HANDS UP all those who, laced with deciding on a college course, ask themselves: what do I want to be? It sounds logical but it narrows your range and can result in disappointment if you fail to make the points.
The problem with this approach is that the majority of courses do not lead to a vocational qualification: students do not emerge with a specific job qualification. Most college courses provide general education/training in a particular area.
This education can then be applied in a number of careers, or, in many cases, the student can go on to further post-graduate study to acquire a more vocational qualification.
Graduates emerge from an engineering degree as a qualified engineer, from a physiotherapy degree as a qualified physiotherapist or from an optometry diploma as a qualified optician. But courses which provide that specific a qualification are in the minority.
Even a law degree, for example, does not qualify graduates as lawyers. Further study is required to qualify either as a solicitor or a barrister.
So instead of homing in on the narrow approach, try to stand back and take the wider perspective. Ask yourself: What do I want to study? In which area would I like to work? What type of discipline interests me most?
It makes a lot more sense to think in terms of "what do I want to do?" rather than "what do I want to be?". Medicine offers a good example of this approach. Applicants who pursue the "what I want to be?" approach decide they want to be a doctor or a physiotherapist and apply only for these degrees, all of which carry very high points. The applicant thus runs the risk of disappointment.
But if you stand back and take the wider perspective - "I'd like to work in the medical area"
then you start looking at a whole range of careers related to medicine, including a science degree, with a view to going into research or maybe a chemical technology degree, with a view to working in the pharmaceutical industry.
It is a useful exercise to stop and ask yourself: "Why am I attracted to medicine or physiotherapy? Is it because I like working with people?" - in which case you may want to look at other people-related careers.
Is it because you like the idea of working in a hospital? - look at other hospital-based careers. Is it because you are interested in medical science? - then perhaps some science degrees would be of interest.
At a time when the graduate jobs scene is changing so much and new and different types of courses are emerging, it becomes increasingly important to take the wider perspective and concentrate on broader areas.
Do not always look at a course from the point of view of what it will mean at the end. The actual career path you will follow is more likely to evolve as you go through the three or four years of the course.
It is difficult, at this stage, to know what you might do with a science degree four years from now but as you study science and get to know more about its potential a much clearer picture of available science-based careers will emerge.
So, not knowing what you want to be is not the end of the world. Particularly for the undecided, a broad general course may be the better option for the moment.
There was a time when only arts degrees were thought of as non-vocational. But increasingly people with law, business, science and even engineering degrees go on to do more specific post-graduate training.
Similarly with DIT and RTC certificate courses, many students do a broad general science, engineering or business certificate first and then go on to specialise at diploma level.
ROLE MODELS: The other problem about concentrating on what you want to be is that most people are familiar with a limited range of careers. There is the danger of basing your choices on familiar jobs; jobs which you see being performed around your careers, in other words, for which you have a role model.
But that approach is limiting also, because it ignores the newer careers which, in many cases, are in the hidden recesses of industry, technology or business and are not so obvious to us in the community; careers for which there are no obvious role models.
Many CAO applicants want to be teachers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists or accountants. These are jobs which we see being performed around us and for which we have role models.
The problem with this is that the career areas which are growing - and where more jobs are available to graduates - tend to be in newer and less familiar disciplines.
We all know what a doctor or a teacher does. But who knows what a materials scientist does? How many applicants know what a biotechnologist or a quality controller does? What is a software engineer? Or an equities dealer? And when did you last meet an aquaculturist? What does polymer technology involve or food technology?
At the moment, there is a huge boom in graduate jobs in the broad computer/electronics area; this encompasses many types of jobs and, as most of them are new, it is very difficult for school-leavers to envisage what they involve.
Someone who is concentrating on traditional, well-known and established careers would be ignoring this area which, as of now, provides the best job opportunities of all to graduates.
If school-leavers are to benefit from the increasing range of new careers and expanding job opportunities in these different areas, then they need to consider newer types of courses and not just the traditional ones.
A CAO applicant needs to be a bit adventurous and prepared to consider the unfamiliar. The wider you spread your options, the more adventurous you are prepared to be, then the better your chances of getting into college - and of making a good career.
It is particularly important for parents to remember to keep an open mind on unfamiliar courses, rather than concentrating on the careers which offered the best opportunities to their generation.
If your daughter or son is thinking about applying for courses in leisure management, industrial hygiene, environmental resources management, mechatronics or semi-conductor fabrication, don't throw up your hands in despair.
Remember that this year's CAO applicants are preparing for the jobs which will be there in the year 2000 and that will be a very different world from the one in which they grew up.
NEWER COURSES: Concentrating on what you want to be also has the limitation that there is not an easy title for many of the newer careers.
Localisation is an area of computer work in which there are many jobs being generated in Ireland right now. Yet, nobody working in this area calls himself or herself a "localiser" (more about this in the column about the computer jobs market next week).
Thus, it becomes ever more important to concentrate on the course, the nature of the course and the options leading from it, rather than choosing a very specific career.
The combining of disciplines in one course is another reason to focus on the right course for you, rather than what you want to be.
There is a growing number of courses, for example, which combine science and a language, computer studies and a language, law and business studies; courses designed to provide you with the skills to work in a number of areas rather than train you as a lawyer, a scientist, or a linguist.