Career counselling; questions & answers

Q1: My daughter is doing BE in Textile Engineering from Karachi, she is in 3rd year now. Please advise that which option should be better for her professional carrier.
a) Further studies and complete "Master of Science"? If yes, then in which field should be specialised?
b) Do the MBA? If yes, then in which major, "Marketing" or "Management"?
c) Or should do the job first to get some experience and then complete higher studies?
My son is doing BE in Electrical - Telecom Engineering and he wants to do post-graduation. Please advise in which field he should do the masters and from which university (local or abroad)? And what professional scope is available for this technology in Pakistan? (Muhammad Safdar - Karachi)
Ans: Your daughter has chosen a tough field as textile engineering for girls is not very advisable. However, once she completes her degree she can look towards doing Masters in Textile Merchandising, Fashion or Marketing that would help her find career prospects in multinational textile and fashion houses. For your son, I would advise once he completes his BS in Telecom he should look towards doing masters in Mobile and Wireless preferably from a foreign country.
Q2: Sir, I'm a doctor. My son passed FSc (pre-medical) and got 616/1100. I want he should do MID (Medical Imaging Doctor) from Pakistan. It is 5-year programme consisting of Radiology, Ultrasound, CT Scan & MRI. We have chosen a university and this course started their two years back and the admission criterion is 50% marks in FSc. He is an average student so please guide us. (Dr. Iftikhar Amin - Lahore)
Ans: I think this is a good idea and since you are a doctor and you very well understand the huge scope of MID. We can then find a good MSc for him either in the UK or Canada that would further enhance his qualifications to find better career prospects. So my advice is yes please go ahead.
Q3: I am an A-levels student awaiting my results and have an equivalence of 85.66% in O-Levels and got 82 marks in the NTS exam I gave 99.85 percentile. I want to apply for Aeronautical Engineering and I want to know how strong this is as a choice of profession. (Zaeem Iqbal - Sargodha)
Ans: No doubt, you have achieved good grades in your O-Levels. However, aeronautical engineering is something for which you need to think twice and especially you'll have to decide on the destination following your degree to find career employments.
Q4: My daughter is in her 7th semester of Psychology. Which field in psychology will be the best one for her in future? Her so far CGPA in these six semesters is 3.5. My son has completed his BS Electrical/Telecom degree with CGPA 3.094 in 2013. Due to financial problems he is unable to continue his education. He is CCNA certified and completed his MCSE course but not yet certified. Would you please advise us for my daughter and my son? (Zulfikar Awan - Rawalpindi)
Ans: My advice for your daughter would be to look at Educational Psychology which would lead her to find careers in teaching-academic area. However, if she is interested in practicing as a psychologist she should look towards doing Child Psychology that has better growth especially in Pakistan. Regarding your son, who is an Electrical Engineer, if he is finding difficulty in getting a job he should aim to get into an internship with or without pay to gain some industrial experience and exposure that would help him in finding a better job.
(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 the recipient of the most coveted civil award Tamgha-e-Imtiaz).