Eight graders…This is what you should be doing

To all eight graders, have you assessed your interests and know what you like? If so, great! If not, now is the time. Knowing what your passion is and setting in mind a career is vital.

Studies prove that following your own interests tend to make you happy, keep you satisfied and make you feel as though no work is being forced upon you.

So, this is what you need to do, go to http://www.assessment.com/takemapp/ and take your career assessment to figure out your interests. I took it, keeping in mind what I wanted to be, and the results were the same. I wanted to become a lawyer and the results gave me a 4/5 success rate at that.

But, will my job interest even be in demand when I grow up? Will my interest earn me enough to feed myself well? We all love pizzas and burgers and know that it is not cheap nor free. So, what should you do? You should check and cross reference about the demand of your study after a decade when we are of age to land a job. Also, if your own plan does not work out, it will never hurt to have another one in contingency.

Let's take my example. I regard law but the internet says that in 10-15 years, law will be taken over by AI (Artificial Intelligence). It has already begun with a supercomputer made by IBM called WATSON being improved into ROSS, an AI software that can understand law and solve cases with 70% accuracy as opposed to the 55% human rate. Law occupations are in decline and might not even be available in my adulthood. So I am thinking about making business or technology my backup plan if my law career is not successful. But keeping everything else aside, even if I wanted to follow my interests, I would need to have great education. Everyone wants to get accepted to a prestigious school, college or university like MIT, Harvard and Oxford. Except for the fact that studying at these places are worth a king's ransom and most people cannot afford its education.

Getting a scholarship on plain marks would require you to work as hard as 10 donkeys and be as smart as a dolphin. However, it can be made easier if you start putting in hard work now, doing things to increase your credibility and to put you at a level where different educational institutions fight with each other to have you, turning you into a brand that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the generic products. Need examples on how to become a brand? Write blogs, publish reviews, start and maintain a small business with your parents help, write news reports etc. This will attract high class people who would be interested to invest in your education/startup, giving you a way into executive groups at an age that would stun everybody. If that is not enough incentive for you to put in effort now, think about this, having contacts in an executive club gets you the best jobs because people would know what you are capable of. That guarantees you a high-pay job straight out of university. From here, your life can go 2 ways, relaxing as a kid and working your butt off as an adult or putting in bit by bit effort now and relaxing the rest of your life without money problems.

Iliyan is a young learning enthusiast and change activist. He is pursuing his O'Levels at The City School, Karachi