Doctor, I don’t know what I want to do later on, is it serious?

For many future students, the long quest for the grail of secondary education, a.k.a. the baccalaureate, is already looming on the horizon.

And as if the significant amount of stress that this entails was not enough, you also have to think about what’s next, and plan your studies and, as a result, your career path!

I would like to reassure the most worried among you: no, not everyone wakes up one day at the age of 6 with the certainty of wanting to become a doctor, an architect or an entrepreneur.

And this is quite normal.

When one is in high school, his/her distant horizon is often very largely occupied by the famous baccalaureate exam, obscuring at the same time all the possibilities and questions that lie beyond.

Moreover, even if one has chosen specialized courses of study geared towards certain professions, one cannot help but notice that at 17 or 18 years old, we do not know much about the possibilities offered by the world of work, the different professions that exist, and the many possible sectors of activity.

There is often a temptation to follow a more or less known path, i.e. the one taken earlier by one’s parents or brothers. The second, just as tempting at first glance, is to choose the simplest path, the closest one, i.e. to enroll in the school or university next door, in the courses it offers.

But here’s a pity: these options can also drastically reduce your range of possibilities. For example – apart from a particular passion – choosing to study languages and civilizations because it is the only possible path without having to move, means running the important risk of not fulfilling yourself, of failing your degree, and consequently, of studying for nothing, without any possibility of bridging.

A waste of energy, time and necessarily also money. Unfortunately, the love of art is not (yet?) an argument for employability.

The good news is that, contrary to what one might think, not everything is decided in the first year of study. There are programs that are broad enough or general enough to postpone the choice of profession until later, by aiming for a specialization at the end of the first cycle (third year) or even at the second cycle (master’s level).

Of course, a first level of orientation is necessary from the beginning, because even a general management training will never be able to compensate for years of study in the health field for example.

In short, if you are interested in the business world in general, but do not know much about the professions or sectors of activity, you can choose to start a Business School type program, which will allow you to make professionalizing choices at various stages of your training (finance, human resources, communication, entrepreneurship, specialization in a sector such as luxury, sports, etc.)

If you are initially interested in technology and digital in general, you can choose to start a course such as a computer engineering school, which will also allow you to choose a specific path at different times (web, digital communication, programming, IS consulting, etc.).

So don’t worry if your choice of study project remains unclear a few months before your baccalaureate: the right orientation can be the one you make in two stages – once you are more familiar with the possibilities of the job market.

At FIGS Education schools, there are many generalist programs that allow you to approach your professional project in several stages and not risk being locked into your career path too early.

Visit our website to discover them and do not hesitate to contact us to discuss your project and your possibilities: we are here for you!