Do You Have Your Career Compass?

Born in a farmhouse to parents without formal education, my life was already miles away from my colleagues born in towns/cities to educated parents.

I remember my first encounter with formal education was when I was 5. I remember the headmaster vividly telling my father, I was not due for school because I was smallish. That was when I had tread over 15km from our farmhouse to the nearby village.

The following year, we came back again and this time, I was admitted to Class 1B in a dilapidated classroom with sand similar to that at Miami Beach. God has gifted me photographic memory and hence I quickly picked up my academic work. Truly speaking, I moved from class 1 to class 6 without knowing even the reason for schooling. To me, it was a nice escape from farming duties.

I sailed through basic education to secondary school without purpose. No one had informed me of the need for school and the opportunities available. No one had helped me identify my passion, strengths and weaknesses. In 13 years of basic and secondary school, I never encountered a career coach or counsellor. The result was that I was made to study science in secondary school though that was not my interest. I really struggled.

I became self-aware of who I am at the university. I was able to figure out my strengths, weaknesses and passion. I diverted from science to pursue accounting. I graduated with 1st class and had a scholarship to study to be a chartered accountant. I have since worked as a professional accountant for close to a decade now. But probably if I had been guided earlier, I may have done better than now. That said, I am very content with the journey so far.

I believe this story resonates with most of you especially if you are an African child from sub-Sahara. Our educational system lacks proper and enhanced career guidance and counselling structure. A recent survey done by UNESCO revealed that 70% of students in secondary schools in Ghana have not had any form of career counselling. The effect among other factors is the high unemployment rate among the youth of Africa.

I believe it is time to change that narrative. I believe young professionals like you and I owe it a duty to guide, coach and mentor our juniors to help them identify their competencies and passion. That way they are more likely to make better career choices and pursue interests that better fit their personalities. That way we will be contributing to reducing unemployment.

These among other reasons why I have created this newsletter #careercompass. As your career compass, I will share with you my unadulterated professional and life experiences to help guide you make informed decisions about your career and life in general.

I thus urge you to look forward to #careercompass by Dickson Assan every week. Subscribe, read and share with others to also benefit. I believe together, we can make a difference.