Career counselling; questions and answers

Q1: Dear Mr Abidi, I am a regular reader of your columns. My elder son is a student of MCom (final year), after completion of his MCom he wants to do CA. I would appreciate your suggestion if he is going to make a right choice? Or what do you think he should do? (Musa Khalid Ahmed, Lahore)

Ans: Once your son completes his degree, I would advise he should find a job (relevant to his degree). It can be in commerce or finance. If he fails to get a relevant job then he should go for an internship/ article ship that leads to completing his CA but my first suggestion or recommendation would be to put his MCom to work before making any new decision.

Q2: Sir, I have already completed BSc Electronics Engineering, MS Telecom Engineering Management and eight years of telecom experience and MBA Executive. Now I am 40. I wish to do a PhD. Can you please advise if an engineering management PhD will be suitable for me? Any chance of scholarship? Should I study in Pakistan or in a foreign institution? Your expert opinion and advice is requested. (Shamshad Mannan, Islamabad)

Ans: After going through you academic profile, good to know that you are a very multi qualified engineer and management technologist. You will have to choose one of the areas within your specialism/ expertise to do your PhD. To help you decide which PhD you should do, I shall need your comprehensive CV along with your grades and perhaps I can then advise you which area you should pursue your PhD in and whether or not you are eligible for a grant or scholarship.

Q3: I did MA in Diplomacy & Strategic Studies (International Relations) from Lahore. Please advise me for further career. (Junaid Kahloon, Narowal)

Ans: You academic qualification and chosen subjects are an ideal mix for pursuing and attempting a CSS exam. You must have looked at the subject combination both compulsory and optional and with little bit of effort you should be able to pass the CSS examination and move towards a job in public sector most probably in the foreign affairs.

Q4: Dear sir, I passed Pre-Medical securing 86% marks and applied for MBBS in public sector medical colleges. In first attempt, I failed due to short of 1.5 percent, and this time, I fell short of 0.7 percent. Now I have two choices 1- BS Applied Bio-sciences, 2- Go for a third attempt. I worked hard and I failed again, people with aggregate 61 (61%) are getting admissions in private medical colleges. I have an aggregate of 86 percent. But I cannot study in a medical school just because my father has no such resources. (Farasat Ali Khan, Charsadda)

Ans: I can understand your problems and issues and this is an irony that I cannot help in. I hope that the government will establish more medical colleges and therefore, there will be more seats to accommodate marginal cases like yours. However, my suggestion to you is do not worry and panic about if you don’t become a doctor. In fact, there is a huge potential within the biosciences domain and if you do a four years honors degree in molecular biology, microbiology or biochemistry this will surely help you to become a medical scientist in future. A large number of scholarships should await you in Pakistan and abroad if you do your BSc (Hons) with a minimum of 3.2 ++ or above GPA contact me then and I shall help you.

(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).