(Economics)
Let me provide you with a very helpful yet a general formula to successfully deal with this complicated matter.
Based on my teaching experience at Ewha for the last six years, it is strongly recommended that you make your decision about your future career by the end of the second year. And then for the remaining two years at college, you can just devote yourself to preparing for the future career that you have chosen. The success formula is this simple. This is something I would call “time schedule for success.”
When you make up your mind after seriously considering yourself and your future, stick to it!
Do not look back!
Actually it would be better if you would not even look around until you hit the target. Do not be afraid of the possible losses in the process of figuring out what you really want to do. Failure in this case is just a necessary procedure for your ultimate success in life.
Then you might want to ask, “How do I choose the most appropriate future career for myself?”
Of course the way of doing it depends on the individual’s discretion, since the way might differ from person to person. But in general, I recommend you to constantly and seriously research about yourself over and over, because most of us do not know much about ourselves.
If you have completed the repetitive research on yourself, let your own preference choose your future. Do not rely on your mom and dad, your friends or simply follow the path of the current popular jobs.
Since Korean society is only interested in the No. 1 career, without concretely considering the reasons for actually becoming the best, even students who know themselves well are likely to choose sugar-coated careers. So, in most of the cases, their minds lean toward somewhere either between medical and law schools or between bank of Korea and Korea Development Bank.
Believe it or not, your free-will chosen future career might be quite far different from the popular careers these days.
The last piece of advice I would like to share with you about this issue is that, you should not hesitate to talk to your professors more often to discuss your future plans. Since the professors are not only widely experienced but also particularly concerned for each Ewha student, they will be able to give some advices and offer some fresh perspectives in choosing your future carrier.
Professor Kim Sei-wan currently teaches at the Graduate School of Policy Sciences. He was a research assistant at the Texas A&M University in from 1996 to 1998 and revisited the school in 2000 as a lecturer. In 2001 he was the assistant professor at California State University’s Economics Department. Also he spent a year as a treasurer at the Korea-America Economic Association in 2003.