How to Pick Your College Program

If you're at the end of your time in high school, you may be in the process of picking your post-secondary path. If you're looking for a practical education that will get you a career, look no further than Toronto's College Programs, at schools like Centennial College. But when it comes time to pick your college courses, you may find yourself worrying about what career you should be getting into. While only you can make the final decision, there's a few guidelines you can follow to make the process easier. These include…

Do the research
This is the most important step: Don't simply pick a program because it sounds fun, or the blurb in a calendar intrigued you. Look up the profession. You're searching for three things: Average salary, average happiness, and whether or not it's a growing or shrinking field. This is important, because at the end of the day…

You'll need to get paid
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy security. It's easy to be idealistic about not needing money when you're young, but you'll still need food and shelter, and cash to do it. If the profession you're thinking of doesn't pay well, do an honest self-analysis and look at the lifestyle you're going to want to lead when you're older.

You'll need to get hired
How much money you're going to be making is null and void if you can't actually get the job you want. Take a look at the career field's employment stats, and pay attention to what the job prospects are. More importantly, though, pay attention to what they will be. If they're shrinking, the job may be irrelevant in a few years.

You'll need to be skilled
Of course, you need to make sure you're relevant, too. While the point of a college program at a school like Centennial is to give you the skills you need, you need to be inclined towards that field to begin with. If you're more of a writer and bad at math, you shouldn't be going into accounting simply because it's lucrative for example.

You'll need to like it
Fortunately, your interests are also relevant, and it's necessary to pick a program you have actual interest in. Simply put, if you're not into a program, you won't give it your best effort, whereas if it's something you enjoy, you'll want to succeed and do well, and passion counts for a lot in any career.

It's all about balance
Ultimately, you should not be searching for a program that perfectly fulfills each of these requirements. Instead, you should be looking for something that gives you a good balance of these criteria, something you're happy with that also satisfies career, financial, and skill needs. And don't sweat it too much. Any post-secondary education is relevant, and picking something less than ideal isn't the end of the world. If you're attending a practical, skill-based college like Centennial, then you'll be taught valuable, transferrable life skills anyway.