Career counselling: questions and answers

Q1: I am doing MBA from Virtual University. I cleared my first semester with 81% marks. Now I am in second semester. In third semester, I have to choose the specialisation. Before I have B.Com and I have six to seven years experience in accounts. I need to request you to please advise me in my specialisations. (Muhammad Amin) 

Ans: Your first semester marks show that you are working very hard. As for your specialisation is concerned, and base on your background of commerce plus your experience all convinces me to advise you to take financial management or finance accounting as your specialisation. I am sure you would also be doing your project at the end of your final semester and I would strongly recommend you look at doing risk analysis and live trading of stocks etc to complete your MBA.

Q2: I am a student of BS (Honors) Home Economics and majored in Food and Nutrition. My current CGPA is 3.2 and I’m still waiting for the result of my 8th semester. I want to do MPhil in relevant field (Food & Nutrition). Suggest me any good field for MPhil as well as a good institute for this. My own interest is in clinical nutrition. (Tehreem Syeda - Lahore)

Ans: I think you are working hard and if you do manage to push your CGPA beyond 3.5 there are great chances to win a 100% tuition scholarship from UK or USA. If you are planning to do MPhil the most relevant and emerging areas of research could be Food Safety and Microbiology, Gens of lifestyle and nutrition health issues, Metabolism and off course clinical nutrition or all those areas that you can find greater career opportunities and PhD funding round the globe.

Q3: I read your column in Jang newspaper. I wanted to ask a question. I’m quite hopeful to get admission in NUST in business studies. Should I opt for BBA or for BS Accounting and Finance? Also, if I want to do MBA afterwards what should be the criteria and qualification? Does it require BBA or it can also be done after BS Accounting and Finance? (Sami)

Ans: If you are good at numbers and figures I would encourage you do your BS in Accounting & Finance. Otherwise, BBA is also a career oriented subject domain. MBA is connected to work experience and can be done either within Accounting Degree or with a Management degree provided you have relevant experience.

Q4: I have completed BS (Telecommunication) from Iqra University with 3.65 CGPA out of 4 in December 2016 and got job in an IT solution provider private company. I am thinking to do MS Project Management from MA Jinnah University. Kindly guide me what other subject or field I should do MS which will be beneficial for my career being a girl. (Rabia Ahmed)

Ans: Telecommunication is a very vast and growing subject area. The fusion of IT and Computer Engineering has brought more innovation and technology enhancement in telecommunication. I think if you have relevant experience of doing projects in telecommunication and understand the management, analysis and execution of projects in the practical sense, I would agree with you that MSc project management would certainly help you in improving your career prospects and or looking at higher level management jobs within the Telecommunication industry.

(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).