Engineering not Medicine.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING! There are a thousand more jobs than there were a decade ago and they are lucrative as much.
Growing up, my response to what I wanted to be in the future was, and I quote, "I want to be a Doctor". I believe this was so because a Doctor always seemed like the ideal job one could attain, and that was me dreaming big as a kid. I grew up with this aspiration from childhood through to my senior high school because I was performing well academically and had good chances of making it to Medical School. This later changed to Electrical/Electronics and luckily for me my parents gave me the free will to make a choice of courses of study I wanted to pursue. It was until my latter days in Senior High when I had to make an actual decision of what to study in the University that I began to question if I really wanted to be Doctor. My major question was if I was willing to spend the rest of my years after Medical School practicing as a Doctor? Certainly not, I felt. I questioned myself if I was going to be able to endure all the drama with blood and all that, and well I guess I didn't have so much of a problem with but wouldn't I rather prefer not to? I had so many questions to ask myself because then I believed that being a doctor needed a lot of passion and dedication if I wanted to be a good one. I had to have all these qualities rather than going in for the mere fact that I could do it and also because it came with the job security here in Ghana. I had discussions with quite a number of people, with the most important being the discussion with my Uncle, who serves as a mentor.

Speaking to my uncle I came to the realization that I didn’t have to go through 6/7 years of medical school before branching into the technology of medicine as planned, for the reason that it was a childhood fantasy, and also to have job security immediately after graduating and the simple fact that I had a good chance at making it into Med School. I was convinced enough to drop all the myths suggesting engineering doesn’t pay in Ghana and it being too difficult. In the end, I decided on Electrical/Electronic Engineering which is an area of key interest and also broad spectrum as it will allow me to branch to any other area of tech/engineering easily if I wanted to later in life. I still went ahead to apply for Medical school in the University of Ghana as a backup in case all the new developments didn’t make sense anymore. Fortunately, I held on and Voila, here I am studying Electrical/Electronic Engineering and in my 3rd year. I wouldn’t say it has been easy for me, no, but clearly the major factor that drives me it’s the fact that I have the passion and love for the course I chose. Basically, for me, transitioning to study Electrical/Electronic Engineering is one of the best decisions I have made, and I’m positive about the future in the working world.

So many times I have thought of students who held a similar position who eventually end up doing medicine for the same reason of they being smart, the prestige it carries and also the job security even in the case where they lacked the passion. I think that's not good enough because these children may have different interests where they would excel but lack the exposure to these as it's still the same traditional professions that are being marketed to these kids in most schools of Ghanaian educational system. Also, for the kids who do not know what profession to pursue, they should have the opportunity to know about the different professions, both new and traditional, and also have access to proper career coaches and mentorship programs. Also, I believe IT courses, especially programming should be introduced to students in schools irrespective of the career path they choose. Technology is growing rapidly and definitely, IT is an essential tool for development in this modern day.