Choosing a career that is right for us can be the most important and exciting thing to do in our lives. But with the infinite options, how does one make the right choice? Along with other factors, it is very important to choose a career where you won’t find it hard and very demanding to wake up in the morning and go to work. It is also said to be crucial to consider factors such as your skillset and values, your interests, talent and the soft skills you possess. Rogers Ndemezo, a sales account manager at KT Rwanda networks thinks that driven passion is the bottom line for everything. When choosing a career, people should first have passion for what they want to do. Without passion you will become easily bored and uninterested in your job, he says. “With what I do, I always want to take things to the next level because I have three factors I look upon; the passion which always comes first, experience-because if you don’t have any clue on what you are doing, your job will give you a hard time. Then there is the expectation, you need to expect something big to come out of your career,” Ndemezo shares. A lack of the right intentions can lead to people getting tired of their career choice, according to Eddy Robert Niyomfite an entrepreneur and CEO of Noblia, an online shopping market. He also says it’s crucial to understand that the purpose of a career is not to give you joy, but rather, to give you money that can finance something that gives you joy. When making a career choice, it’s not compulsory to go for what you love, as long as it gives you the ability to do what you really love doing. To him, a career finances the calling; you don’t have to enjoy it. Your career has to be valuable enough to give you money that will help you to do what you enjoy the most. For example, you can be a singer and an accountant at the same time. You may not love your career but because it gives you that income to produce music, you will stick to it, the entrepreneur states. Making your career choice work Niyomfite emphasises that the only way to connect with your career and stick to it, is to use it to finance your calling. Kevine Nyampinga an owner of a food delivery business stresses the need to love your job explaining that it’s hard for one to quit such a career and find it unfulfilling. “Take this from a person who had to quit their job to go do what they enjoy. I believe people should do what they love and enjoy most,” she says. However it is important to understand that even after one chooses a career they love and that’s right for them, the journey is not guaranteed to be smooth. When the going gets tough, Sandra Mushambokazi, a business owner advises that everyone should have a reminder, like a list that reminds them of why they started their career in the first place. “There will always be some obstacles and things that will push you to want to quit, this is when you need to remind yourself of why you started in the first place,” she says. Mushambokazi is of the view that quitting should be for the right reasons, not something you will regret later. Choosing a career is very important. Having an idea of what you want is the only way to building a meaningful career path.
