The degree dilemma
Two year ago when I was graduating from an engineering university, I had the strong urge to disassociate myself with my current degree’s profession. The reason? Very simple: I hate numbers. Although I must admit that to some extent this four years degree program had neutralised my fears, but still pursuing it as a career was something I was clearly unsure about.
Keeping in mind that curiosity may have unwittingly killed a cat or two, I felt myself being pulled towards the journalism industry instead.
I kicked off the process of job hunting and was often called for interviews but would end up not being short-listed due to my non-journalist background. However, persistence pays off and eventually I found myself behind a desk surrounded by news copy.
To me, this job was just what I wanted – to others, it was a matter of sheer confusion.
Whenever I would break the news of my new job, the reaction would be an assimilation of shock and confusion followed by countless questions, such as:
Oh my God! Your hard work has been wasted.
How do you understand the new job specifications?
You have wasted the seat!
Normally I would much rather snap at such questions, instead keeping my cool I would launch off justifying and explaining that I have committed no sin.
A few days ago the question of “wasting the seat” was being debated at my work place and that was perhaps the last straw before which I decided to confront this issue publically.
Let’s make one thing clear: education can never go to waste. In one way or another, every individual is implementing skills and experiences learned in educational institutions – some more than others.
To me, an education perhaps might be considered wasted when you have earned a degree and opted instead to stay home and do nothing about it. But even then, I would argue, acquiring education is an asset – something which can never expire with time.
Although accused of “wasting the university seat”, I feel lucky that the industry I am in, allows me to utilise my knowledge here in the form of highlighting national and international science and research.
The “seat wasting” mindset can be argued both ways, but no denying it prevails in our society. People switch career paths all the time for various reasons – whether it is due to ambition, finance or other circumstances, I hardly feel it is a reason to feel ashamed or as if you have somehow done injustice to your university education.
In fact, a considerable number of Pakistani individuals are working rather successfully after switching fields, which only further emphasises the fact that ‘losing a seat’ is practically invalid, as long as one is positively contributing to society.
Imran Khan is essentially a Bachelors in Economics and Politics, however his passion for cricket took over and needless to say, resulted in a glorious career in the sport.
Similarly, supermodel Nadia Hussain is actually a dentist. And Abrar ulHaq, a lawyer by profession, pursued his career as a singer and later as a philanthropist.
Artist Gulgee is a qualified engineer. However, his love for painting and calligraphy has rightfully earned him huge accolades across the globe.
Thus, I’m a strong believer that a degree does not ensure success, rather interest that allows an individual to excel.
If practically argued also, employment is a means to an end. Why not earn a living doing something that makes you happy? After all, how many people actually have jobs that make them jump out of bed every morning?
Einstein aptly said: ‘Interest is the best teacher’. It is not until one is interested that his/her creativity surfaces; that drive to move forward, to take chances.
We are all striving for some sense contentment in life. And what better way to spend your life optimising your talent, and doing what you can do well, instead of trying to do something that you never really wanted to do.
The writer is an Assistant Multimedia Producer at Dawn.com
I'm impressed Anish. And really proud of you for pursuing the career you wanted. I think one should always leave themselves with choices rather than sticking to the one thing theyve been taught they should always explore, until you find the kind of work you can put your heart and soul in .
And i totally agree with you that education can never go to waste!
Good luck with ur career.
i got your point.. and i agree with you.. in Marx's words every mother in a middle class society gives birth to a labourer..
the last three paragraphs are completely in accordance with my doctrine about job.. but unfortunately in our society the social pressure curbs the very power of thinking out of the box..we need to infuse this spirit in ourselves and in our upcoming generations!! Kudos!
Anish….It is all about one's interest which ultimately is a driving force behind the success story of his/her life….. i also believe, there is a considerable share of luck and fate in struggle for meeting the desired destiny, that people dearm of.
Its a commendable effort you have put by sharing your invaluable life experience. stay blessed. ALLAH BLESS YOU.
The arguments here apply if you have at least 100 world class universities providing quality education in the country.
Unfortunately, we have very few good universities, specially those offering specialized professional education and most of them are funded by public money. The chances of getting into one of them are very very slim for even an above average student and hence the 'seat wasting mentality'.
Seat wasting exists specially in the country like Pakistan and mainly in med and eng areas. For all other areas, it doesn't make too much difference. We become doctors jsut because of the good marks in year 12 and then after graduation decides to pursue civil service. Question is why haven't we gone through this civil service path below. This is just one example and we wasted 1 qualified dr who is been educated in govt. med college and good amount of tax money is spent on him/her so he/she just move to another area according to the his/her liking
You had experienced university culture. What about those not even matriculate were holding seats in national/provincial assemblies not speaking a word in sessions.
In my opinion, the article is misleading and confused. Professional education shall be acquired in the field of interest. Being a Professor of Engineering, I can say based on my experience that people choose this profession because of it being a "safe bet" without analyzing their interest.
Justifying their later choices of earning bread in life by lack of interest in the profession.
Its a pity that the youth of our country is well aware on every issue except "what they want to do with their lives".
Doctors ending up being CSS officers and Engineers ending up as Media people is not very productive mindset.
You did not waste your seat. You are just using the knowledge that you got in an engineering college in another direction. Lot of engineers in the states have joined different fields and are perfectly happy. Most important thing is to gain knowledge and use it.
Javed
Virginia
Your write-up, though good, has basic grammatical errors, mainly in the first paragraph.
I wonder why are we always going to be into the grammar and english language …a typical pakistani thought ! urghhhhh !!!!
very thought provoking! I don't have any other smart comments (like the ones above me), one way or the other.
I just think we all need to do deep thinking/research about whether our efforts are alligned with our ultimate goals be that wealth, influence, popularity, paradise or any combination of these.
If you really want to know you wasted a seat or not. Ask a boy who couldnt get an admission in engineering university because his scores were bad than yours. And his passion forced him to have an admission in a technical diploma.
a good say indeed. but viewing the facts that our country has limited resources and less limited time for becoming economically sound. we have shortage of professional people everwhere like as doctors, engineers, Phd's etc. not the point is a child needs much attention while passing out the basic education and here is the need of education counseling. the writer would have been a great journalists if she would have learned it soon after clearing the high school rather than getting done with a higly valued degree of engineering. the dilema of wastage of seats is a fact, we can't afford to place doctors in FMCG industry for producing corn flakes of high nutrition value because people are already suffering due to non availiability of such people in places where they are actually belong to.
Ms Anish Alvi, I wish a to clarify a point here, you are looking after multimedia side, that is technical side so we can say you did'nt waste a seat but I have seen a lot of people like doing MBBS and then sitting on a cloth store… that is not only waste of seat but you have dashed hopes of another legitimate candidate. as you kno we are studying in gove funded unis so if you wish to do a degree just for knowledge then I would request to do it on your own behest or should I say self-finance..
If you were in private university change your direction as many times you like but if public fund was wasted you have a debt to pay. Parents guide us to different professions in the best of their intentions whereas this should be left to professional career adviser after taking aptitude and psychological assessment.You have not wasted the engineering SEAT but have barged into journalism at the expense of a true journalism graduate thinking he/she may want to have a career in rocket science BUT CAN HE/SHE.
Taking into account all your sensitivities, I would like to differ from your opinion. Do you really know how is it like to be a rocket scientist or engineer? Most of the people live in fantasies about some professions and they only realize the fact when they actually get into it. So no one has the right to question any other of his or her choice of profession.
Whenever somebody says that university seats are getting wasted, it reminds me of my time in one of the most well known universities in Pakistan with nearly 20 girls in class. I think most of them wasted their education because to the best of my knowledge only 3-4 of them are working now. The rest are house bound for one reason or another.
Being a science PhD student, I can tell you it takes a lot of hard work and years to train and then if you stay out of touch even for a little while, you forget most of the stuff you learnt.
While I am all for following one's passion in life, it is not very encouraging to see science and engineering people in Pakistan switching careers. We already have serious shortage of people in these field.
Well Mr. Faheem and everyone who thinks seats are wasted if somebody doesn't continue to work in the same field or sit at home specially girls, have the wrong concept towards education. Actually in Pakistan still ppl are fighting to get degrees & seats to earn money not for their own improvement and grooming. The writer is correct as one should learn things for their own self grooming & it always help you wherever you are. If i am a girl and have studied well then i can be a confident girl, wife, mother and i can very well discuss things with my husband and help my children very well in studies and specially when they are doing the professional studies and so many more things we can do with the help of our degrees & education and above all such women can help their families any time needed. I see mostly Pakistani guys have this kind of mentality & i think they all should go abroad so their mentality change & they start realizing that their girls should be educated so that they can talk to someone atleast when they go out and no body can make them fool!
And one more thing seats are never wasted if someone doesn't pursue the same career afterwards as its your own guts & luck if you don't get admission just because you had less marks than the other candidate,it was just not in your luck then why blame others?
EDUCATION IS NEVER WASTED WEATHER YOU WORK IN THAT PROFESSION OR AN OTHER. Seats are wasted only when illiterate members occupy assembly seats
@ Saeed, Spot on sir! I couldnt agree with you more. Those are the only wasted seats.
Than we hope to see some good stuff on the much neglected sci/tech page of dotcom
Thumbs up for Anish to bring up such an important issue on lime light, I am also a direct victim of this taboo in our society. Totally agree with the fact that when we make career we really don’t know the future ahead of us and later in our lives we learn that this profession does not fulfill our true ambitions or we have our predilections towards other professions. We must shun all those social taboos and must feel confident to make our own choices
At the end of the day what matters is that you made the right choice and got going for a career which you liked, many people today force themselves to pursue a career in a field just because they have spent years studying it. At the end of the day they are destroyed
Fine, you chose, what you want, you had an opportunity (option) to do this, might be some good support from your once, but we must have some thing in mind its not necessary that every one had… Question arise why we not chose our field before entering in program, why we realise in final days ohh… i am miss fit here… initially every one wants to be Engg or Doc. So what need to be done that in base level we have to show interest in what really we want to do (Impossible without a good eduction system) rather to follow what every body do.
Its not the matter of wasting seat (already many are jobless some other can get job and thankful) rather we waste our Precious four years_Same Experience!!!
Wow!! That really hits the bull's eye for me. I'm also in this state of turmoil currently. I just completed my Graduation in Business administration in Marketing from a renowned institute of the country. Now, with the passage of time, I've realized I've no passion and interest in the field. I simply was not made for this field. Recently, I've acquired a taste in reading Philosophy and current affairs. And now I've taken a start as a freelance writer for an online current affairs magazine. People are discouraging me, not to leave my field and to pursue my career in the same field but I've decided not to give and just keep on doing what interests me, not matter what the outcome may be in the shorter run.
Excellent article. I pray to God that oneday you become renown journalist and people will appreciate your work.
.. and I suppose Bill Gates had 'wasted' his seat in Harvard when he dropped out?
This is a non-issue. We will always need more 'education seats' and better quality ones at that. The quality of a society is determined by the quality of education provided (as told by Ibn Khaldun in the Muqaddimah).
However, 'seats' are not a non-renewable resource. It's simple enough to expand the number available.
yes i agree with you that we should choose the profession in which we are interested. we actually realize it late so we jump from one place to other. nice column
Well if the author knew about her interest in journalism, she should have gone for it after high school, I think she made a smart choice though by graduating from a good engineering school with authentic degree and then pursing her passion, rather than getting a degree in journalism from some 2nd tier school
The point being made was about education, not degree castes, first tier or second