Today’s hyper-competitive job market encourages parents and educators to push specialization at increasingly earlier ages. Although choosing a career early on is a safe option, it will not produce the best results in my opinion.
The reason that opting in to a career from an early age has become so prevalent is that it affords people a sense of security that is at least somewhat justified. In Vietnam, the vast majority of High School graduates are pushed early by their parents into safe fields like finance and the sciences. There are a number of hard skills required for these fields such as good mathematical acumen, industriousness, and logical thinking. If students start to learn these skills at a very young age or beginning in High School then they will have a head start on their peers that can continue through university into the job market. This is the theory that guides specialization.
It is difficult to dispute the above logic, however, recent research has shown that having a breadth of knowledge and experience is a much better predictor of future success. A recent book by David Epstein titled ‘Range’ debunked the commonly held belief that early specialization is safer. In fact, the majority of leaders in their fields experimented with a large number of subject areas and professions before settling on one. The early specialisers were the exceptions and are therefore a poor model to imitate. The core argument of that book is that experience in multiple fields helps you to make connections and learn a diverse range of skills that you can later bring to bear on your chosen profession.
In conclusion, having a range of experience is more important than locking yourself into a field of study early in order to enhance later career options. Universities ought to make a shift to adopt some of the principles of liberal arts schools to better prepare graduates for an uncertain future world economy.
Today
’s hyper-competitive job market encourages parents and educators to push specialization at
increasingly
earlier ages. Although choosing a career
early
on is a safe option, it will not produce the best results in my opinion.
The reason that opting in to a career from an
early
age has become
so
prevalent is that it affords
people
a sense of security
that is
at least somewhat justified. In Vietnam, the vast majority of High School graduates
are pushed
early
by their parents into safe
fields
like finance and the sciences. There are a number of
hard
skills
required for these
fields
such as
good
mathematical acumen, industriousness, and logical thinking. If students
start
to learn these
skills
at a
very
young age or beginning in High School then they will have a head
start
on their peers that can continue through university into the job market. This is the theory that guides specialization.
It is difficult to dispute the above logic,
however
, recent research has shown that having a breadth of knowledge and experience is a much better predictor of future success. A recent book by David Epstein titled ‘Range’ debunked the
commonly
held belief that
early
specialization is safer. In fact, the majority of leaders in their
fields
experimented with
a large number of
subject areas and professions
before
settling on one. The
early
specialisers
were the exceptions and are
therefore
a poor model to imitate. The core argument of that book is that experience in multiple
fields
helps
you to
make
connections and learn a diverse range of
skills
that you can later bring to bear on your chosen profession.
In conclusion
, having a range of experience is more
important
than locking yourself into a
field
of study
early
in order to enhance later career options. Universities ought to
make
a shift to adopt
some of the
principles of liberal arts schools to better prepare graduates for an uncertain future world economy.