Career counselling: questions and answers

Q1: Dear Mr Abidi, I understand from your Geo programme that you are a good educational specialist. Therefore, I thought to request you to please advise me which is the best government college for engineering in Karachi? I achieved 92% overall in Matric board. (Soniya Kalhoro, Karachi)

Ans: Soniya, there are a large number of colleges offering quality education in Karachi. However, it also depends on where you live and what you are expecting from the college. My advice to you is that you should visit such good colleges personally to see for yourself the facilities that they offer. Some of the colleges that I know are Pakistan Shipowners' College North Nazimabad, Govt Islamia Science College Jamshed Town, DHA Degree College for Women, Govt Apwa College for Women Gulberg etc.

Q2: Sir, I want to become a motor/automobile engineer. What would be your guideline to me as I am in my A2 and I’m a student of Beaconhouse with 4 major science subjects. (Khawar Alvi, Islamabad)

Ans: Khawar, please note that there are two ways to look at becoming a professional Automobile Engineer that too with a slight diversification. This is why I would like to suggest you to look at doing your first degree/ bachelors degree in Robotics or Advance Mechatronics and then go on specialising with a postgraduate degree in Automobile Design and Engineering. This means that you can find career opportunities in vehicle engineering or transport engineering in general.

Q3: Respected sir, I have passed ICS with 72% marks. I want to take admission in Computer Engineering at NED University. On these marks I cannot get admission in my relevant faculty. I can get admission in the following six faculties for which I have been asked to visit NED. These are Textile Science, Development Studies, Management Science, Computational Finance, Industrial Finance and Economics & Finance.

Apart from this an option for software engineering is also available in Karachi University. I need your advice as to which of the above-mentioned faculties I should choose. Let me tell you that I cannot afford private university fees. (Safdar Hussain, Gujrat).

Ans: After going through the list of your possible faculties it is important that I see your marks in your matric and inter in different subjects for better advice. However, from the list that I can see, depending on your performance and interest in Maths your first priority should be Computational Finance, which is a combination of your ICS and Finance that you will study in this degree and will help you to understand the subject of Electronic Financial Management. The second option would be Management Science where you can specialise in the final year doing a project on management information systems. Again this would be something that is close to your heart and contains a lot of Computing Science. I think you should be able now to decide for a subject that helps you in your future career.

Q4: I have done 16 years of education in Business Studies. Now I wish to pursue MPhil. But Sir, I am confused that which field of specialisation is better for me in future, i.e MPhil in Management Sciences, Supply Chain Management, Finance, or Marketing. Please guide me in this regard. (Ghaffar-ul-Amin Samdani, Multan)

Ans: Dear Mr Samdani, my first advice to you would be to find a relevant job or internship. Give a few years to yourself by gaining experience in Commerce and Trade and then look at a specialisation that you find more interesting and close to your heart. Doing an MPhil at this stage will simply shift you towards the teaching side rather than taking you towards the practical aspects of the subjects that you have mentioned.

(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).