When choosing your school subjects, should every one of them relate to the career you hope to follow in the future or can you choose subjects you simply enjoy or want to do?
At school, you study a variety of subjects. Many of them rarely pop up again after leaving school. It begs the question whether it’s truly worth studying these subjects in the first place. After all, what’s the point of learning about algebra if someone wants to become an artist when they grow up?
Whilst there are advantages to only studying the subject areas you enjoy and are relevant, there are also a number of disadvantages to this approach.
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1. Focusing
Deciding to focus on the subjects relevant to your dream career means you’ll dedicate more time to these subjects. Most of the time, you’ll find yourself achieving more than you ever could if you had spread your resources. If you know where you intend to go in life right now, it makes sense to only focus on these subjects.
If you’re able to keep your eyes on the prize it acts as a source of motivation, so even the boring topics won’t deter you. You’re also bound to enjoy going to school more as you’re doing what you love.
2. All-round Expectations
When a student leaves school, everyone they come into contact with expects them to have a basic grounding in multiple subjects. If you feel maths isn’t relevant to you, they’ll think you a fool when you can’t even perform basic sums. Employers and academic staff want to see well-rounded graduates.
And this can impact your future career prospects. Even in jobs where it isn’t relevant, employers expect you to have a basic level of proficiency in maths and English. If you don’t have these grades, you won’t even make it past the first round.
3. Impressions
By only concentrating on what you like, you’re demonstrating something about yourself. Employers who see fail grades next to core subjects will instantly believe you aren’t capable of doing things you don’t like.
Dream jobs have their aspects which people don’t enjoy. This can include filling out paperwork and long hours. If they couldn’t do well in a subject they didn’t care for, how are they going to act when confronting challenges in the workplace?
4. Life Plans
Do you know where you want to be in ten years?
You think you know what you want to do. There are no guarantees you’ll ever enter this career path. You could fail to get into a higher education course, or employers could reject you for someone with better credentials. Your only choice is to change careers.
Moreover, you might decide what you thought was your chosen career isn’t any longer. Life plans change. If you concentrated entirely on one type of career, you won’t have any foundations for entering an alternate career.
There are hundreds of reasons why your plans could change. You might suffer from illness, financial issues, family commitments, or the sector you want to enter could become obsolete as a result of new technology.
The people best placed to flourish in the fast-paced 21st century are those who can transition between different areas of society with ease.
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