After your class X board exams, you stand at the first ‘crossroads’. What will you do next? Will you take the road leading to less stress, less study, easy study or travel an extra mile like many?
For the first time in your life, you’ll have to face a question that might haunt you all your life, “What are you going to do after this”? This question will pop-up from time to time, whenever you reach an important milestone in your life. Many students find this question very frustrating and intimidating if they are not clear about their career ambitions or how to reach it.
For most of the students, this phase appears like a complex maze with lots of doors leading to different directions, and it becomes difficult to find the door that leads towards the student’s dream career. Let us try to look at this maze from above, so that we can connect the doors that will lead you towards your dream.
Why is the choice important?
Many parents ask this question and feel that this is not a very important choice of life and can be taken again after grade 12th. On the contrary, this maybe the first major decision for a student and also one which gives your career a direction. It’s always better to start early.
Every student has a unique set of skills, strengths and weaknesses and hence it’s very important to take unique decision for every student.
Let us look at some common issues faced by students and their parents at this junction:
1. Confusion from too many options:
This is one of the biggest problem faced by the parents. If we go back a decade or two, when your parents were in your place, all they had to choose was between mathematics and biology. This is not the case anymore, there are many options available and as it is said, more options mean more chances of making the wrong choice.
2. What to consider for the decision:
While making any decision in life, you need to keep in mind the consequences of the choice you make. Similarly, after your 10th, you should not only look at the future and make decisions according to the career you want, but you should also consider your past and make the decision based on your strengths and weaknesses.
3. Which Board to select:
After 10th, you have the option of sticking to the same education board or going for a different board. This decision should be taken after understanding the difficulty level of every board. For example, if you have studied in the state board till your 10th, you should be ready to face the difficulty if you want to shift to boards like CBSE or ISC or IGCSE.
you have to select among one out the following three streams; arts, science & Commerce all these streams lead towards different career scopes.
Let us individually look into the streams students can choose:
1. Science:
This is the most chosen stream for 10+2 education and offers many lucrative career options including medicine and engineering. It is also popular for the fact that it keeps you options open, i.e. a student is allowed to select commerce or arts after pursuing science in 10+2, while commerce and arts students cannot pursue science.
In science stream, you have to take at least six subjects including one compulsory language. There are many options for subjects like mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, computer science, IT, electronics etc. The student should select the subjects that can lead them towards their prospective career.
2. Arts:
Although, this stream is not so common among students, it holds many exciting career opportunities like journalism, literature, social works, teaching, etc.
In arts stream, you have to select six subjects including one compulsory language and one optional language. Arts offers you a huge list of options to select the remaining four subjects which include, sociology, history, literature, psychology, political science, philosophy, economics etc.
3. Commerce:
This is the second most popular choice among students in India. Commerce stream leads towards some of the highest paying and respected jobs like investment banking, chartered accountant, company secretaries, accounts and financial advisor etc.
The three major subjects taught in commerce stream are economics, accountancy and business law or business study. The subjects offered by most commerce colleges include business economics, business law, accountancy, auditing, income tax, marketing, etc. Just like the above two streams, even in the commerce stream the student has to select six subjects including one compulsory language. If you are still confused, you can discover how to simplify this maze by putting the right doors at the right place. Like every other choice, all you need to do is look at the wider picture and take the decision keeping in mind your future aim and your past performance.
