Career counselling: questions and answers

Q1: Dear Mr Abidi, I read your column and I think you are the right person to ask about my brother’s career/ choice. My younger brother is a student of Commerce (MA) final year in progress, after completion of his MCom. He wants to do CA. I would appreciate your suggestion if he is going to make the right choice? Or what do you think he should do? (Ghazali Saleem Rana, Faisalabad)

Ans: Dear Mr Ghazali, once your brother completes his degree I would advise him to find a job (relevant to his degree). It can be in commerce or finance. If he fails to get a relevant job, then he should go for an internship/ articleship that leads to completing his CA but my first suggestion or recommendation would be to put his MCom to work before making any new decision.

Q2: Dear sir, my qualification is MBA Executive and I have studied BSc Electronics Engineering. My MS was in Telecom Engineering Management and I also have nine years Telecom Experience. I am 43 now. But sir, I still wish to study more and I want to do a PhD. Can you please advise if an Engineering Management PhD will be suitable for me? Any chance of a scholarship? Should I study it here in Pakistan or in a foreign institution? Your expert opinion and advice is requested. (Zamurd Abdullah Khan, Gujjar Khan)

Ans: Dear Mr Zamurd Khan, your academic profile looks good and I can see you are a very multi qualified engineer and management technologist. You will have to choose one of the areas within your specialism/expertise to do your PhD. To help you decide which PhD you should do, I shall need your comprehensive CV along with your grades and perhaps I can then advise you which area you should pursue your PhD in and whether or not you are eligible for a grant or scholarship.

Q3: Sir, I passed MA in Diplomacy & Strategic Studies (International Relations) from Lahore. I will be grateful if you would please guide me further as to which is the best career for me. (Aawish Adnan Arain, Lahore)

Ans: In my opinion, your qualification/current degree and the subjects you have chosen are an ideal mix for pursuing and attempting a CSS exam. You must have looked at the subject combination both compulsory and optional and with a little bit of effort you should be able to pass the CSS examination and move towards a job in the public sector, most probably in foreign affairs.

Q4: Dear sir, I passed Pre-Medical securing 88% marks and applied for MBBS. In my first admission attempt failed due to a shortage of 1.5 percent, and this time, I fell short of 0.6 %. Now I have two choices (a) BS Applied Biosciences, (b) Go for a third attempt. I worked hard and I failed again and meanwhile people with an aggregate 60 (60%) are getting admissions in private medical colleges. But I have an aggregate of 86 percent. But I can’t study in a private medical school just because my father has no such resources. (Baleegh-ur-Rahman Khan, Nowshehra)

Ans: Dear Mr Khan, this is an irony that I cannot help in your current situation. I hope that the government will establish more medical colleges and therefore, there will be more seats to accommodate marginal cases like yours. However, my suggestion to you is to not worry and panic about if you don’t become a doctor. In fact, there is a huge potential within the Biosciences domain and if you do a four-year honors degree in molecular biology, microbiology or biochemistry this will surely help you to become a medical scientist in the future. A large number of scholarships should await you in Pakistan and abroad if you do your BSc (Hons) with a minimum of 3.2 ++ or above GPA. When you get such a score, contact me at that time and I shall help you.

(Syed Azhar Husnain Abidi is a renowned educationist in Pakistan, with more than 20 years of experience as provider of education counselling services. He has represented Pakistan in over 100 national and international seminars, conferences and fora. He is a recipient of the most coveted civil award Tamgha-e-Imtiaz).