the job then learning something slightly outside of your field can open up roles and show diversity in your portfolio and resume.
3. Am I more creative or logistic minded? Conceptualise or Analyse?
Finding the right career path can be tricky but once you’ve decided on a general direction the next step is to find where you sit within that area. For instance, some marketers are much more strategically minded and enjoy analytics and numbers, while others enjoy the big picture creative strategy but can’t stand reporting. Different versions of this example exist within almost every sector of every industry, so understanding where your strengths lie and deciding to pursue that is an excellent way to know you’ll get a lot out of your study.
If you want help deciding on a course talk to the team at ACIT IFTV.