Most people have forgotten the meaning behind traditional or religious festivals

 
95 
January 1, 2020 
83.
 
Changing jobs 
The job market today is very competitive and it is best to choose a career or field of 
study early in order to get a good job later in life. 
To what extent do you agree or disagree? 
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. 
Word Count: 323 

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